When a new SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) router is installed, it often comes with a default firewall setting that blocks unsolicited inbound traffic. If customers are unable to access the company-hosted public website, it is likely because the router is not correctly forwarding incoming requests to the web server inside the network.
Port Forwarding allows external requests on a specific port (such as port 80 for HTTP or port 443 for HTTPS) to be redirected to the internal web server that is hosting the website. Without this configuration, the router will drop incoming traffic by default, making the website inaccessible to external users.
Why Not the Other Options?
* B. Firmware updates - While keeping the router's firmware updated is good practice, it is not directly related to resolving this issue unless there was a known bug preventing port forwarding.
* C. IP filtering - IP filtering is used to allow or block traffic from specific IP addresses. Unless the router is incorrectly blocking all external traffic, this would not be the best solution.
* D. Content filtering - Content filtering is used to restrict access to certain websites or categories of content, typically for internal users. It does not impact inbound traffic to a company-hosted website.
Solution:
The technician should configure port forwarding on the SOHO router, directing HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443) traffic to the internal web server's private IP address.