Netgear RP114 Router Blocks Internet Access Across Network

[wlwoman]

I'm running a netgear RP114 DSL Router with a Linux Redhat 7.3 webserver and a Windows PC in the LAN. The router blocks access to websites on the server from my Win box, taking me to the router setup login window when I type in the URL for websites on the server.

Because I build and admin most of the sites on the server, I frequently end up working "blind". Is there a workaround for this problem? According to the Netgear support site, there isn't; however, I am able to gain access through the Win box to some of the sites by omitting the "

http://www."

from the URL. It's hit and miss, as this doesn't work for all the sites in spite of them all being set up the same way. Everything is vhosted and run through an outside DNS server (Zone Edit) due to IP limitations.

I am able to access all the sites from the server via browser, also by omitting the "

http://www."

from the URL.

If there is no workaround, is there another brand of router that doesn't present the same problem?

 

[mithrilhall]

What exactly is your network setup? One Linux and one Windows PC behind a netgear router? ====================================
I love people. They taste just like
chicken!

 

[wlwoman]

1. Windows 98 box & Linux RedHat 7.3/Apache server box both plugged into LAN ports on RP114 router. Uplink port on router goes to DSL gateway.

2. Samba file sharing set up on 2 of the websites I'm currently working on for editing convenience.

3. All websites pointed to single IP from Zone Edit.

4. All vhosting is name-based as there's only one static IP.

5. Websites are listed in the hosts file in /etc on the Linux box without the

http://www.;

listing them as

http://www.domain.com

or as both domain.com and

http://www.domain.com

seems to block me from everything.

According to L2 Netgear support, I should be happy to connect to any of the sites on my server from my Winbox, since theoretically it's not possible.

 

[jpm121]

I may be completely confused here, but are you saying that when you type in

http://www.domain.com

you get the admin screen for your router? This seems very bad, because it tells me that anyone querying port 80 on your public IP address would get the same. Seems to me that you want to set up port forwarding on your Dlink to the Linux box for starters. Shouldn't the Dlink also have some security to keep the router config from being accessible that way?

Please clue us in...

 

[wlwoman]

Actually, everyone but me gets the website of their choice when typing in the domain of their choice; e.g.

http://www.domain.com,

http://www.domain.net,

http://www.domain.org

are visible to anyone on the Internet -- so long as they are not inside my LAN!

The problem seems to arise from my router having the lead for my single static IP. There is some kind of LAN-to-LAN blocking with this router (Netgear) that works by directing me (from inside the LAN) to my router when I type in any website whose DNS point to my IP number.

Now, if I want to install a dial-up modem in my Win box and surf to my own websites, I can get there every time. It's only from inside the LAN that access to websites inside the LAN is blocked.

The blocking is partial and rather arbitrary since all virtual domains on my server are carbon copies of each other except for the domain names, and I can access some of the websites from my Win box but not all of them. Netgear can't figure this one out, since their L2 support says I shouldn't be able to get to any of the websites on my server from inside the LAN.

I've done port forwarding for all common ports; i.e. 21, 23, 25, 47, 80, 110, 443, 901, 1723, etc.

I think what I want to know, based on the following criteria, is this: can this be forced to work? Is there another brand of router I should be looking at?

1. Win box running Win 98
2. Linux box running RedHat 7.3
3. LAN using Netgear RP114 router
4. Name-based virtual domains with external DNS (Zone Edit)
5. Virtual domains at the same level as the primary domain for the server; i.e.

http://www.domain1.com

is primary and is in directory /var/

http://www/...www.domain2.com,

http://www.domain3.com,

etc. are also in directory /var/www/

Incidentally, the primary domain is the only one not using external DNS.

 

[jpm121]

Okay, now it makes sense, at least the first chunk of your explanation. I have to say it sounds like a flaky bit of code in the Netgear router (sorry for referring to it as a Dlink, I was previously replying to another post using that brand).

As an example, when I try to browse to my public IP address, I do NOT see the configuration of my Linksys cable/DSL router. I get a timeout, since I'm not forwarding port 80 anywhere. It appears from what you describe that their particular NAT programming is flaky.

Finally, I have to claim ignorance to the questions you ask at the end there. Hopefully someone else will chime in...

Good luck...

 

[wlwoman]

Thanks for your input. The L2 tech said he doesn't believe there are any plans to resolve the problem via firmware upgrade either, so I may have to consider a new router.

If anyone has had a positive experience using a different router with a setup similar to mine, please let me know!

 

[wlwoman]

According to the Netgear and Linksys websites, this has something to do with loopback. Any way around this problem?

 

[wlwoman]

And the answer to the loopback issue with the router is:

Edit the file C:\Windows\hosts without the commented sections


#linux box localhost info
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain
#windows box info NAT-IP NETBIOSname NETBIOSname.primarydomain
192.168.0.2 xxxnet2 xxxnet2.xxxnet.net
#linux box domain info NAT IP NETBIOSname alldomains.com/.net/.org/etc
192.168.0.3 xxnet xxnet.net vdomain1.com vdomain2.com vdomain3.com vdomain4.com

Somehow, in the course of adding some new domains, I forgot to add them to the hosts file on my winbox. While setting up a file share I had to access this file and saw what I had done previously. As soon as I added the domains that I couldn't browse to from my winbox, they were available.

Thanks everyone for all your support. Hopefully this might help someone else who's new to LAN setup get around the router loopback issue.