Using external hostname on local network

I have a static IP and I'm using it for accessing my local server over the mobile data network. I sometimes also use my wifi network to access the local server via it's IP address. What I would like is to be able to use my hostname to point to my web server on my local network. The problem is that at the moment on my local network my hostname just points me to my broadband router. My router is a Buffalo WBMR-HP-G300H. This needs to be a network solution (not just on one PC) as I access my network from several different devices including smart phones.

Thanks!

So you want to point www.mydomain.co.uk to your static IP of 123.123.123.123 ?

If you own the domain do you have anyone hosting it?

If you have someyhing like an email hosting then you need to have forwarding set so that web traffic is forwarded to 123.123.123.123.

If you dont have any hosting then yiu could use DDNS so that the DDNS provider (www.noip.com or similar) forwards the web traffic to 123.123.123.123.

Since it is a static IP address you do not need to run a DDNS client on your router.

Sorry perhaps I should clarify, I have an existing hostname provided by my ISP which I am using to access my local server. I want to use that hostname within my local network.

You really need a router that supports loopback.

That's probably the key word I'm looking for, I just need to work out how to do that on my router, thanks.

Edited by deleted (Sat 22-Dec-12 20:53:36)

Think you can achieve that by editing the Hosts file on your PCs. On Win this can be found at \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.

Trouble is you will have to do it on every PC from which you want access.

or you need to have a DNS server on your local network that can supply the internal IP address for that DNS name lookup when you are on your local network.

Some router OS platforms already provide this (e.g. pfSense, Smoothwall Express, ) otherwise you would need to run a DNS server on a device that is always on and connected.

This approach is called split DNS (or similar).

Edited by prlzx (Thu 03-Jan-13 23:06:32)

As above, only really two options,

- Add a DNS server to your home network, which would be able to do this for you.

- Add a router that supports DNS loopback.

I belive that Buffalo router can use DD-WRT and Open WRT which support this, but as I've not tried it, you'll want to research this further yourself.