Web address fails to resolve with static IP on Ubuntu Server 12.04

Question

Running Ubuntu Server 12.04.1 LTS in VirtualBox on a mid-2009 MacBook Pro.

I've been using no-ip.com to keep my router's dynamic address up to date and just set up a free host name with them, hoping to get Ubuntu Server online with that name. Downloaded their update client without problems, and updates seem to be working just fine.

Next steps:

1. Set up static IP address on Ubuntu Server.
2. Go into router settings and forward ports 22 and 80 to my computer's static IP.
3. Check functionality with ping and by trying to access the site by name.

I found a lot of information online about setting up static IP addresses with 12.04, but where some sites said to modify resolv.conf, others said that this was an outdated method and that one should just add dns-nameservers xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx to /etc/network/interfaces. Following the latter method, I gave my computer the static address of 192.168.0.200 and modified the router's DHCP range to end at 192.168.0.199. Restarting the network with

sudo ifdown eth0

sudo ifup eth0

I confirmed that the computer retained the static IP (at least for time being) and killed all dhcp processes.

I then set up port forwarding for ports 22 and 80 and pinged the gateway, computers on my own LAN, and Google's 8.8.8.8 without issue, with ssh from a home computer also working fine. The noip client continues to update as well.

The problem occurs when I try to access the server using the name registered with no-ip.com. The browser tries to load it for a good long while before declaring that it "Failed to open page" because the page was not responding.

Any clue as to what's going on? I don't have a firewall on the server side, and I don't think that the router's is preventing access. One odd thing is that Ubuntu Server does not show up under the router's "Device Table" even though the server is clearly connected to the router.

Stumped!

Answer 1

Solution found: I was testing the connection to my domain name from my home network, which the computer is setup on. No-ip support informed me that external to the network everything was operating just fine and that to access the server within, I had to use the LAN IP address.