[brza]

I'd like to connect to this computer through the Internet while Im away for a few days. I've got no specific preference as to which protocol, but I think I'm having issues with all of them because of one reason.
Here's what I've done so far:

SSH:
Regardless of my router having the ports forwarded, I cant' connect to myself. It wants to connect to the other computer on our LAN which is the way things are currently setup (as in without port forwarding, theoretically it should assume THAT computer is the target to connect to, which is what happened).

However with port forwarding, same deal. I tried to tell SSH to use a specific port, then I setup the router to take anything from the new port and send it to my SSH port.

FTP:
Although on the LAN i can connect using username@local-ip, over the internet I cannot, even if ports are forwarded.

I dont know why this is happening. I disabled anything that my roomate had setup in terms of port forwarding which I thought may be causing conflicts but I have no idea.

[bradoesch]

Does your router give out static or dynamic local IPs?

[ghporter]

The first two things you need are a fixed (or at least known) Internet IP, and a fixed (or known) LAN IP. Then and only then are ports or protocols important.

Can we assume you have both of these conditions met? And are you sure of them?

[brza]

Originally Posted by ghporter

The first two things you need are a fixed (or at least known) Internet IP, and a fixed (or known) LAN IP. Then and only then are ports or protocols important.

Can we assume you have both of these conditions met? And are you sure of them?

Yes

[brza]

Originally Posted by bradoesch

Does your router give out static or dynamic local IPs?

we have a domain name attached to the dynamic IP so I know to use that

[ghporter]

Ok, now what router are you using? Some routers' configuration systems make it easy to allow incoming connections, others make it hard, and some don't allow it at all. In any case, one option is to put the computer in question into what's called a "DMZ." This basically exposes the computer directly to the Internet through the router. It requires a static IP, which you have. The benefit of this is that you don't need to specify particular ports to forward-there is no processing of the traffic in or out for this particular LAN IP, so it's all available.

[bradoesch]

Originally Posted by brza

we have a domain name attached to the dynamic IP so I know to use that

That's good for your external IP address, but I'm wondering about the local IP addresses your router is giving your local computers. If these IPs are changing then your forwarded ports will break whenever the computers get a new IP from the router.

[brza]

Originally Posted by bradoesch

That's good for your external IP address, but I'm wondering about the local IP addresses your router is giving your local computers. If these IPs are changing then your forwarded ports will break whenever the computers get a new IP from the router.

Nope, our local IPs have remained the same sinec we setup our LAN.

On a recent attempt, if I try to connect to my computer via FTP with the OS X firewall enabled, then the connect-attempt just hangs. If I disable the firewall, I'm told immediately that I can't connect. That's strange...