Acccess lan hosts from wan port

[bonneyt214]

Is it possible to access a specific host (ip address) on the LAN from the WAN port? I know that port forwarding will do some of that, but you can only forward to one fixed host. I have an older netgear router with openwrt installed. With that, I can set up a static route in the router to forward all packets from the WAN port to the LAN subnet. But I can't seem to do that with this netgear's stock firmware. With wireshark set up to monitor the WAN port, I see packets arrive, but no response, like an ICMP reply.

Is this by design?

FWIW: I cannot set up a VPN in the router - as per the instructions. I see basically the same thing as above: SSH request sent to the WAN port, but no response from the router.  

Any help or info about this is appreciated,

TIA

ken

(NOTE: I contacted tech support about this - the  vpn problem -  and opened a support ticket, but have not heard back from anyone for two weeks. Not unexpected, since the tech support person didn't seem to understand the problem. But I will send my gripes directely to netgear, not spew them out here.)

[bonneyt214]

• Version: does it matter for the original question? If one version works, but another doesn't, please say so.
• "Connected to"... means a typical setup for a generic router.
• The question: "Is it possible to access a specific host (ip address) on the LAN from the WAN port? " Yes, this is somewhat vague. Here is a more detailed explanation:  2 routers connected to one main subnet (x.x.0.0/24). WAN port of router1 is x.x.0.10; for router2 x.x.0.20. Router1 internal LAN set to x.x.1.0/24; for router2, x.x.2.0/24. Router1 is the Nighthawk router updated with the latest version of its firwmware, and router2 is any generic router with OpenWrt firmware (any version). A host on router1 LAN, wishes to connect to a host on router2 LAN, using any service (port) I have configured router2 to allow this : x.x.1.y : ssss --> x.x.2.z : pppp) using a static route to LAN on router1, specifically x.x.1.1 via the WAN address x.x.0.10 to do the above.
• Problem: How do I configure the Nighthawk router, router1, to do the reverse, specifically: x.x.2.y : ssss --> x.x.1.z : pppp ?
  
• I have been to http://netgear.com/support and read all documentation for the Nighthawk R7000 router. It does not explain how to do this. Using the DMZ would simply NAT the DMZ ip address onto the main subnet (x.x.0.0/24), thus bypassing the Nighthawk router's getway and firewall. This is not a solution to the problem (see above).
• Wireshark: how I connected it to the Nighthawk router is not relevant to the issue at hand. The details would only add confusion to understanding and resolving my issue. For details on how this could be done, google is your friend. It can find several methods to do this.
• (NOTE: the "hidden" admin debug page can allow capturing the traffic into/out from  the WAN port. It should also allow you to have LAN port 1  mirror the traffic on the WAN port. Thus, by connecting a PC running wireshark on that port would  allow capturing WAN traffic.)

Need I say more?