As per topic, my friend needs a router which supports loopback. Any idea which router that supports this? Cheers !
Hmm.. I think that's an enterprise level feature. I think only Cisco routers (and the like) would have the loopback feature...
If I'm not mistaken, it allows one computer to access a website hosted on another computer on the same local network. Without loopback support, only computers from outside the local network can see that website. For us, this isn't a problem at all because we don't host websites on our own computers. Hence, this feature is only required if you intend to host your own websites on your local networks and want to be able to access them on the same network.
No. You don't need loopback to host any website. You can host a website right now using a regular router (without loopback) and any computer on the Internet can view the website. You just need it if you want to "view" the website from any computer on the local network. Without loopback, computers on the local network cannot access any websites hosted on any computer on a local network.
Spot on Adrian. I helped my friend to set up a knowledge base for his company and it is stored on a server on a LAN. However, it's very troublesome for the staff who are not IT savvy to memorize the PC name for internal access and the WAN domain name (dyndns) for external access. With loopback, local users can enter external WAN address and it will automatically be routed to the LAN PC without going through internet gateway (eventhough it is a WAN address). It's a headache because some 'plugins' for the knowledge base has a 'client' software and in the software - need to configure to put in the server address. Obviously if I put in the external WAN address, it will not be accessible in a LAN environment if using a router which doesn't support loopback. Hopefully you guys understand what I say LOL
Not sure if you can port forward it, but even if that's possible, it would require them to use a special port to access the website, and the server must be setup to open that port for that website. I think loopback is just the simplest, foolproof way for computers on the local network to access websites on another computer on the same local network. Unfortunately, the only logical use for this feature is by businesses looking to host their own websites on their own servers. Therefore, I think you will only find this feature in enterprise-grade routers... with a suitably large price premium.
Because most of the clients are laptops. So when connected to local network, they need to use LAN name (WAN address won't work cause no loopback). After office hours, they bring their laptops home, they need to access office website also, in that case they can't use LAN name anymore, but WAN address. To solve this, all I need is a router with loopback. Kinda simple to test, just enable remote management for your router, and then enter your WAN IP address in the address bar followed by the port number, if you can enter the router page, that means loopback is enabled.
Hmm.. Looks like the loopback feature can be "enabled" by modding consumer-grade routers... either by using DD-WRT or OpenWRT. Check out OpenWRT at OpenWrt
Oh, maybe. Because I'm using a DD-WRT firmware on my router. And I access my computer through a domain from the internet as well as on my own LAN network. I use port forwarding. eg.: mypc.dyndns.com That's how i remote desktop from LAN or Internet via the same address.
Yes, but I don't think it's a "hard" feature. I think most routers can do loopback if the firmware supports the feature. That's why you can DD-WRT many of the routers to enable loopback.
