Help with Port Forwardding or Port Mapping take your pick on name

[Nimras]

Right I have tried my best to get Vodafone to give me a list of what ports they in their infinite wisdom decided to reserve as they shouldn't need to.

I am using the Vodafone Wi-Fi Hub Model: THG3000

I have thanks to this forum found 1 port reserved but that's not much help, what's worse is 1st and 2nd line support do not even know what Port Forwarding/Mapping is at all meaning they have no clue what you talk about.

So do anyone know what ports are reserved so I can work around them?

We have:

IPV4 TCP: 1 - 65535 ports of which at least 2 is reserved port 22 being 1 of them.

IPV4 UDP: 1 - 65535 ports of which at least 1 is reserved no idea which.

IPV6 TCP: 1 - 65535 ports of which at least 2 is reserved port 22 being 1 of them. I'm guessing same ports as IPV4 but this being Vodafone you never know.

IPV6 UDP: 1 - 65535 ports of which at least 1 is reserved no idea which. I'm guessing same ports as IPV4 but this being Vodafone you never know.

I was told by 2nd line support that no one ever needs or ask about this from a person who had no clue what Port Forwarding/Mapping is, I am very concerned that neither 1st or 2nd line support know what this is at all and don't even understand simple explanations about this. I am hoping to speak to a 2nd line support Manager that either can give me the list of reserved ports or raise it for 3rd who might know.

Having previously been working as 1st, 2nd, 3rd line support for a ISP, and this is the first time in all the countries and ISP's I have used that reserve a single port or more. Simply put as a IT man I find it unacceptable that your support service is unable to provide information that should be simple to supply.

But this is appalling service and why they reserve ports which aren't needed if they do their job right is beyond me.

I found the port 22 thanks to this user and post, which also states they don't get why 1st line can't send you to 2nd or 3rd for something they reserved and hence blocked you out of using: https://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Other-broadband-queries/Port-forwarding-port-22-cannot-be-configured...

[Nimras]

So after wasting my time with 2nd line support even talking to a Manager and them talking to 3rd line did I learn that they have no clue how things work, they couldn't give me a list of ports, claimed port's shouldn't be reserved yet they are.

Then when trying to explain that Vodafone put the firmware and settings on the router and hence controlling what ports is useable I was told this was impossible, as they can't do that, after being sent to a customer care rep who then hung up on me very rudely. This customer care rep continued the company lie about no port's being reserved or supported or listed and hence couldn't help, I must admit I am disappointed. I decided to do the only option left to me, I went through TCP, UDP and ICMPv6 manually and as you can see below it was not fun result will be posted at the end after the picture.

Results on my router at least is as follow

IPv4 TCP Reserved ports:

1.  22
2.  7.547

IPv4 UDP Reserved Ports:

1.  5.065
2.  7.547

IPv6 TCP same as IPv4

IPv6 UDP same as IPv4

IPv6 ICMPV6 Protocol: 7.547

Why they could or would not provide this and are not willing to do their job I can't answer but there you go for anyone looking that's my finding. Hope it helps.

My THG3000 use Firmware: 19.4.0551-3269082

[Cynric]

To hopefully reduce your angst a little, VF don't do IP6 at all, so no need to worry about those ports.

I suspect if VF are blocking well-known ports then you may be stuck having to set all your devices to use a high number port. This may be more secure anyway as it's well known that common low number ports are probed all the time by "bad actors".

[Nimras]

Yes I noticed no IPv6 which I find lacking.

But the practice of blocking 2 ports on TCP and UDP which aren't even that low is not common practice by anyone yet VF does, and on another topic someone said on a older firmware they could use the port 22 that is blocked for me.

So yeah bad practice, bad service, and silly thing to do but I at least found the ports.

[Jayach]

Not that I understand these things, but PORT 7547 is used by the TR-069 Protocol (CWMP - customer-premises WAN management protocol) which they use to remotely configure our routers, so that is probably why it is blocked.

I imagine it's the same on most ISP supplied routers.

[Anonymous]

Shock horror, they never suggested that you split the SSIDs????  There have been times on these boards when I wouldn't have been surprised if splitting the SSIDs had been suggested as a way to bring back recently departed pets!

Personal opinion: The supplied router is pretty crippled, if you need more functionality then you'll need to look at using your own equipment!

*Keeping it short and sweet, because it doesn't look like any myth busting is needed

[Nimras]

"Personal opinion: The supplied router is pretty crippled, if you need more functionality then you'll need to look at using your own equipment!"

The thing is as mentioned before this is the first time ever a supplied router has a port reserved.

Sky removed my ability to tell which DNS I wanted to use, so I had to manually tell my computers but I had full access to every single 65.535 ports lol.

VF gives me access to the DNS but reserves ports.

[Anonymous]

The thing with reserved ports is: that not only can you work around them but from a security point of view, using non-standard ports offers benefits!

[Nimras]

Actually you can't always work around ports, take several of the EA games that has specific ports they will not allow you to work around them, there are forums for this.

But in many cases sure, but the fact you have to work around something that shouldn't be a problem is a issue, VF has no reason to block or reserve ports taking away your usage of them, non it is just silly from every single IT perspective you use.

Nothing we can do about it but they should provide a list of the ports and not hang up and lie to their customers.

[Nimras]

"Not that I understand these things, but PORT 7547 is used by the TR-069 Protocol (CWMP - customer-premises WAN management protocol) which they use to remotely configure our routers, so that is probably why it is blocked.

I imagine it's the same on most ISP supplied routers."

No ISP I have ever been with in all the countries I lived in has reserved a single port.

When I worked for the biggest ISP in Europe did we never reserve a port as we didn't need to, when ever we needed access did we just use any port not in use even if the owner has set it for usage.

They do not need to reserve ports at all, it is bad practice even worse is they actually won't tell you and lie to you.

[Nimras]

I imagine it's the same on most ISP supplied routers."

No ISP I have ever been with in all the countries I lived in has reserved a single port.

When I worked for the biggest ISP in Europe did we never reserve a port as we didn't need to, when ever we needed access did we just use any port not in use even if the owner has set it for usage.

They do not need to reserve ports at all, it is bad practice even worse is they actually won't tell you and lie to you.