Topic: external IP/domain inacessible from local network

[jamson]

Hi all,

I have installed SME 5.5 as a server only with internal IP 192.168.1.5. Here is my network setup.

DNS is hosted by ISP.

alcatel speed touch pro router with external IP and NAT opeining port 80/110/25 to 192.168.1.5) The alcatel is providing DHCP to all client from 192.168.1.200 - 250)

SME 5.5 is 192.168.1.5 serving mail /web

I can access my external IP /domain name from home. The website is up.

I can access local IP 192.168.1.5 but not external IP /domain name locally from any workstation in the office.

I have also applied all patches through blade.

Any idea where did I misfire?

Any help and tips is appreciated!!!

Many thanks

[Bill Talcott]

SME (and others) will not portforward requests from the internal interface, i.e. internet users need to use the external IP, but LAN users need to use the internal IP. Perhaps your router won't portforward from the internal side?

[dave]

I've seen this, like Bill was saying, if the request comes from the internal network, the router won't see the request on the external NIC so it can't route it.

My fix was to edit the hosts file on my internal DNS server (which was a caching/forewarding configuration) and add a mapping to the internal IP for the web server name.  It was something like this:

www.shipmanhome.net     192.168.1.1
shipmanhome.net         192.168.1.1

If the request comes from inside, the hosts file is read first so it will properly get mapped to your web server.  External requests will work as it does now.

Another option would be to add the internet domain 'zone' to dns.  I haven't figured out all that yet so the hosts file mod was easier.

Hope this helps...

[jamson]

Dave,

Thanks for the tips.

Unfortunatley I do not have a internal DNS server running.

Is there other ways to fix this or anyone expertise in the alcatel router can help too.

Damn CEO just dislike to remember the local IP.

[dave]

You can still use the hosts file - thats checked locally before sending a request to the DNS server.  You'd have to create the entry for each workstation though (create one file and copy it to all wkstn's).  In a really tiny network, it's workable but if you have more than a handful of systems, you'd be better off to put another box online to do DNS services.  If it's a small network, I'd say a couple dozen clients max, you can use an otherwise junk 1st generation pentium box - Linux is an excellent solution for this.  

Good luck!

[Bill Talcott]

The SME has its own DNS server. You could add the external hostname (which works from your home) under the SME's Hostnames and addresses panel, and specify it as the internal IP address. If you have the SME specified as the DNS server in DHCP, then internal clients would see the SME's listing for the hostname as 192.168.1.5, rather than the ISP's listing with the external IP.

Internet -> ISP DNS -> Router -> SME
LAN -> SME DNS -> SME

[jamson]

Many thanks for advising.

I went around the office and create the entry in the hosts file for 20 PC.

Will get a spare machine to set up as a local DNS server soon.

Here the location for the host file for those having same problem in future.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows 95/98/Me c:\windows\hosts

Windows NT/2000/XP Pro  c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Windows XP Home c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

(you may need administrator access for Windows NT/2000/XP)

NOTE: Hosts is the name of the hosts file and not another directory name. It does not have an extension (extensions are the .exe, .txt, .doc, etc. endings to filenames) and so appears to be another directory in the example above.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[dave]

Bill,

This is obviously the easiest way to go.  I had absolutely no idea SME had an included DNS server.  I haven't looked extensively but all references to DNS I could find in the docs referenced Mitel's subscription services - which I can't afford.  

My apologies to jamison (I bow my head in shame), as Bill states, if the SME DNS server is a caching/forewarding server, all you'd have had to do is put the hosts file (or simply add the entry in the existing hosts file) in the appropriate directory on the SME box and set the SME IP address as the DNS server on your DHCP server.

In my case, I got around it by using Microsoft's DNS server on my Win2K PDC.

Thanks for the info Bill.

[Bill Talcott]

jamson wrote:
>
> Will get a spare machine to set up as a local DNS server soon.

Bill Talcott wrote:
>
> The SME has its own DNS server. You could add the external
> hostname (which works from your home) under the SME's
> Hostnames and addresses panel, and specify it as the internal
> IP address. If you have the SME specified as the DNS server
> in DHCP, then internal clients would see the SME's listing
> for the hostname as 192.168.1.5, rather than the ISP's
> listing with the external IP.
>
> Internet -> ISP DNS -> Router -> SME
> LAN -> SME DNS -> SME

I think you already have everything you need...