Configuring a WAN

Hi alll,

I have a question - can anyone help me/point me in the direction of a simple tutorial on how to properly set up a WAN? My ISP has given me a WAN IP (which is the external IP address of my router) and they have also given me a range of 5 more external IP addresses, but I have no idea how to configure things to make use of them! I've never done this before...

Cheers,

G

At the risk of upsetting you, the answer is if you do not know what to do with your 5 additional IP addresses, then you do not need them. It is much simpler and more secure to stick with a normal LAN and just use the one IP address (for your router) in the normal way.

Addional IP adresses are normally used for such things as Web-servers, Email-servers, Name-servers and Game-servers.

Hi,

Thanks... I'll try not to be offended!

Seriously though, I am actually running a web server - in the past I've always done this by hitting my WAN IP and having port forwarding push the request through to the appropriate local IP (192.168.1.X) - when I discovered I had this extra range of IP addresses, I knew there would probably be a better way of doing this using this range, but I don't know where to start configuring things. In other words, I know I should be using one of these IPs for my development server, but I've no idea where to start configuring it!

Cheers,

G

Which router do you have? - It will depend on how it plays ball as to whether you can disable NAT and actually have it work at all.

If all you have it the webserver, then I'd stick with NAT/PAT.

This is my router, pretty much:
http://www.dlink.co.uk/?go=jN7uAYLx/oIJaWVUDLYZU93ygJVYKuJQSNvhLPG3yV3oVo5+hK4uPJskPKBl6j4k

I'm still curious to know how it should work... just a link to an FAQ or tutorial will do me.

OK, sorry about my earlier comment. I read your first post wrong

The first thing to check is that your router will handle a WAN multi-IP subnet. Many will not. I do not know the Dlink routers but this extract from the link you posted, does not look optimistic:

"With Virtual Server Mapping, the router can be set to allow separate FTP, Web, and multiple games to share the same Internet-visible IP address while still protecting your servers......

Note the use of the word address - singular.

------------------

Assuming that the router will handle a multi-IP subnet, you can still run a web-server using port forwarding - just forward port 80 from the IP address you chose from the available five. The router will keep all other ports secure.

------------------

If you really want the local machine to have a WAN IP address (with all of its ports avavailable from the Internet , then you need to disable NAT for the address you want to use - Again, not all routers will allow you to do this, even though they will allow port forwarding from selected IP addresses.

------------------

One router which will do it all is the DrayTek 2800 series (or an old 2600 series, if you can get hold of one). You may find the DrayTek help files on the Zen knowledgebase useful for early reading:
http://www.zensupport.co.uk/knowledgebase/default.aspx?cNode=2Q2K0S&pNodes=8L8F3J:6A8N2N

Hi,

Thanks - and no problem!

My router almost certainly doesn't support it ... I can disable NAT (or rather, the router has a DMZ option which allows you to place one machine outside the firewall - which is effectively the same thing I guess) - but like you say - totally exposed like that? Probably a bad idea...

Having heard the options, I think I'll continue doing what I do and port forwarding from my WAN IP.

Thanks again!

G