Add Server on Local Network

If you have a server that you want to make accessible from the Internet, you need to configure your Internet Gate:

1. Open the security page from the main menu
2. Click on the security profile you want to add server support to.
3. In “Allowed applications” select server type (web, telnet, ssh, ftp).
4. Enter the local IP address of the computer on your local network running the server.
5. Click Apply

Enabling server access from the outside allows users on the Internet to access your server by accessing your global IP address. It will seem to them like your server is at the global IP address, using a technique called virtual server.

To access the server from your LAN access it using its local LAN IP address. If you want to use your global IP address to access the server enable “Access servers from inside using WAN IP address” in “Allowed applications” of the security profile.

If you have a web server 192.168.0.10 on your LAN, that you want to allow external access to, mark checkbox Web server and enter 192.168.0.10 into the IP address field. Click Apply.

Now all remote PCs on the Internet can access your web server by accessing your global IP. Entering http://50.11.69.17 into a web browser on the remote PC opens the web page stored on your web server.

Internet Gate forwards the incoming web request to your local server. For the remote PC it seems like your Internet Gate is answering its requests. It is also called a “virtual server”.

On local PCs enter the server's local IP address to access it: http://192.168.0.10. Only if you have enabled “Access servers from inside using WAN IP address” can you use http://50.11.69.17 to access the server.

Allowing FTP traffic through the firewall is taken care of by a FTP proxy. Your FTP server must always use port 21 for FTP requests. If you want to use a different port for FTP, enter the port number into the field on the Security page, but keep your FTP server use port 21.

To make it easier for people to use your server you can use Dynamic DNS to get a URL, allowing people to enter e.g. http://yoursite.dyndns.org instead of http://50.11.69.17 to access your server.

To increase security, you are recommended to put your server on a DMZ.

Servers on a DMZ are accessible from the Internet and LAN, but they cannot contact LAN PC-s by themselves. Thus any attack to your server remains isolated from your LAN.

If all you want to do is to display a couple of simple webpages you do not need to buy a webserver.

The built-in webserver of the Internet Gate can display webpages stored on a USB memory stick attached to its USB port.