Can't seem to access .xip.io URL from my iPhone when running Rails app with Pow

Question

I've tried accessing my Rails app running with Pow (4.3) from my iPhone 5 but I'm running into issues...

If I type my_app.192.168.2.11.xip.io:

• it runs OK on my development machine (i.e. the machine with the 192.168.2.11 LAN address)
• it doesn't find the host on my iPhone

Of course, the 2 machines are on the same LAN and I tried to access my router's administration web server from my iPhone:

• 192.168.2.1 works: I get to my router's admin web server just fine.
• 192.168.2.1.xip.io doesn't work! "The host couldn't be found."

Is there anything special to set up for .xip.io addresses to be resolved properly on the iPhone?

EDIT:

I'm working in a café with internet sharing via my iPhone's 4G network. Now .xip.io IP work on my phone. It should have something to do with my LAN configuration then. I have an ASUS router.

Answer 1

Thanks to this post, I configured my ASUS RT-N56U router to use Google's DNS addresses (i.e. 8.8.8.8) and it works fine now.

Edit: If you are connected via Wifi router, then you need to enable port forwarding to forward a certain port (like 8080) to your laptop.