Broadband Port Forwarding

[DARYLDCRUZ8]

Hi

Could I have some clear instructions as to how I can set up port forwarding on my vodafone connect router,I have got a static IP address.

regards

Daryl

[OddJobMan]

Yes I tried from my mobile over 4g so not on the same network also yes most of the 10 devises I have on my network have fixed IP address. I found out last night after posting that there was a firmware update available so I have now updated the firmware and in port farwarding there is now an extra port trigger option. see attached picture. Yes I can connect with my devise locally just not from outside my local network.

Appreciate you help.

[mgh128]

The screenshot you attached looks correct.  I haven't even set up Port Triggering and can connect to an internal device via VNC just using the Port Mapping settings.  I have equivalent settings to these for my VNC connection, but on a different port number.
I note that your application is using port 21, which is typically used for FTP - though that shouldn't be a problem unless it conflicts with another internal device using port 21 - in which case you'd need to use a different external port number, e.g. external port 8021 mapped to port 21 on that other device if you wanted to be able to FTP to that other device.  Did you have any success connecting to some of your other internal devices from an outside network?  

[OddJobMan]

The pic was just an exampl showing how the ports where setup as they were all cleared when I updated the firmwhare. I have to forward about 10 different ports and did not do any others untill I'm sure I can access them.

I only need to access my CCTV and file server from outside my own network most others are just to enable remote control of my home media server with uses P2P so no ports need forwarding. Can you reconmend a port checker that I could use, maybe the one I'm using is not reliable http://portchecker.co/ as you see its a browser base checker but seems to work fine on my desktop or mobile.

[mgh128]

I can't recommend any specific port checking software / apps from my own experience - I haven't used any.  

I did find this article: http://osxdaily.com/2014/05/20/port-scanner-mac-network-utility/   If you have access to a Mac, there is a port scanning feature built into the operating system - the article explains how to use it.

Alternatively, if you're using Linux, you can use the netcat command - see this article for some tips: http://linoxide.com/linux-command/netcat-port-scanner/

If you're using Windows, this article might help: https://techtalk.gfi.com/scan-open-ports-in-windows-a-quick-guide/

[OddJobMan]

@mgh128

Thanks for the info I've had a read though and tried a couple of things but still no ports open . Have change my router many times over the years and have never had a problem in reporting the new router. From what I've heard you cannot use any other routers with Vodafone so looks like as soon as this contract finishes I will be moving to an ISP that allows its users to do what they want with their own broad band.

Thanks for the help it was appreciated.

[mgh128]

I'm just a Vodafone Fibre Broadband customer - not Vodafone staff 
I hope the info was helpful.  I was previously with VirginMedia and switched to Vodafone Fibre Broadband in early December 2016.  I was initially struggling with port forwarding until I realised that (unlike Virgin Media), the client device used for testing the port forwarding needs to be on a different network - not on the same home broadband network.  That's why I originally posted the info, to try to help other customers who, like myself, were coming from other ISPs where it didn't matter whether the client device was on the same network or not - and who might also be struggling getting Port Forwarding working.

I'm not sure what else to suggest - other than try scanning the ports of the target machine using its internal IP address, testing from another machine on the internal network.  I've just done that, using my laptop to connect to another Mac that has port 5900 open.  When doing the test, both machines were on the same Vodafone Fibre Broadband home network and I tested the internal address of the target machine (e.g. a 192.168.1.x  address).
If the expected ports are closed on the target machine when scanning using the internal address, then you might need to open up the ports on the target machine.  If they're open when scanning its internal address but appear closed when scanning from an external network, using the external IP address, then it is more likelt to be the broadband router blocking it - although your settings looked OK.

Do also check in case your external IP address has changed.
Go to your router's web page at http://192.168.1.1/main.cgi?page=app.html#cat=status-and-support and check the IP address is what you're using.  Fairly infrequently, the external IP address of your home network will change, e.g. when the router reboots - so it's just possible that it changed its IP address and you didn't notice - which meant you might have been trying to connect to some other random customer's home network instead of your own.
 
I'm using a Vodafone Connect router that was supplied by Vodafone in early December 2016, model number HHG2500, with Firmware version: 5.4.8.1.291.1.30.1.6 and I'm able to use port forwarding to do a VNC connection back to a Mac on my home network.  

[OddJobMan]

@mgh128

Sorry for the late reply been very busy last couple of days, all ports are open to internal network there only blocked from outside of the network so can only be the router have even tried turning off the firewall in the router and still no good, thought thats what port forwading was for to bypass the firewall so something is not right

So thanks agian for your help.

[Vextah]

Did you get this issue sorted?

I'm having the same problems, forwarded all ports correctly to fixed allocated ip's, yet my programmes / servers (game servers) are inaccessible from outside my local network. Is this vodafone themselves disallowing this feature of their vodafone fiber router? If so i'm still within my cancellation period and will switch back to my original provider.

[paulcormack]

I just setup an ssh internal and checked it works ok.

When checking you have to make sure if you are using the WAN address you need to be on the wan - you CANNOT be connecte internal and use the wan address to come back in.

So I setup a ssh server on 22, setup a port forward, and then used my mobile on 4g to check I could come in on the wan address.  To connect to it internally I connected to WiFi and used the internal address for the device running ssh and it worked fine.   I also checked http, telnet and ftp - providing I am on an external network with my device I can connect to the WAN and port is forwarded.   Internally, obviously, no port forwarding is needed and you should use the internal ip.

Firmware version

5.4.8.1.291.1.30.1.6

Bootloader version

5.4.8.1.160.13.75

P

[mgh128]

For me, it looks as though port mapping is still working correctly and not being blocked by Vodafone's network nor by my Vodafone Connect router (obtained from Vodafone late November 2016).

I can confirm that as of this morning (10:30am, 26 Feb 2016) I am still able to successfully do port forwarding / port mapping from an external network (using a laptop connected to a MiFi device on Three cellular network) to the external IP address of my Vodafone Fibre Broadband home network to make a VNC (screen sharing) connection back to a computer connected only via WiFi to my Vodafone Connect router.  

No problems with that, except that from time to time the external IP address of the Vodafone Fibre Broadband home network will change, so if you are away from home for a while, you'll need to make use of a dynamic DNS service (see previous posts) or create your own by setting up a script on a home machine that makes a web request every 30 minutes to some service on the web that logs its current external address in a database or file so that you can view it from a specific page on the web (which you might want to password-protect).  
My external address is currently in the range 90.254.185.xxx and has been at that address for the last 3 weeks and was previously on a stable address in the range 90.255.168.yyy for around 6 weeks.

I have provided detailed instructions about how I achieved this in previous posts on this thread.  Do make sure that you click the 'Apply' button and do make sure that you're testing from an external network.  Unlike the configuration for Virgin Media cable broadband, testing a port forwarding connection to the external IP address of the home network from a device inside the home network will appear not to work - that's why you must test from an external network such as a mobile phone using 3G/4G and not using your home WiFi network for its data connection.

Good luck!