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I have a router opened up to allow Remote Desktop to one of the machines. It works if I try to connect from outside the network. If I however am inside the LAN and try to connect using the WAN IP address it doesn't work. Why?

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up vote 5 down vote accepted

You need to have NAT reflection enabled if your router/firewall supports it. This allows you to access internal servers by public IP. Otherwise, you need to use private IP addresses when accessing internal servers.

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Why won't it let me access internal machines via the public IP? Why doesn't it just go out to the internet and back in again? –  CJ7 Feb 11 '12 at 13:57
@Craig.. the reason for the behavior you see is exactly as Khaled mentions. Most inexpensive routers for not provide this capacity. Some do but don't enable it by default. –  Tim Brigham Feb 11 '12 at 14:04
@CraigJ: Public IPs are directed to the default gateway which is your router. Then, the router will forward them to the outside if not configured to route them back in. –  Khaled Feb 11 '12 at 14:46
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