ok, I've got quite a complicated problem to explain but hopefully there'll be an easy solution.

I've a vista pc which Im setting up as a web server and email server. It connects to the internet via a netgear wireless point connecting to a bt voyager v220 adsl router.

Externally if i go to www.domainname.co.uk i get the live website being hosted by the vista pc (therefore I know the porting forwarding is working)
but when on the vista pc if i go to the same website i get the admin panel for the bt voyager router

Can anyone explain whats going on and how to fix it??

also, externally i can connect to the mail server using outlook, but internally i just get errors

Any help or advice wil be welcomed !!

not totally for sure, could be a dns issue? try going to http://x.x.x.x

x.x.x.x being the ip of your vista machine (internal ip)

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

yes, if i do that i can get on the website, but this is a work around not really an ideal fix.

staff are going to get confused if they try to go on their website and they see settings for a bt voyager box instead of the proper website

I realize this, it was a test not a permanent fix. I believe that the problem is is that you need to configure some dns entries on some sort of dns server inside your network so you aren't trying to go outside of your network then back in. Is there a place in your router that you can configure dns entries?

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

I know what you are trying to get at, but ideally I want to go outside the network and then back in - therefore I am seeing a true representation of connecting to the website in the "real world".

If i set it up so i am staying internal I will nevre know if the site goes down for some reason - i.e if my internet goes down , I will still see the website as working, but the outside world will see an error

So your telling me that if your connection to the internet goes down, you will only know if you can't get to the website?

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

What i'm saying is that there is really no sense in going outside of your network and then back in to get to your website. Here are some possible scenarios that I can think of.

Public can't get to your website.
1. Web Server is down. You would know.
2. Your internet connection is down. You would know.
3. This one could be a problem, your router is not doing NAT properly. That is the only one that would cause a problem, but it's a setting that should be saved in the startup config of the router. So I don't see any issues with not going outside and returning back in.

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

I was just trying to give an an example - how confused are staff going to be when the internet goes down, they cant get on other websites but their website still works.

what happens if the firewall or port forwarding gets reset (which can happen) to the staff everything will be working ok, but to the outside world it wont be

Ok, sorry i couldn't help you. I think you could educate your staff somewhat and tell them that when you go to your site that they are not actually reaching it through the public internet. But good luck.

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

What you're trying is, to ring at your door from the outside and open the door by yourself from the inside to let you in.

Ever tried that, it didn't work :-)

Means, you come from inside your LAN, go through the Internet by passing your Router.
Your PC get's the public IP of the Router for that request and it requests a Web-service at the public IP of the Router.

It will only work, if the Web-Server uses it's own public IP.
So you need one public IP to surf the internet and another public IP for the services you want to provide.

Good analogy paulsep

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

I think you will find this is a limitation off the router and the BT Voyager 220 is not the best of routers.

I can do what the OP is trying to do with a Belkin router but could can not do it with a D-Link router. The D-Link documentation specifically states that you cannot access internal servers via a public IP address, you have to use a local private IP address.

For this reason make sure that the router configuration has a password otherwise anyone on the local network will be able to access it.

Stuart

It also makes no sense to access local servers via a much slower Internet connection.
One A-Record entry in the local DNS will gain the access to the local server by using the same link as it is used to access the server via internet but much faster.

Thanks Stuart for your advice, my home network uses a belkin router and everything works fine. It must be a specific thing that belkin routers allow but others don't

I think Ill scrap the bt voyager

thanks again