RMI - NAT - Client within the LAN and outside the LAN

Question

I'm having an RMI server in a machine within a LAN with the private IP 10.XX.XX.XX and a NAT with the public IP 196.XX.XX.XX.
I am using the property: java.rmi.server.hostname to 196.XX.XX.XX. The server is behind a NAT machine.
Everything works fine when the client is outside the LAN, but when the client is within the LAN it fails to lookup the server (of course it would work fine if I ommit the java.rmi.server.hostname property or set it to the server IP, but then I cannot work with a client outside the LAN).
To conclude, my question is how I can work with both clients simultaneously (one within the LAN and one outside the LAN)?

Answer 1

Most firewalls block access from inside the network to the external IP address (10.x.x.x to 196.x.x.x) as this approach could also be used by an attacker masquerading as a local network computer.
You're going to need to make sure that all your Internal computers do not go via your firewall to get to the server.
You can either add a route to the server on the Internal client machines overriding the default routing table or you can use your public domain name instead of the IP address. Then change your internal DNS configuration (if you use one) to point internal users to the local IP address instead.