Help Me - Cannot access web server from local network

[AJ20011]

Please read this carefully.

I've just replaced my old server which was running XP Pro with a new 'dell' running Vista Home Premium.

Got everything set up again after a bit of messing about. Apache, PHP, MySQL etc. everything is going great.

The 'dell' server is on a network and is setup for DHCP and internet connection sharing. The other computers on the

network can access the internet fine and load websites.

Now, this is where it gets a bit complicated.

I have various websites hosted on the 'dell' server which have the dns taken care of through the No-IP.com client.

I have Mcafee firewall setup with port 80 open, and even port 53 (dns) and it works, people can access the websites

from outside the network no problem, and the server can access the websites no problem.

I have no router. The server is connected via USB to an ADSL modem. Simple. So don't have to worry about DMZ or

loop-backs etc.

All the other computers on the network cannot access the websites on the 'dell' server. No way. Whether it's

something to do with vista, i don't know. What happens is that the sites either timeout or cannot be found. Ping requests just timeout and occasionally say that the host cannot be found. What i

can say is that this all worked fine when running XP.

When I do a lookup from a networked computer on one of the hosted sites this is what I get:

Server: Server.mshome.net
Address: 192.168.0.1:53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: world8.org
Address: 86.154.xxx.70

I know a simple solutions is to edit the hosts file on the networked computers, and yes this works. I've tried it.

But I host about 30 websites with loads of different subdomains, and frankly it will be too complicated to edit

each computers hosts file.

So what's happening guys? Please help me out. It's so frustrating.

To me, it seems like the local dns server is not resolving my domain names. But I'm not expert at dns stuff so I can't say for sure.

It seems like I've tried everything and am sure there must be a simple solution but for the love of god I can't find it and I am banging my head on a pole =).

If you need any info or answers just ask.

Thanks,

AJ.

 

[mBernhardt]

As I understand your issue: Hosts outside your network are able to connect to the website on your 'dell' server. You are able to access the websites on the 'dell' server from the 'dell' server. However, you are not able to access the websites from within your network.

Are you accessing the sites using the URL registered with no-ip.com?

With your current setup this may not be possible. Mostly because your internal hosts are resolving the URL's to the 86.154.xxx.70 and then getting a reply from 192.168.0.1. They look at it and assume its coming from an usolicited site and drop/block it. Now, both sides are in a wait state until the connection times out.

There are SoHo routers and beige-box solutions that allow you to access an internal site using its external address in this way. (I've done it myself in the past) pfSense is what I used.

Hope this at least points you in the right direction.