If running a grid on a home network, using a router that doesn’t support NAT loopback.

Add two other iptables rules, and use ports 8001:8006 and port 80 if using wiredux

It is possible to trick a router into supporting NAT loopback if it’s not supported by the router.

A good knowledge of Linux iptables is required, and the router MUST be running an embedded Linux such as BusyBox.

First access the router via telnet, then at the routers console, use the commands written below.

NOTE.
replace $INET with your internet IP address or hostname without http://
replace $LANIP with your home servers LAN IP address
replace $GATEWAY with your routers IP address.
replace $OPENSIMPORT(S) with the port or port range your regions are using, ei, 9000 for single port or 9000:9050 for a 50 port range

iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING –dst $INET -p tcp –dport $OPENSIMPORT(S) -j DNAT –to-destination $LANIP

repeat above line and replace tcp with udp

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING –dst $LANIP -p tcp –dport $OPENSIMPORT(S) -j SNAT –to-source $GATEWAY

repeat and replace tcp with udp

This works on my router, and should work on almost all routers that use embedded Linux, but,,,,depending on the router, the lines may stay when power to the router is interrupted, or you may have to re-write the iptables rules everytime power to the router is interrupted.

(see http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Network_Settings)

On the system running the viewer, modify the hosts file to add an entry for the external host name of your region server, listing the internal address. For example, if your external host name is “yadayada.dyndns.org” and the internal address of your region server is 192.168.0.10, you host file line will read “192.168.0.10 yadayada.dyndns.org”.

On a Linux box the file is /etc/hosts. On windows it is typically C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.

This will override the DNS address for yadayada.dyndns.org on your viewer’s machine, so that when the viewer tries to connect to that host, it will reach its local address.

I any case, it will almost always be cheaper to replace the router with one that does loopback than to go to an external hosting provider, although there are many other advantages to a hosted solution.

On the system running the viewer, modify the hosts file to add an entry for the external host name of your region server, listing the internal address. For example, if your external host name is “yadayada.dyndns.org” and the internal address of your region server is 192.168.0.10, you host file line will read “192.168.0.10 yadayada.dyndns.org”.

On a Linux box the file is /etc/hosts. On windows it is typically C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.

This will override the DNS address for yadayada.dyndns.org on your viewer’s machine, so that when the viewer tries to connect to that host, it will reach its local address.

I any case, it will almost always be cheaper to replace the router with one that does loopback than to go to an external hosting provider, although there are many other advantages to a hosted solution.

Windows .NET users:
You MUST have .NET Framework 3.51 which is (3.5 SP-1)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ab99342f-5d1a-413d-8319-81da479ab0d7&displaylang=en
You are better off downloading the FULL PACKAGE of 231 meg. Bootstrapper has some issues depending on version of Windows.

Linux Users:
MONO Version 2.4.x is required. 2.4.2 is stable and used most often, yu will have to use teh appropriate distro for the flavour of Linux you are using.
http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page will assist you but there are numerous other sources and versions.