Filemaker Pro 11 instant web publishing access problem from web

Question

Level 1

60 points

Filemaker Pro 11 instant web publishing access problem from web

I have exhausted the Filemaker forum and my issue needs airport dual-n extreme base station expertise - so I'm posting this problem. I've added a link to Filemaker's instant web publishing to my web site so that visitors can access my studio database for additional information about my art work. The problem is that no one can access this database from outside my local network. Within my wireless and wired networks I can reach the database typing in this address http://10.0.1.**:591/fmi/iwp/res/iwp_home.html. I recognize that this is a port mapping problem but I am not sure of the settings. This is what I have set up so far - which hasn't worked: through my network preference panel, I have allocated a static ip address to my iMac (10.0.1.**), I've assigned the Filemaker IWP to use port 591 (the official port for IWP) and am using DynDNS.org for web based IP detection to my host (99.25.***.***). I have checked off Enable NAT port mapping protocol in the airport utility network panel. What's frustrating is that other web services work well (i.e., logmein, servetome, dropbox and back to my mac) and don't appear to have any special port mapping indicated within the airport utility network settings, so within the Airport network settings I manually assigned the TCP/UDP to 591 and tried to match descriptions of services to what service I think IWP. I did notice that while Filemaker Pro uses the 10.0.1.**:591 address, Airport Utility network assigns a private IP address which is different (10.0.1.***). I don't know if that private IP address is important and I am also not sure if I have the address syntax correct [99.25.***.***:591 OR 99.25.***.***/10.0.1.**:591 OR [my host name].dyndns.org:591 OR some variation]. But nothing works. Any suggestions for solving this frustrating problem would be greatly appreciated.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 2.93GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB ram

Posted on Feb 5, 2012 10:18 AM

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Answer 1

conorew

Level 1

0 points

Aug 12, 2012 12:58 PM in response to DavidB

I am not an expert in Filemaker But I have been playing with it quite a bit recently. It sounds like you have opened some of the ports required but not all. All IWP is a webpage that is hosted (by the sounds of it) on your local machine you will need to make sure all required ports are open like port 80 for http. I would start by setting the default host on the airport using the airport utility.

You will want to set this as the ip for the computer that has filemaker on it.

Airport Utility > Network > Network Options

You may also want to make sure you reserve this ip in the DHCP reservations section.

If the IWP page works with this set up then you can work your way backwards opening the required ports ( have a look at this http://help.filemaker.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6427/~/filemaker-server-and-fi lemaker-server-advanced-port-numbers )

I had lots of problems with IWP but installing the server add on sorted this. The advantage to this is that the server add on configures your airport to use the machine as a server.

Dropbox, log me in, back to my mac are slightly different from what you are doing. They are apps which are open and communicating with their respective servers. When you want to host a web site or even just VNC into a mchine you have to have the ports set to forward accordingly, this is because an outside machine is attempting to initiate the contact. This is what the firewalls and security that comes with modern routers are designed to prevent.

I hope I have helped, I can see your question is quite old. I saw your topic whilst looking to solve a problem my own.

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Answer 2

DavidB Author

Level 1

60 points

Aug 12, 2012 3:49 PM in response to conorew

I will check out your recommendations. If it works I'll let you know. Right now I have a very inelegant solution. I got the IWP to work on an old Powerbook Pro attached directly to my airport using the DynDNS address. While I can't access that database within my home network, offsite visitors to my website can. This solution requires maintaining one master database (on my iMac) and a copy (on my Powerbook). It is a hassle to maintain but serves its purpose: to provide an online search of my artwork.

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