Hi folks,

This problem has been irritating me during the course of today... on the face of it its a very simple (yet very annoying) problem and need some light shed on it! :D A very long day and this problem was the final straw on a weary brain incapable of thinking after a very very long day so please dont yell if its a stupid question!

OK the scenario is this... I have a BT Voyager 2100 Wireless (ADSL) router with a Windows 2000 server plugged into the first LAN port. There is a website hosted (using IIS) on this server which I am trying to reach.

I have temporarily set up a "myhost.dyndns.org" dynamic address to "point" to the address of my router... (only a temp stopgap solution for now for a project of mine). I use this address as the temporary domain name for the site im trying to reach. (ie http://myhost.dyndns.org/sitename/index.aspx).

i've tried several different methods of configuring the router so I can access this page located on my server.

it works fine if I enter: 'http://localhost/sitename/index.aspx'... however if I enter 'http://myhost.dyndns.org/sitename/index.aspx' I get a page telling me i need to enter a valid username/password to access the page... I cant remember the exact wording but the message resembles something like i've just tried to logon to use remote admin with incorrect U/P.

Any other PC's on the local network get the exact same message when they enter the same address too... the bizzare thing is, is that I asked a friend of mind at his home to try the same address and it worked no problem! ... what am I doing wrong? it's gotta be a little sodding button or checkbox ive missed i know it lol.

Thanks in advance. :-)
FeveZ

You need a router that supports loopback, mine dosnt and its a pain. Anything that goes out through your external IP dont come back so to speak. Just make sure you open the ports (if its a NAT) if it works on your localhost then assume it works on your external IP (or dynamic name)

http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/fr_index.html?/search
That site has some really good guides you may fine helpful.

If it is the above (router not looping back from inside the lan) then there is a simpe away around it. If you find your hosts file and open it in notepad you can specify the private network address of the server with the domain name. In XP the host file is in (on a default install) c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ and on Win2K advanced server its c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc)

For instance add:

192.168.0.2 myhost.dyndns.org

If your internal IP address was 192.168.0.2 with the example of the domain you gave below.

If you now ping the domain myhost.dyndns.org it should return from 192.168.0.2. similarly if you type the domain into the browser it will pull the data directly from the lan ip instead of from dns (windows uses the local hosts file before checking DNS)

This has the effect of bypassing the router and pulling the page(s) back directly from the server. Just remember you have the entry in your hosts file because if you change the dns and move the site off your LAN your clients wont see the change unless you remove the line from hosts.

You could use a site like proxify
http://proxify.com/
You will find if you visit that site and enter your dynamic dns name it wil show your site, this is bacause it is using the proxy server of proxify and therefore it wont be loopback. That will then test to make sure people external from your lan can access it.

Thanks for the suggestions guys... i'll let you know how it goes tomorrow! :D

:heyhey: :partyhat: :heyhey:

:thumbsup: woohoo :thumbsup:

I added a line in the 'hosts' file on each of the machines and thats solved my problem.

thanks folks! :D

FeveZ :headbang: