Testing access to my home network

[robgendreau]

I'm stuck at home and have been trying to configure some stuff on my home computer. Usually I test access to it from work, but I won't be there for a while.

How do I test access from outside my LAN while I'm actually within that LAN?

I am using a static IP and everything is behind a 2Wire residential gateway DSL modem/router. It's got a firewall set to allow access on certain ports, and there's also a firewall on my Mac. If I just plug in the Mac's IP address the router quite sensibly routes me internally.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Due to the various ways different routers handle (or don't handle) "loopback"...the only sure way is to test from the outside.

Loopback is basically how a firewall handles traffic originating from the inside...trying to come back in using the public alias.

 

[thiggins]

If you have a second router, you can put the machine you are trying to test behind it. Make sure the routers are on different subnets, i.e. one on 192.168.1.x and 192.168.2.x.