Forward port 80 on a Linksys WRT54GL to port 80 of a single IP on the local network

Forward port 80 on a Linksys WRT54GL to port 80 of a single IP on the local network

I have a Linksys WRT54GL router and a home network of two PCs. What I want is one of the PCs to be a web server visible from the world on my static IP. It is a WindowsXP PC with IIS 5.1 setup and running. I've setup port forwarding for my router only for port 80, but for some reason nothing works. When viewing localhost at the server PC through the browser (HTTP) it correctly displays the website setup in IIS. If the same thing is requested through my static IP visible from outside it doesn't work. Ideas?

Asked by: Guest | Views: 308

Total answers/comments: 2

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Guest [Entry]

Most likely your ISP is blocking port 80 inbound since they don't want you running web servers on a home connection. Try forwarding another port (like 8888) on the public side to port 80 on the local side and see if that works. If it does, that's your problem. And really, there isn't much of a workaround other than calling your ISP to ask to be unblocked but more than likely they're going to ask you to upgrade to a business internet plan.

Guest [Entry]

"Does it work if you make the request to the static IP port 80 from outside your network? Some random other spot on the Internet? You can use something like the W3C validator to test. If so, then everything is working as well as it will.

The problem is that you are trying to access your external IP address from your internal network. Some router firmware doesn't bind that address on the LAN side, or binds it but doesn't apply the port forward rules to it. My memory is the Linksys firmware is like that. It's a nuisance. Two workarounds.

Keep developing against localhost or your local IP address (192.168... probably).
Install alternate firmware on your router. I like Tomato and can verify that it does let you use the external IP address from the internal network."