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Forum Discussion
RBR50 - how to configure NAT loopback?
I have an RBR50 (firmware 2.7.5.4), and according to this KB article, it supports NAT loopback. However, I cannot find anywhere in my Oribi's settings to configure it. Does anyone know how to set NAT...
Hello TokyoHam ,
Welcome to the NETGEAR Community!
NAT loopback is a feature that allows the access of a service via the WAN IP address from within your local network. NAT loopback is useful If you require internal users to access an internal service such as a hosted web server using the public IP address instead of its local IP address. The RBR50v1 and RBR50v2 support NAT loopback as a feature. Configuration is not needed.
For all of our devices that support NAT Loopback please visit our Knowledge Based article below:
Which NETGEAR routers support NAT loopback? - NETGEAR Support
Best,
Kevin
Community Team
Thank you for the replies.
I guess I was thinking of something more along the lines of a host file, where I could manually specify [domain1.com --> 192.168.1.50] but from what I understand, it only works when the WAN address of the Orbi matches the server address. Unfortunately, my Orbi sits behind a router provided by my ISP (I know, I know - but there's literally nothing I can do about it), so the Orbi doesn't know what the public-facing IP address is. If Netgear hadn't removed Telnet access, I could simply SSH in and manually edit the hosts file - maybe it's worth installing third-party firmware to restore the functionality that my Orbi system had when I bought it.
I guess I was thinking of something more along the lines of a host file, where I could manually specify [domain1.com --> 192.168.1.50] but from what I understand, it only works when the WAN address of the Orbi matches the server address. Unfortunately, my Orbi sits behind a router provided by my ISP (I know, I know - but there's literally nothing I can do about it), so the Orbi doesn't know what the public-facing IP address is. If Netgear hadn't removed Telnet access, I could simply SSH in and manually edit the hosts file - maybe it's worth installing third-party firmware to restore the functionality that my Orbi system had when I bought it.
Hello TokyoHam ,
Try changing the mode of your ISP router to modem only then try utilizing the NAT loopback feature on your RBR50.
Please visit the knowledgebase article below for more information on enabling bridge mode on your ISP router:
Best,
Kevin
Community Team
- Yeah, my ISP router can't be put into bridge mode, nor can it be disconnected. Believe me, I've been trying to find a way to do either, for many years. Basically I just assign the Orbi router a static IP address, put it into the DMZ, and disable routing functions on the ISP router. I then use the Orbi in AP mode, and aside from this NAT loopback thing, everything has worked perfectly in this configuration for about six years.
To work around the lack of functional NAT loopback in my specific network configuration, I set up a DNS server on my NAS and direct requests to my four self-hosted domains to my server's local IP address (everything else gets forwarded to Cloudfare for DNS resolution). I set up an NGINX reverse proxy to handle routing once requests reach the server, since that one IP address is hosting all four domains.
TokyoHam wrote:
Basically I just assign the Orbi router a static IP address, put it into the DMZ, and disable routing functions on the ISP router. I then use the Orbi in AP mode, and aside from this NAT loopback thing, everything has worked perfectly in this configuration for about six years.If neither the ISP router nor the Orbi router perform any "router functions", I do not see how anything can function.
(AP mode on the Orbi disables nearly everything:
https://kb.netgear.com/000061277/Disabled-Features-on-the-Orbi-when-set-to-AP-Mode
What device is providing DHCP resolution for this network?
My explanation of NAT Loopback placed too much emphasis on the public IP address. To be more precise, when the Orbi router (in router mode) encounters a packet addressed to its own WAN IP address, that packet will be "looped back" to the input queue. If the target port has been forwarded to an IP on the LAN, then it will pass through the Orbi router and be sent to the target device on the LAN.
My sense is that the NAT Loopback discussion, while interesting, was not actually the discussion topic. Rather, the goal appears to be routing connections to devices on the LAN using DNS rather than their IP address on the LAN.
