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

[BandOfBrothers]

Most things are currently locked down in regards to the Vodafone Connect Broadband Router. 

A similar thread -> http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Pay-monthly-products-services/Broadband-Port-Forwarding/m-p/2477045/h...

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Other-manufacturers-OS/Broadband-Port-Forwarding/m-p/2458183/highligh...

[DARYLDCRUZ8]

Thanks for reply,

But I have been through these links they seem to be asking the same question as I asked.

I need to know the sequence of operation to get a port open.

Regards

Daryl

[BandOfBrothers]

You're welcome. 

I do hope you find some resolution to your question regarding the Vodafone router.

In time maybe Vodafone will allow more flexibility with their currently locked down router. 

[mgh128]

Hi,
I hope this helps someone who is struggling to get Port Forwarding / Port Mapping working with the Vodafone Connect router.

The good news is that it does actually work, if you go to http://192.168.1.1, log in, switch to Expert Mode, select the Internet tab, then Port Mapping from the left-hand menu, in between 'Firewall' and 'Static NAT/DMZ'.

You'll now see a table with the following headings:

Local IP Address, Protocol, Local Port, Public Port.

Click on the + button in the bottom-right corner of this table to add a port mapping rule.

For example, if you have a device with an internal address of 192.168.1.10 and you want to be able to connect to it via SSH using the standard port of 22, you might add a row that looks like:

192.168.1.10  TCP  22  22  (and slide the slider to the right to enable)
then press Apply.

To port map VNC / Screen Sharing / Remote Desktop, you could try:
192.168.1.10 TCP 5900 5900

If your internal machine is running a webserver on its port 80, you could try:
192.168.1.10 TCP 80 80

In all cases, remember to slide the slider to the right to enable each rule row, then click Apply.

Testing:

While you're still connected to your Vodafone fibre broadband connection, go to https://www.whatismyip.com/ and make a note of your external IP address.  This is the address that the outside world sees for your Vodafone fibre broadband connection.  All of your internal devices are hidden behind that and the port mapping rules you have just set up will let you selectively connect on specific ports to specific devices.  You use the combination of your external IP address and Public Port to port map through to the corresponding local device on its Local Port.

Now for the Gotcha!
To test whether it's working you *must* test from a *different* network from your Vodafone home broadband network.  This is unlike the situation with some other broadband providers (e.g. Virgin Media) where you can test the external connection from the same network.  So use your phone's 3G/4G connection or a MiFi device - or if you still have access to your old broadband connection for a few overlapping days, test from that.

This is a particular gotcha for anyone migrating from Virgin Media cable broadband to Vodafone Fibre Broadband.  On Virgin Media, you *can* use the external address when connected to their network in order to test the port mappings or connect via VNC / Screen Sharing to another local machine.  On Vodafone Fibre Broadband, that does not work and you *must* use the internal IP address and Local Port number when connecting internally.  If you aren't aware of this gotcha, you might feel that port mapping is not working correctly - and unfortunately, the tech support team at Vodafone are not very experienced in giving helpful advice about port mapping problems.  I am going to forward them this message tomorrow, to help them all give better advice, now that I've got mine working - and also to prompt them to ask the customer the question about whether they are testing the port mapping from a different network.  If they're trying to test / connect using the external address from the same network, it will look like it doesn't work.

[Neo34]

I've been struggling with this since yesterday when I switched from BT to Vodafone and, I think, for the first time ever I've found your answer posted just a couple of hours before I finally decided to do some online research! :-))

Many thanks for this. Using my DDNS domain name on the local network also worked fine with the old BT router, so my assumption was it would also with Vodafone Connect.

[mgh128]

Glad to hear that it was already of use to someone.

I use port mapping to connect back to a raspberry pi and to a Mac Mini that is working as a PVR, using an eyeTV freeview tuner, so I can record various BBC nature documentaries etc. even when away from home - so that's why I needed to get port mapping working again.

I'd read various posts about people connecting a second ethernet WiFi router in series and using the Vodafone Connect device purely as a modem, with WiFi switched off - but it looks like it's unnnecessary for port mapping purposes - it's just that you need to be outside of your own Vodafone Fibre Broadband home network to test that the port mapping is working correctly.

The easiest test is probably to set up a webserver on a local machine, e.g. a raspberry pi running Apache or Mac running Web Sharing, with just a very basic web page and map port 80 to that device, then test it using your phone on a 3G / 4G connection to check that you can access the page you set up on the internal machine.  If that works, then everything else should work too - and it doesn't seem to matter whether the internal machine is connected wirelessly (WiFi) or wired to the router's LAN ports.  Both seem to work.

I've also phoned the resolution team at Vodafone today and passed on the info in my previous post, so hopefully they will now be better briefed to assist other new customers who have switched from other ISPs where you could test port mapping from inside the local network - and to at least ask them to check with the customer about whether they are testing from an IP address outside of the Vodafone Fibre Broadband home network.

[antausten]

Will the port forward be the same for an IP camera ? As I used to have it working with my EE router but the Vodafone one it won't work and I'm not sure what to do as the router IP address changes every so often ?

[mgh128]

Yes, port forwarding should also work for IP cameras, though you'll need to check which ports need to be forwarded for the specific camera you're using - check the instruction manual.  Do use a different network to check whether the port forwarding is working correctly, e.g. using the 3G/4G connection on your phone or a MiFi device or a publc WiFi network e.g. at a public library.

I find that the public IP address for my Vodafine fibre broadband is fairly stable over time.   However, you can use services such as no-ip.com or dyn.com/dns  to automatically maintain a regular record of your dynamic IP address against a static hostname.  

Alternatively, if you have access to a web hosting service with a MySQL database and PHP scripts, you can set up a simple script to automatically make a web request every 30 minutes from a computer or Raspberry Pi on your home network and let the script on the web hosting service log the IP address of the request in a database.  I can provide example scripts if that would help.  Just ask.

[OddJobMan]

Hi I've been trying to get port forwarding warking for some time now and have does as you suggested in your earllier post but when checking the ports they are still closed? could it be a faulty router or bad firmware?

any help appreciated.