Thank you, @mdk I will attempt to answer your questions and provide some clarification.
The minimum functionality I want is to be able to enter my domain into the URL of a web browser or app and have it connect to my web server, and for this to work both on the home network and outside of it. For efficiency, it would be nice if connections within the local network were made directly to the web server and not going to the router, i.e. the domain would resolve to the “private” IP (10.0.0.*) and not the “public” (65.59.*.*). Besides efficiency, this also gives the benefits of being able to use the ACME DNS-01 challenge to get valid SSL certificates for domains you only want accessible on the local network and helps with less than ideally written web apps they want to talk to themselves. However, it has been some time since I have had a need for any of these two options.
The functional I currently have is I can enter my domain into the URL, and this works for when the device is outside the home network or in the home network but on Wi-Fi. When the device is on the home network but using a wire Ethernet connection, it does not work and just times out.
I originally thought the router was rewriting the DNS for Wi-Fi connections, as in the web server log it was showing the connection was made from the “private” IP. In my prior router and before adding the local DNS rule, the web server log was showing the “public” IP. However, I no longer have this setup, and I am just going by memory, so I could be wrong here. I have done some testing using the dig command line tool and chrome’s DNS look up (chrome://net-internals/#dns) and my domains are not resolving to the “private” IP with. So, it looks like the new router is doing something else fancy to make the connection, or I am missing something.
So, my issues seem to come down to why can I not connect to the web server when I am on the local network with a wired connection, and why is it working when it’s a Wi-Fi connection.
I have confirmed that the Wi-Fi connection is on the local network. The devices are connected to the right SSID, have a 10.0.0.* IP and I have tested this on a laptop that does not have a cellular modem. Also, the Ignite HomeConnet app show the device is connected to the local network and the web server log is showing the connection was made from a local IP.
For devices with a wire connection, I can confirm they are on the same network. They have a 10.0.0.* IP, the Ignite HomeConnet app show them connected and most importantly I can connect to the web server using the “private” IP, i.e. I can get the test page. It is just being able to connect using the domain name that is not working.
You are correct, I could manually change the DNS server on each individual “client” or add an entry into the host file. This maybe the solution, however it would be nice to have a central solution, and it is kind of disappointing that Shaw remove so much functionality with this router upgrade.
Thank you
