Topic: Routers and Proxy Servers

[Mitron]

Ok, this may sound like a stupid question but I'm going to ask it anyhow. Hopefully my ignorance is shared by someone and this post or any answers that come out of it will help them as well.

I used to have an ADSL connection through Alltel using a CISCO 677 connected to a switch which served the rest of my internal computers. After configuring the router's NAT to open the ports I needed I was able to run a Web Server, Mail Server and FTP Server. I was even able to pull up the domain from my internal network without having to use the hosts file on the PC or an internal DNS Server.

About a year ago Windstream took over Alltel and disabled our ability to use the CISCO 677 in favor of a Speedstream 4200. Since the switch, I can no longer access my site via the domain name unless I add it to a hosts file, configure a DNS Server internally or use a free proxy server.

The original setup was the best because pulling up the domain from that setup actually tested whether or not the site was reachable from outside the network without any additional configurations. If I used a hosts file, that simply bypasses the router and pulls the site up from the internal network and I assume a DNS Server would do the same. This means I'm stuck using a free proxy server to test outside access.

My question would be if it is possible to get back to the original setup using say a CISCO 837 or some other router that supports the loopback the CISCO 677 did. I'm pretty sure the Speedstream 4200 simply can't do it and the CISCO 677 doesn't support the new PPoPE. Or is the issue with PPoPE vs the PPoPA connection the CISCO 677 was using.

I tried to pry this information from a level 3 tech at Windstream but he wasn't giving up any answers. He simply mentioned the CISCO 677 supported loopback and the Speedstream didn't. I was hoping the CISCO 837 would fix me up, but a default configuration doesn't seem to do the trick so I either need a better config, a different router or I'm stuck with the free proxy (ick).

Any info/help in this matter would be appreciated.

[iseb]

I recently subscribed to a vpn so that I could use a proxy server for a more secure internet browsing and it posed some conflict with my router which I had no idea would be an issue. As the vpn should only work on my machine and not affect those others connected in the router.

I am using a link sys wrt160n router and I am using an mbp. At the very end, I just added some addresses which did not actually made sense but worked.