Are Vodafone providing a solution to NAT issues on games consoles? xbox, ps4, switch

[highlandsports]

Since joining Vodafone and attempting to play my consoles through my 4G LTE device I've come across the various NAT issues everyone is experiencing and have tried various methods to get my devices online with my Vodafone sim (including borrowing kit from my networks team in work for port forwarding and static IP addresses, tethered VPN's, and other wonderful solutions.). Seems that theres no way to address the NAT issues that everyone experiences trying to game over the Vodafone network.

With the introduction of these 4G/5G home broadband solutions (Gigacube) is this something that Vodafone will be addressing? From looking into this issue there appears to be a large amount of people joining Vodafone, realising that they won't support games devices over 4G/5G and then cancel thier contract. I am currently in this exact situation with a new 30day contract. I'm happy with everything else on Vodafone, great signal+plan etc, but not being able to play consoles over a tethered connection is a massive drawback for me where this is required when I'm working away and if I can't get a solution I'll no doubt be leaving Vodafone for another provider.

Surely Vodafone can't just turn a blind eye to this any time someone brings it up? Especially with the Home broadband they are offering (Which if this issue was ironed out I would absolutely be signing up for!)

Cheers

[Mark]

@Ash194 and @RyanK95 We wouldn't want anything to ruin your gaming experiences. So we can look into this and see what we can do to eliminate these issues, contact us privately through Facebook or Twitter and one of our dedicated team will be happy to help 😊

[RyanK95]

Thanks for your reply Mark,

I've tried all the steps you would normally take to open your NAT type and actually spoke with a Vodafone advisor on the phone yesterday. 

Basically I was told there is nothing that can be done- it's just the ways the gigacube is set and if I'm unhappy to return it to my nearest Vodafone store. 
So looks like I will also be giving three a go

[Ash194]

Hi Mark,

like Ryan I have pretty much been told the same thing. Even setting up a VPN in the Gigacube failed to resolve this. Sadly for me the Gigacube is nothing more than a glorified Netflix device.

[3monkey]

Agreed, a pointless device which doesn't do what its competitors devices does and hides what it cannot do so you get trapped into a contract...

[vegtable]

The issue probably has nothing to do with the Gigacube (although there may be issues with that as well). The problem is a network issue. The issue is that you are getting a CGNAT IP address from Vodafone. The WAN IP address you get allocated by Vodafone is a private IP address. Many users get given exactly the same private IP address. The private IP address (that lots os people are sharring) gets mapped onto one public IP address. Any incomming connections attempting to connect to either the private or public IP will fail as there is not a one to one mapping.

The only way around this is to use a tunel over the top like Andrews & Arnolds L2TP (I am using this for some stuff but not games).

No, until Vodafone adopts IPv6 I can't see this getting resolved.

[3monkey]

What about the rest of our gaming experiences as I cannot use my games machines anymore because they won't play online, the NAT type restricted means we cannot joins online games individually let alone as a group or household..

Ive already had my security settings modified by your support staff to allow all content and that made no difference whatsoever.

Can someone contact me to fix my gaming issues?

[highlandsports]

Still an issue for me and I will be switching providers as soon as I get the chance which is the reoccuring theme with people with this issue... Pretty poor from Vodafone especially as they are selling a new home broadband service that bricks gaming services when its a massive industry.

[Ash194]

Has there been a response back from the NOC / planners when this was raised internally some months back? I think it would be really helpful if Vodafone could give us all some time scales in order to avoid being trapped in contracts needlessly. 

[RyanK95]

Yeah, if they could give some info if they are trying to sort it that would help and also let customers know that gaming is restricted to save wasting this time.

I don't know the ins and outs about ipv6 that @vegtable mentioned. But if it could be sorted within an acceptable timescale I would stick with Vodafone as I feel they get the best signal strengths where I am

[vegtable]

It is also worth noting that you don't need to use a Vfe broadband SIM. You can use any regular phone SIM with an unlimited data plan. I just use a phone SIM in my router.

For anybody that is interested in going down the L2TP route - it works well, port forwarding works, you get a static IP address, latency didn't take a big hit. However, the MTU size has to be reduced quite a bit. Having said all that, I get beter bandwidth going through the tunnel (and its associated overheads) than just using the naked connection.....why that is I have no idea that should be unless Vodafone are throttling some traffic a bit? Not tested carefully so might just be a fluke?