no this is not normal to me. MT should route request to my local server directly. I was using Netscreen and never have to problem on accessing my own local server through external IP.
I’ve no experience of Netscreen, most of my firewalling has been done with Cisco kit. I can’t recall any instances where this has been the case although maybe I didn’t look hard enough. I’ll test this on the PIX at the office. Probably fair to say though, don’t rely on this working.
MT tech support does not see anything “wrong” with my routing config. and I believe this is a bug in MT. and to me this is quite silly, and also is a quite serious problem.