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Thread: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

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    Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    Hey all. Hope this is the right place to post this, is a big forum

    I am having an absolute nightmare of a time trying to open a port for utorrent.

    Specs: Safecom SBRU10100 connected to Motorola SB5101E SURFboard Cable Modem on Virgin 10MB

    Setting up a static IP and opening the port in Router config is simple, But...

    1. The port only shows as open in uTorrent or with one of the online check things randomly, more often than not its closed.

    2. Setting up the static ip/opening the port seems to grind my internet to a hault at random intervals, requiring a reset of Router and Modem.
    (Seem to be getting alot of this since the supposed 10MB 'upgrade' but it only lasts a few minutes and doesnt always need a reset when router is at factory defaults and windows is handling my IP address). When the Modem is reset after this has happened, the 'online' light seems to take an age to stop blinking, its a joke tbh, often need to reset the thing half a dozen times!

    I've read a few places my Modem might be acting as a router? How would I go about figuring that out? I have no manuals and cant find any specs.. Only thing I do know is the Modem log shows hundreds of nasty looking 'error' and 'critical' entries all dating from 01-01-1970 for some ungodly reason!!! Router might be a bargain basement job I paid a tenner for some years ago, but its never given me a single problem.

    Only other thing I can think might be usefull is I havent touched Firmware.. Because I havent got a clue where to grab it from and tbh, it stinks to me like its my Modem.

    Hopefuly someone can shed some light?

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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    Thanks for posting. And yep, been through that routine so many times now I do it in my sleep.

    One thing I forgot to mention earlier which seems important.. The Router has uPNP, with it enabled, no ports show as open when checked. Enabling and/or disabling it has no effect when the port is mapped manually.

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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by mehmeh View Post
    Only thing I do know is the Modem log shows hundreds of nasty looking 'error' and 'critical' entries all dating from 01-01-1970 for some ungodly reason!!!
    Unix Epoch, I don't think your cable modem would be acting as a router, can you see what ip the cable modem gives your router?

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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by moogle View Post
    Unix Epoch, I don't think your cable modem would be acting as a router, can you see what ip the cable modem gives your router?
    I didnt think so either, but it is deffintly acting as its own DHCP for some stupid reason, found the option in its config after google gave me the idea... Will try turning that off in a second, as I'm guessing that could be conflicting with the DHCP on my router and when I have setup a static IP undermining it as far as forwarding ports go.. Grrr

    To answer your question.. I'm not entirely sure, hopefully the below image will help, blocked out some numbers as I dont want everyone on the interwebs hax0ring me


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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by mehmeh View Post
    To answer your question.. I'm not entirely sure, hopefully the below image will help, blocked out some numbers as I dont want everyone on the interwebs hax0ring me
    Don't worry I know the starting octet is 82 or 81 (Am I close? )
    Could it be that the router is messing up? Do the cable modems from VM have router capability?
    Try forwarding a known port that is open on your pc and try connecting to it with telnet and see if it works. Also have you checked if uTorrent isn't changing the ports randomly?

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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by moogle View Post
    Don't worry I know the starting octet is 82 or 81 (Am I close? )
    Could it be that the router is messing up? Do the cable modems from VM have router capability?
    Try forwarding a known port that is open on your pc and try connecting to it with telnet and see if it works. Also have you checked if uTorrent isn't changing the ports randomly?
    LOL your not far off.. Funny thing is the first version of that piccy had the end numbers chopped off, then I relised everyone would laugh at me...

    I don't really know enough about networking etc to rule the Router out, but apart from this issue, its never put a foot wrong. Google is full of complaints about Motorola Surfboards in general.. Ones that caught my eye mentioned the gateway crashing when using bittorrent.. Also found a community around something called haxorware, but as it aint my modem to break...

    I have configured uTorrent to use a specific port in the 5XXXX range. Interestly the uPNP status page in router config shows uTorrent using the port (TCP & UDP), but still says it isnt open. canyouseeme.org comfirms this.

