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linuxvirtualboxirc

UnrealIRCD: Connecting to a Virtual Server from the Outside World

World! Or should I say, Hello, LAN! I am extremely new to IRC, and I have several issues with operating UnrealIRCD. Because of the lack of in-depthness in operating the UnrealIRCD server, I can only connect to my local internal address.
I am running Unreal3.2 (UnrealIRCD) on a Linux dist. Ubuntu 14.04 in an 8GB dynamically allocated through a Virtual Machine. I am connecting through "Bridged Adapter".
While I do own a domain through GoDaddy, some have suggested switching the nameservers to freedns.afraid.org and creating a subdomain from there as 'irc.slouds.ca'.
UnrealIRCD however continues not to work from the host computer's external IP address. It does continue to function internally, though. I can connect to it using the virtual machine's local address.

Could somebody please solve this mystery?

When I attempt to connect to it through other machines using the irc.slouds.ca & the host computer's external IP address.
I mainly care about the IP. If I could connect to the machine from an external source, I could use my IP address to communicate with trusted others.
My UnrealIRCD settings do not include SSL. (Maybe they should.)

Perhaps it has something to do with UnrealIRCD.conf? And if so, how do I spot the problem when it gave me no errors?

Solution
    1. Ensure that the bind blocks for unrealircd.conf are bound to the external adaptor, not the internal adaptor ip
    2. ensure that there is no firewall blocking port 6667 and that your hosting provider allows IRC and has this port available
    3. ensure that you only bind to IPs you are allocated, and not to all IPs on the VPS with "*", or your ircd will fail to start properly and/or fail to bind to your address
    4. Point your irc.slouds.ca subdomain at your external public ip address using an A record. If you later add multiple irc servers, add multiple A records to create a simple round robin.
    5. If your server is behind NAT, establish a port forwarding rule on your router to forward port 6667 from the external network into your LAN on the internal IP. This is router specific, but you can find information on this by googling for "port forward " where is the manufacturer and model of your router.

    Let me know if this helps!