IP / Cache Problems with Broadband

[Mr Fett]

Hi all,

I am experiencing some very weird behavior with our connection at the moment. We have business broadband and opted for 5 static IPs. Of course the sales department lied and gave us DHCP reserved IP addresses but thats another story.

Now - whenever I have surfed the net, remotely accessed another server or whatever - our IP address has always been recognised by the remote system. (for example, go to www.myip.com or www.whatismyip.com to see what the outside world thinks your IP address is).

Recently, I have been unable to run scripts on remote servers or remotely control these servers as part of the security settings rely on IP. I've gone to www.myip.com and for some reason, the outside world now thinks my IP address is 62.254.0.48 or 62.254.0.30 - these are NTL cache servers.

Now - I've done a lookup using this link posted on this thread {http://forum.nthellworld.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9354} and from what I can gather, I get this info (which doesn't make sense to me at all):

Variables Value
REMOTE_ADDR 62.254.0.38
CLIENT_IP
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR 81.106.199.233
REQUEST_METHOD GET
SERVER_NAME romulas.zmnt.co.uk
SERVER_PORT 80
SERVER_PROTOCOL HTTP/1.1
HTTP_USER_AGENT Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)
HTTP_REFERER http://forum.nthellworld.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9354
HTTP_CONNECTION keep-alive


Does anyone have any ideas what could be going on?

Thanks

Bob

[Stuartbe]

Hi and to nthellworld.co.uk

You are being forced through the proxy servers I am afriad.

May I ask what type of remote servers/aplications you are connecting to. If its something like terminal services then the proxy has nothing to do with it. If its web based then its not just the fact that you are being routed via the proxy that is to blame but the fact that the server is not reading the headers correctly.

I am not sure if business connection are suposed to be proxy'd myself. We need an NTL tech to confirm this. They were not proxy'd where I used to work. We had a fibre connectoin to NTL.

[Mr Fett]

Hi Stuartbe,

Thanks for your post - the real problem I am having is with scripts on web servers that are restricted via IP address.

Its very frustrating that my service seems to be moving further and further away from what I bought (a broadband connection with static IPs)!

Thanks again for your help

Bob

P.S. 01001110011010010110001101100101001000000111001101 10100101100111011011100110000101110100011101010111 001001100101

[Stuartbe]

Originally Posted by Mr Fett

Hi Stuartbe,

Thanks for your post - the real problem I am having is with scripts on web servers that are restricted via IP address.

Its very frustrating that my service seems to be moving further and further away from what I bought (a broadband connection with static IPs)!

Thanks again for your help

Bob

P.S. 01001110011010010110001101100101001000000111001101 10100101100111011011100110000101110100011101010111 001001100101

LOL - Yep its a very nice sig isn't it

I think we need to wait for someone from NTL to confirm the proxy server issue.... Are you on a leased line/fibre or cable router ?

[Mr Fett]

Hi Stuartbe,

Erm - we are on a cable router I think (well - we have a cable modem?)

Thanks

Bob

P.S. Is a leased line much more expensive and would it sole my problem?

I would ring NTL and complain bitterly that as a business customer you don't want to be forced to use the transparent caches that are for (I thought) the residential BB service.

I reluctantly put up with them and their problems as a residential customer myself - but there is no way in hell I would ever put up with being forced through them as a business customer.

Much as I hate to say it - if they won't budge I would look at a business ADSL package instead.

[Richard M]

Originally Posted by Mr Fett

Hi Stuartbe,

Thanks for your post - the real problem I am having is with scripts on web servers that are restricted via IP address.

Are you in control of these scripts?
If so, I suggest using the HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR HTTP header as well as the usual ones for IP detection.
If not, then try asking the people who's scripts they are?

I know it's not ideal but it could be a last resort if NTL refuse to remove your proxy.

[Mr Fett]

Thanks for your input all, I don't know what I am going to do.

Pem - I think you are right, I am going to have to look at an alternative. Does anyone know what the costs are for NTL leased lines? Or does anyone know of any other suitable solutions? I don't think we can have ADSL due to location problems.

Richard alas I am not in control of all of the scripts and many are with e-commerce solution providers that will NOT change the setup (especially any security aspect of it).

Thanks

Bob

[Richard M]

Here's the details, I think it will be shockingly expensive though because I've seen BT's [ PDF ] and their products start in the hundreds of pounds.

[Mr Fett]

I think I'm taking my business here: http://www.easynet.net/broadband/

Thank you for your help all!

Will be in touch as ironically I am getting NTL broadband for home in a couple of weeks!