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This is supposed to be a really simple example for learning purposes, but for some reason is deciding not to work.

I set up an Apache web server on my Linux box with just a dummy page. Works great inside the network (as it should.)

Next I enabled my DynDns service, forwarded port 80 through the router, and voila, my iMac can get to the page using my dyndns address of testing1.mynetgear.com.

Since it's still inside the local network (even though accessing an outside domain name), I wanted to check that a device OUTSIDE my local network could access it.

So I pulled the website up on my phone (over LTE) and....nothing. Couldn't find the server. I turned the port forwarding off for a second just to verify that without it, even my iMac couldn't access the page, and it couldn't. Turned port forwarding back on, and suddenly my phone was able to access the page. Great, looks like it works. But then I pulled it up on a different web browser on the phone, and suddenly it doesn't work again. Pulled it up on the first phone browser, and suddenly THAT doesn't work again either.

Seems like I did everything that needed to be done, including forwarding port 80, having a working static domain name (thanks to dyndns), but for some reason, devices outside the network, other than that one time it DID work, can't seem to access the webpage...

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 -Bryan

Edit: Here's the image of my phone successfully connecting when I used port 8080 (it's on LTE and not my wifi connection) Safari Screenshot

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Firewalls can sometimes cause similar issues, so I would double check everything was correctly set up on that end (starting with testing with the firewall temporarily disabled if possible).

Secondly, at a guess, I might try something other than *.mynetgear.com. This domain may not actually be publicly routable or have other issues. Other services such as No-IP and freedns.afraid.org have clients available for Linux.

If neither of those solutions work, there may be other issues with slow network responses or routing. Note that one method of testing whether you site is available is to determine your public IP and put this into the browser in lieu of e.g. testing1.mynetgear.com.

Note: Apparently, at the time of writing, there is/was an issue with mynetgear.com hostnames not being resolvable. The solution in this case would be to use another hostname.

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  • I'm using No-IP as a daemon on my mac to make sure the address keeps my correct public IP...I'll check out freedns as an option too. What's weird though is - I use .mynetgear.com because it's an option directly in my Netgear router...plus even though my iMac is inside my network, I get to testing1.mynetgear.com when the port forwarding is on, and I can't get to it when port forwarding is off... Shouldn't that mean that the address IS accessible from outside my local network?
    – Bryan Sproles
    Commented Oct 28, 2017 at 10:22
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    It could be a DNS caching issue. You have to make sure that you know you actual IP (your router, from the internet), and at the same time check that the phone is seeing the same one.
    – xenoid
    Commented Oct 28, 2017 at 11:41
  • I think I just got it - So my .mynetgear.com domain is actually hosted by No-IP. I logged in and found there was a tool to check and make sure that the port was open. When I did port 80, it came back with a message that some ISPs don't allow port 80 even if you port forward it. So I went back into my Apache config file and added port 8080, restarted the server, and now when I type: testing1.mynetgear.com:8080 , THAT seems to work consistently, and if you go back to just port 80, it refuses the connection. Could someone try it just to verify? Thanks :)
    – Bryan Sproles
    Commented Oct 28, 2017 at 12:51
  • I just tried my public IP on port 8080, and that also works. I took a screen shot of my phone successfully connecting to port 8080 on testing1.mynetgear.com, but I don't see a way to post it on here...
    – Bryan Sproles
    Commented Oct 28, 2017 at 13:30
  • Thanks, I added the link at the bottom of the original post. I know it doesn't show :8080, but that's the one that works. Going to the site without using a port number, or using :80 still won't connect (due to ISP.)
    – Bryan Sproles
    Commented Oct 28, 2017 at 13:37

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