Hello!  I have a freeware HTTP server software set up on an XP Pro
computer on my LAN (I'm using abyss webserver).  When I type in the
local ip of the server computer with the port number that I set (
http://192.168.0.104:88 ) from another computer on my network, I can
see the home page.  I also have a virtual http server thing set up for
port 88, which i configured on my D-Link router's web interface.  I've
even completely disabled the firewall on computer with FTP server on
it.  However, when I give people outside my LAN
http://my-IP-address:88 it doesn't work!  I feel like I've tried
*everything*, why won't it work!

p.s. if this helps, I'm using Videotron (a Quebec commerical ISP).  is
it possible that they can just *disable* my ability to use my computer
as an http server, regardless of the port I choose??

Yes your ISP could be blocking port 88 as it is a common HTTP port.
Also I see that you are using a private IP address for your internal
network. Because this is an internal address it cannot be routed
outside your network. What you would need to do is a port mapping on
your D-Link router to send any external requests on that port to a
specific IP and port on the inside interface. This is usually referred
to as port mapping or port forwarding.

I have not found port 88 to be "a common http port" in my experience.
I suspect it's much more likely that your ISP is simply blocking most
ports, except for those of a few well-known services.

If the problem is your ISP's firewall, you might want to try ports
8080 or even 8008. These are popular enough alternatives to port 80
that some ISPs will leave them alone (although many ISPs want to
discourage you from running a web server, and they could simply be
blocking most attempts to connect to your, no matter what the port).

In any case, it's always a good idea to try to get your ISP to tell
you exactly what the heck their firewall is doing, so you can more
easily figure out network problems.

First of all you will need Public IP address to access from outside your LAN.
The IP you mentioned 192.168.0.104 is a Pvt. IP which is only
accessible Inside a LAN Network.

Now See if you have a Public IP assigned to your Dlink Router and is
your Dlink router(web Interface) accessible  over the internet.

You could visit www.dnsstuff.com(Ping Tab ) and ping the IP address
assigned to Dlink to see if its accessible from outside.

If its accessible then you should be able to do a NAT from your Dlink
router to your abyss webserver IP on port 88

What NATing does is whoever connects to External IP of Dlins router,
the request is forwarded to Internal IP of abyss webserver IP on port 
88.

I hope this helps you understand the scenario.


Regards
Sriram

You can check some archives here on Linux, which might be of help to you. 
http://unixdesk.blogspot.com

" If the problem is your ISP's firewall, you might want to try ports
8080 or even 8008. "

therealonburk, you RULE.  Thank you so much, I've been spending way
too much time on this, and now *you* have saved me.  excellent work.

-david