Airport Base Station -- WAN Address not visible

larry98765

larry98765

Registered
Hi All,

I've just hooked up an AEBS to my DSL line. Since my DSL account is NOT a static IP, I used to check in Network prefs under sharing to see the temporarily assigned IP I could use to share and run a server etc.

I thought that now that I have a router in between my machines and the Internet, that I'd be able to find my PUBLIC IP address through the AEBS somehow. But when I look in the airport utility, it shows my Public WAN address as blank (even when I'm connected.)

I'm guessing that's because I have a dynamically assigned IP from my ISP. Ok, but where can I find out my Public (albeit temporary) IP address?

Thanks :confused:
 
What sort of DSL gear are you using? I certainly can see the public address allocated and my BS is connected to a D-link DL300.

Are you perhaps using a router instead, and if so, do you have bridging turned on with your airport BS?
 
Byronw70:

The BS is plugged directly into the DSL Modem, Westel brand, Earthlink account.

What's bridging?
 
Well, if you are not using a DSL router, but a modem, then you certainly should see the IP address in the basestation, when the modem connects.

Bridging transparently connects two networks together. The Airport basestation has an option (tick box), for turning Ethernet bridging on. In my experience, this should always be off.

The only thing that I can think of is that if this is on, then your machine inside the network is been allocated the address. This may also have the side effect of making only one machine on your airport network get access to the net.

I am only making a guess here as I have not tried that configuration myself since moving to DSL.

Short of that try the previous previous of Whatismyip.

If bridging is on with your basestation though, definately turn it off and see if this makes the basestation get the public address
 
Byronw70:

Thanks for your thoughts. I couldn't find any "bridging" option.

I just got off the phone with Apple Tech Support. I was on with someone for 45 minutes and he seemed stumped. Finally, he said that finding my public IP using PPPoE wasn't necessarily a feature of the base station and that I should get a static IP address. I suspect this was just his way of saying "I have no clue, now go away kid."

But anyway, seems like BobW might have an easy solution!!!

So now my question is this:
If, for example, I find out my IP address with whatismyip, then map public port 80 to a private port (the individual server's private IP address and port 80) and enable web sharing on the machine, I should be able to run a server through the AEBS, right?
 
Absolutely, but look out because my DSL provider blocks 80, 8080 and 20/21 for http and ftp. The happily tell you that you can use other ports though. If this is the case you will have to run your server on a different port and people will have to do http://serveripaddress:portname

I will look for the bridging option on my base station admin utility tonight. The wordin of the option may be different. If I find it I will post a piccy or the location or something.
 
Cool,

By the way the bridging is

"Enable Airport to Ethernet Bridging", and is a check box at the bottom of the network tab in the Airport admin utility
 
Hmm. I definitely don't have that option. Perhaps Apple redesigned the interface for Extreme? Could it be equivalent to an option I have under the "Airport" tab called "Extend wireless network (using WDS)?" If so, that option is (and has been) unchecked.
 
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