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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...
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.
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.
- Right - the Orbi has been in router mode, not AP mode, for years. My mistake.
And you're right, NAT loopback won't work if the Orbi is behind another router. People (including myself, until yesterday) seem to think that NAT loopback is configurable like a hosts file or a locally-hosted DNS server but it's not. If the Orbi is behind another router, it won't work.