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Until recently I had always assumed that accessing the external IP address from within the LAN would go out to the internet and then back unless specially configured in the router. Apparently, if it works at all then it means that the router is re-routing the request internally.
Because of my original misunderstanding I got into the habit of accessing servers on my network by using the local IP when I'm on the same network and by the external IP (actually through a noip hostname) when I'm not on the same network.
Now that I know that using the external IP from the local network doesn't route the traffic externally, I was thinking about always using the external IP regardless of where I'm connecting from. Is there any reason that I wouldn't want to do this? Does the answer change at all if I'm using a hostname rather than the IP address directly (possibly because of having to lookup the IP from the name or something)?
Pak
Posted 2015-01-01T22:00:36.617
Reputation: 379
1Not all routers have the functionality, or if they do, it isn't always turned on. If you are on your own network, and you know it is present and on, then it doesn't hurt to use the external. Hostnames are another ballgame - and you're right, it does have to do with resolution. Resolving hostnames (such as shortnames) on an internal network is very different than resolving anything pointing to an external IP. – MaQleod – 2015-01-01T22:37:50.847