Help with Comcast Business router

Thom Pantazi · Post by **Thom Pantazi** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 1:28 am

I've got a Comcast business account with a static IP address. It works perfectly for surfing the web for users behind our firewall. We have a server that sits behind the router and in front of the firewall. It serves up web and email as well as FTP. All that works great with one exception if anyone behind the firewall tries to access the server in front of the firewall but behind the router all we see is the router's login page. We should be handed off to the server but we aren't. I have no idea how to resolve this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 9:06 am

The Comcast supplied gateways...typically an SMC or a Netgear gateway, don't support "loopback".

We always disable the firewall on those, and setup the router we install at our clients at the edge, with our routers taking the public IP addresses....not the Comcast provided gateway. The firewalls we install for our clients do support loopback.

Post by **Philip** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 11:51 am

YeOld, what firewalls do you normally install for your clients these days ? We settled on a Watchguard XTM-25w for Ken's business recently, replaced an old Sonicwall. I've heard decent reviews about Fortinet as well..

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 7:36 pm

I use a distro called Untangle...which as a freebie "lite" version, as well as several bundles, and ala-cart products depending on what firewall services you need.
I install it on hardware from NexGenAppliances.....smaller units to larger full 1U appliances...depending on the size of the clients network and what services they need, throughput, etc. Usually their NG-25, NG-50, and NG-100 models...although I just ordered a few of those and an NG-500 model for a bigger setup I'm doing soon.

Have a couple of clients on Fortinets...not that I sold, just picked up and keep them going. Have 1 large multi-site client with PFSense on Netgate hardware.
For entry level, small clients...that we can't talk into a full UTM firewall, we use Cisco RV series..and even when the Linksys name came back...those LRT224 models are pretty decent for a basic NAT router.

Since we're very heavy into Ubiquiti products for managed wireless and point to point wireless, we started using their EdgeRouters....which are very cool and fast, low latency units. Very inexpensive too....quite a few different sizes..up to an EdgeRouter Pro model which is data center class...we have one of those as our second router in our server room which most of our managed services servers run behind.

Haven't sat in front of a Watchguard in a few years....back when I did they seemed OK.
Got tired of Sonicwalls....don't like 'em anymore because troubleshooting ACLs is a pain..having to stick your eyes in 3x different areas the way Sonicwalls get rules made (versus just straight up port forwarding).