problem with sticky static and 2wire routers

[gentlebenus]

OK so I am having some wierd intermittent issues with remotely connecting to machines through an applictaion.

This is the setup:

I have 2 salons and that I am networking over the net. both salons have ranges of sticky static IP's allocated by AT&T. Behind the routers are one mac, they are both running OSX(lastest updates and all). No other routers or machines.The application that is performing the remote connection is STX( Salon Transcripts). The connectivity is intermittent. At times I can connect and at others I cannot. currently I can ping one and not the other but cannot connect the one I can ping. So either way I am not sure what the problem is. Is it my ISP, the firewall or simply the application. Currently both firewalls are set to DMZ plus mode. The support people at AT&T said this will allow the necessary traffic to come through. Not sure if I need to give more info. This could be vague.

The IP's are sticky static. Each salon has it's own range. The router has one and the machine has one. I have been able to establish connectivity with both at the same time so not sure where I am going wrong.

Any help or advice is always appreciated.

Cheers

[YeOldeStonecat]

I've done a salon...different application they ran though, the only port it needed to allow the salons website to plug into the application for reservations was a customized web port (not port 80..but 8083 or something odd like that).

I see you mention that you DMZ'd a computer (or both)...that would normally make me panic. But you mention MAC OS. I really don't work on MACs anymore....I've never had to deal with them from a security standpoint, I don't know how vulnerable they are. If someone stuck a Windows machine on a public IP with no firewall, without properly locking it down...I could get access to it..right down to the entire OS drive, registry, everything. I don't know if MACs are similar..but I'm guessing so. I'm not talking about just vulnerabilities...I'm talking about access from a network point of view..access to files, etc. You have credit card info, customer/client info, etc etc. MUST secure that. I would still recommend opening/forwarding only the bare minimum ports necessary for this application to fetch what it needs to.

2Wire routers....I hate them with a passion. I have a lot of clients that use SBC/AT&T for their DSL, I always throw away the units that they get...and use plain Speedstream modem/bridges, with my own routers.

Now...I'm guessing your setup....the main "server" is in one location, and the second office would be considered the satellite office. Are you intending to build a VPN tunnel in between them (my recommended approach)...or just open/forward ports necessary for this application to fetch info across the internet from the second location?