How to access a web service behind a NAT?

Question

We have a product we are deploying to some small businesses. It is basically a RESTful API over SSL using Tomcat. This is installed on the server in the small business and i

Answer 1

Is there no way this service can by hosted publicly by you or a hosting provider rather than with the customer?

I had a similar situation when i was developing kiosks. I never knew what type of network environment i'd have to deal with on the next installation.

I ended up creating a PPTP VPN to allow all the kiosks to connect to one server i hosted publicly. We then created a controller web service to expose access to the kiosks that were all connected via the VPN. I'm not sure how familiar you are with VPN's but with the VPN connection i was able to completely circumvent the firewall in front of each kiosk by accessing the kiosk via the VPN assigned IP.

Each kiosk node was incredibly easy to setup once i had a VPN server setup. It also brought management benefits and licensing revenue i originally didn't think about. with this infrastructure i was easily able to roll out services accessible via mobile phones.

Best of luck!