Q: How do I get Screen Sharing to use an IP address instead of a DNS?

I want to be able to remotely access my mac through vnc, and i port forwarded the vnc port to my mac from my router successfully. however, when i tested it from an outside network, it didn't connect to my mac. When I look at other tutorials, the address is vnc://[ip address], but mine says vnc://my-macs-name.westell.com. Is this the problem? How do I fix this? I really want to be able to remotely access my mac through vnc.