Site unavailable from outside network using IP address

[awhc]

I have my site set up internally on one of our servers and it works fine. We access it with the servername and all is well (ie. http://servername.domain.com/app/). However, when we try to access it from the outside using an IP address (ie. http://12.234.45.67/app) it gives the usual page can't be displayed error. The site is listed with the servername (in the store settings) because we don't have a "domain name". BTW, the SSL is also registered with the servername, but we get the same error with http and https.

This is an internal application that is used by our service reps and isn't used outside our network except for some outside partners that need to use the site, which is why we have the outside IP address. We let these specific groups have access.

I have ruled out the firewall, along with the server, being the issue, because I can create a different virtual directory on the server and everything works fine from the outside. I have noticed while on the actual server that when I type in "http://localhost/app", the address bar changes to "http://servername.domain.com/app", but it still works locally. When I try the same thing with a test directory (ie. http://localhost/test) it works but the address bar doesn't change.

As I stated earlier, this is an internal application but we must allow certain groups to gain access, so we need to be able to use the app with an internal servername and an outside IP address.

Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? Any ideas on what I can do to make this work?

[AbleMods]

Because you have registered your AC7 license with your internal server name, only internal network users will be able to access it. AC7 will force a redirect to the licensed name with any browser hit regardless of how that browser hit was mapped to it.

Outside users i.e. outside of the firewall cannot resolve your internal server names and therefore would not be able to access the url. When the outside browser request comes in, your DNS server will translate it to the local (internal) IP address of the host. Since your firewall blocks direct access to internal IP addresses, the traffic will not pass to the web server.

A far better route would have been to register the license using an outside name and just add a separate A-record to your internal DNS server zone file. That way people from the outside can resolve the host name to the AC7-licensed name and your internal people could still resolve it via the additional A-record.

This is an internal application that is used by our service reps and isn't used outside our network except for some outside partners that need to use the site, which is why we have the outside IP address. We let these specific groups have access.

As soon as you say the words "except for...." it becomes an external application. You'll have to license and configure everything as such for it to work as you want.

[awhc]

Thanks for the quick response. I was afraid that it may come down to something like that. Chalk this one up as a learning experience. I just hope that Able will allow me to re-license the software now. Thanks again!

[AbleMods]

Trust me, you won't be their first request - I did the same thing way-back-when