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airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

mcplus
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Registered: ‎07-07-2014

airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

Hello
first thank you to the friendly knowledgeable geeks here who are uber helpful
Here's the challenge:
how do i access my mac server from outside the home network?
have a local network, with mac server (lion, 10.7.5 on mac mini) and an airport extreme doing wireless duties behind the plusnet router. I have a static ip and domain name ready to go to enable me to access the calendar server and the card server in particular when away from home.
HOWEVER - here's where i get stuck.
how do i open up the router to the AE? how do i do this as safely as possible?
have watched online tutorials and have mac osx lion server (o'reilly) but the online tutorials assume the AE is acting as a router and the o'reilly book seems to skip over this bit a bit. so here goes:
I have dhcp set up right now where the router is 192.168.1.254, the AE is 192.168.1.1 and the server is 192.168.1.2
the dhcp range is 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.200
I understand i may need to turn on DHCP and NAT to do "port forwarding" (of which i have a hazzy understanding)
when i select now "dhcp and nat" in the airport utility 6.3 under the network tab, making "port settings" available, i get the message
"The DHCP range you have entered conflicts with the WAN IP address of your base station."
i don't quite see how the range is conflicted when the WAN IP is 192.168.1.1 ?Huh
ASSUMING that's fixable, suggestions on how to proceed?
I've had the server mac mini alternately plugged into the router directly and now i have it plugged into the AE port
so
router goes to AE for serving wireless etc in the house, and mac mini server is connected to the AE.

I feel like i am building a highway from two different ends and they are not going to meet in the middle.
Thank you
16 REPLIES 16
dvorak
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

welcome to the forum mcplus Smiley
I have a similar setup to you <thomson router> <-> <airport extreme>
The difference is that I put the AE into bridge mode so that the thomson router handles the the NAT / DHCP. From your set up it looks like you could be double NAT'ing which can be painful. Is this correct?

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mcplus
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

Hmm. the AE does not say that i'm double nat'ing/dhcp'ing - ive seen that before.
May i ask you to say a bit more - that is - let's say you do bridge mode as you do - great - what do you do next for that external access? (do you have a fixed ip?) thanks!
mc
ps my reason for internal nat/dhcp is to do as much with the AE as possible...perhaps that's wrong thinking?
adie:quote
MisterW
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

Sounds like your Internal IP range on the AE is set to 192.168.1.x , is that correct ? If so that won't work, since the WAN IP is in the same subnet.
You need the LAN subnet on the AE to be different to the one on the Thomson router. That will still mean you have a double NAT situation and port forwarding will be difficult.
The better option would be either to operate as dvorak, with the AE as a bridge
OR if you wish to do as much as possible with the AE, then set the Thomson to bridge mode ( i.e just a modem ) and configure the AE to make the pppoe connection.
 

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mcplus
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

Mister W thank you
yes on the WAN IP
ok sounds like: change the IP's to 10.xxx on the AE as a starter.
OR use bridge mode
i should note that my printer is plugged into the thompson router and computers using the AE - so it sounds like bridge mode may be the way to go to continue with that option (to make use of the extra ports)
two questions (and thank you all for patience)
1_ how set bridge mode on the thompson? this page seems the most dumbed down for a router i've seen. (can one swap in their own router??) - and then once that's working, how get OUT as it were in terms of this port forwarding i hear about?
2_ if using bridge mode on the AE instead as per dvorak (hello and thank you again) - how do i get OUT to the internet without letting a whole lot of critters in?Huh
this seems like a big ask, folks, for which i'm sorry - will do a post on the successful strategies as i can't believe this is unique...
thank you
dvorak
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

option number 3 (if you're on FTTC which I forgot to ask):
plug the printer into your mac mini and set it up as shared (can be printed from by windows / os x)
remove the thomson router and just use the AE and buy a cheap switch if you need more ports.
That's how I used to have it set up before I *had* to use the thomson for something else.
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dvorak
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

when setting bridge mode on the AE it basically turns it into a wireless access point, so you don't configure that any more as it will defer all the networking side of things to the thomson.
the only configuration you'll need to do for port forwarding etc. is in the thomson.
if you want to do this (properly) you'll need to start afresh with the AE http://gigaom.com/2010/03/03/how-to-setup-an-airport-extreme-in-bridge-mode/
you won't need to worry about getting out to the net, the thomson takes care of all that.
NOTE: you'll lose the ability for your 2nd guest network, though not sure it'd work as intended in your current set up anyway.
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mcplus
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

dvorak thank you
here's teh thing - i'd love to get onto just the AE - BUT we do not yet have fiber where i am (if that is FTTC), so it's still over the isdn line. which would seem to necessitate this router for the moment.

so if we assume these are the constraints for the moment...
let's say bridge mode (seems like that's the way to go?) - and that was easy - that's what it was on previously to starting on this quest to get outside access to the local home server calendar set up.

\... do what to open up access to the static ip without openning up a potential deluge of pain from outsiders wishing to come in without an invitation??\\
you say the thompson takes care of this - terrific - but some settings need to be adjusted - and it's these now i am in search of. help?
thank you - and congratulations on having the 79mb fiber - hope it's awesome
dvorak
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

you'll need to forward the ports required.. e,g, 25 for SMTP and 8008 and 8443 for calendar server.
There's very little you can do stop people 'knocking on the door' as you'll need to allow all traffic to forward on those ports.
here's a guid for forwarding the ports http://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Knowledgebase/Broadband-Technicolor-TG-582-Configure-Port-Forwarding
option 4, buy a standalone adsl modem and use that instead of the other router before the AE
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/default_ShopGroup.asp?ShopGroupID=1
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MisterW
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

Quote
1_ how set bridge mode on the thompson?

It's not for the faint-hearted I'm afraid, and you need to telnet to the router to do it, but if you really want to go that way then this thread will help
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,105753.msg1062794.html#msg1062794

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mcplus
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

Thank you v. much dvorak
i'll step through the port forwarding guide and come back w success or not quite.
ah and MisterW
telnet! the true geek in. fantastic.
i shall try bridging first and hope all goes well.
i think i heard somewhere that it was possible to assign a-typical port numbers for services to help fend off plain access to box?
anyway
thank you both
i shall report back
much obliged

mcplus
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

ok - thank you - to show my real ignorance - how now to get the internet access when entering the assigned domain name? have i missed a step?
i have now assigned as per dvorak;s instructions - the calendar and https server ports to the macmini that's running the server.
i have a static ip and domain name attached to that ip.
but there seems to be a step missing?
because when i enter the domain name, of course, i still get the router's login page  when at home, and when trying externally, the page request just spins and spins
eg safari on the phone says "safari could not open the page because the server stopped responding"
So i feel like we're warm
THANK YOU
dvorak
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

sounds like you're going to to http://<domain>; (which would be port 80) rather than the calendar service?
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mcplus
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

hi there - just to test things i did in fact open up port 80 so that should be openning?Huh
thank you again for your help
dvorak
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Re: airport extreme through Thompson (plusnet) router for ical/carddav access??

where did you point port 80 to?
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