IP Forwarding tool?

[ddrueding]

I'm sure this is a common situation...

I currently have several servers at my current office, many DNS records are pointed to the IP address here. I will be moving all the servers to a new location whose IP is known. In order to avoid downtime while DNS switching/replicating is done, I'd like to forward all traffic from my current IP to the new IP.

Both IP addresses are live and external, I don't need any filtering at all, and the added bandwith of incoming/outgoing is not a concern. I'll be able to dedicate a computer to just this.

TIA

David

 

[Handruin]

Would this work?
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q230082

 

[ddrueding]

Handruin,

I'm afraid not, that is for forwarding traffic though a computer (between NICs) to machines on the other side. These IPs are both out on the internet.

Let me try to clarify:

I currently have my webserver at IP address 65.254.452.12 on a DSL line in Salinas, CA.
I am having a T-1 line installed with IP address 25.164.854.12 in Monterey, CA.

When the T-1 is completed, I will place a call to my ISP to have the DNS changed. This will take at least 2 days. In the meantime, I'd like to be able to take the same server I have here in Salinas over to Monterey and hook it up on the T-1. However, until the DNS change completes, querys will still be going to my DSL's IP. I want a way to forward all this traffic back over the internet to the other office.

I haven't been able to figure anything out yet... :frusty:

 

[Handruin]

Is it only port 80 HTTP that needs to be forwarded? I know you said all traffic in your first post, but it can't hurt to ask. If it's just the website, maybe you could use your temporary machine as a redirect to the new IP address?

I don't know what the correct method is in this situation. We went through the same thing here when we moved from burst.net to voxtreme.com. I had to check both addresses for e-mail until the change occurred. I've read that sometimes you can change the TTL to a significantly lower value to help propagation, but not all DNS servers respect the Time to Live value.

 

[ddrueding]

I'm afraid it needs to be all ports, or at least HTTP and SMTP.

I can't affford to be down for a day, and building/maintaining 2 exchange servers is a real PITA. Especially when you need to migrate the data :x

 

[P5-133XL]

You need to run dupicate web servers untill the DNS change has been successfully percolated throughout the internet: one on the old IP and one on the new IP so that any external internet DNS servers can route to a valid web server regardless of its state.

 

[ddrueding]

You need to run dupicate web servers untill the DNS change has been successfully percolated throughout the internet: one on the old IP and one on the new IP so that any external internet DNS servers can route to a valid web server regardless of its state.

Exactly what I'm trying to avoid. So there is no way to simply redirect the traffic?

 

[P5-133XL]

Not that I know of because most of the delay is not your hosting company but rather how long it takes for the DNS change to percolate throughout the internet. Untill all the DNS servers everywhere have your new DNS address, there will always be the potential for people that will be using DNS servers listing your old adresses. Any 3rd party will still have the same problem.

You need to maintain the old web server or I suppose you could replace the old web server with another server and a custom application that actually forwarded the requests to your new server. 3rd parties are going to have a problem, unless it is your ISP, because the requests would not be normally routed to them. Your ISP could, in theory, offer the service of IP forwarding. However, I don't normally associate that as a normal service offered by ISP's

 

[ddrueding]

...or I suppose you could replace the old web server with another server and a custom application that actually forwarded the requests to your new server...

Yes, this is exactly what I am looking for! Help?

 

[P5-133XL]

maybe? I did a google search for "IP forwarding freeware" and got Mind Fusion Forwarding server I've never tried it so I don't know if it will do the job but the description sounds like it.

 

[ddrueding]

I'm afraid that program has been removed from their main site, and the download is broken.

 

[ddrueding]

Thanks for the help guys, but I answered my own stupid question....

Smoothwall, go into the networking->port forwarding portion, and enter the external address instead of the internal one. Just tested it, works great.

 

[blakerwry]

that's interesting, i was about to point out that apache natively has the ability to foward to another server... for both temp and permanent situations. It would fit perfectly for your web needs.

Since you need more than web I would assume that IPtables/IPchains could do this very easily and is probably what smoothwall uses to forward in your situation.

 

[ddrueding]

Well, considering I'm not a Linux guy, I'm glad that smoothwall (and it's dead-easy interface) can do it.