    VM seem to be a law unto themselves, so no reason to doubt their equipment is any different. Problem is the Modem lacks anykind of real settings. Just got a status page, very basic setup page with an option for DHCP, region and frequency and some logs, so I really have no idea and/or little control over what its doing.

    Having never used Telnet I wouldnt have a clue where to start sorry. But I think I get what your saying, open a few ports and see if the internet can see them?

    Thanks for the continued help.

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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    No probs, telnet is a tool that will just connect to an ip and port using the TCP protocol, just like your browser does etc. It's not important that you can't use it anyway. Yeah I was just saying to test if other ports work, could it be VM blocking P2P stuff? I doubt it but it could be that the modem can't handle it. What I would say trying is, if no one else is on your internet (sharing the net is the main reason for the router, or it could be wifi) try direct plugging in to the cable modem, it has only 1 ethernet port or usb connection right? Try uTorrent on that, if it works flawlessly and you can be seen using the checker tool then it would rule out the actual cable modem thats the problem and then you'd have to concentrate on fixing the router as to why it works sometimes and fails other times. It could be that it gets overloaded with connections and drops those packets to those ports.

    Hopefully some other users will post if they have other troubleshooting methods, I never had the cable modems long enough to know much about them but I'm trying!

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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    VM has gone down so much recently, my days of cable modems may soon be over too. I apprieate you taking the time to help.

    AFIAK VM don't block traffic to specific ports or anything, they just hammer you with STM if you dare to try and use the connection your paying for. I could never get ports to open on the 2MB package either, but when I had that, for one I didnt care as the speed increase would have been marginal and I didnt have the constant issues with connection "hickups" and dropping...

    Will try a direct connection now, gonna be fun, as the lead is about 47foot short of reaching my comp LOL!

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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by mehmeh View Post
    VM has gone down so much recently, my days of cable modems may soon be over too. I apprieate you taking the time to help.

    AFIAK VM don't block traffic to specific ports or anything, they just hammer you with STM if you dare to try and use the connection your paying for. I could never get ports to open on the 2MB package either, but when I had that, for one I didnt care as the speed increase would have been marginal and I didnt have the constant issues with connection "hickups" and dropping...

    Will try a direct connection now, gonna be fun, as the lead is about 47foot short of reaching my comp LOL!
    Ahh I was just exploring all options, if VM don't block it then we can rule testing that one out
    Pity about the testing eh, if only you had a spare 47ft ethernet cable

    Now I can see where laptops would come in handy

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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by moogle View Post
    Ahh I was just exploring all options, if VM don't block it then we can rule testing that one out
    Pity about the testing eh, if only you had a spare 47ft ethernet cable

    Now I can see where laptops would come in handy
    Ye of little faith I knew there was a reason other than it being purdy that I bought a Lanbox, (even if it does weigh a tonne and is twice as wide as a proper case!)

    Anywho... Direct connection works fine, uTorrent checker says the port is open, as does canyouseeme. But saying that, you only need to forward a port when your going through a router, no? I am beginning to be convinced the problem has to be the connection between the modem and router?, as router is happy to map ports on uPNP or manually and modem is happy to open all its ports to the world when the router isnt involved... grrr Would be so much easier if you could buy a combined modem/router like you lucky ADSL lot.

    Just for kicks, I'll go through the portforward.com process again now with the modem DHCP off.

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    The King of Vague Steve B's Avatar
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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    When you run uTorrent, do you limit the upspeed?

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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve B View Post
    When you run uTorrent, do you limit the upspeed?
    Nope, running default settings (xx/512k). Oddily upload is ok, Easily rocket straight upto 47kbps on most stuff. Download is terrible though, rarely connect to more than a handfull of seeds or peers and when I know I should be hitting 800-1200kbps, I'm lucky to sit at 300-500kbps.

    Gone through again just now, setup static IP, forwarded a random port and just ran a check.. Results from a couple of different checking sites...

    The plot thickens, 10minutes ago the result was...

    Error: I could not see your service on xx.xxx.xx.xx on port (5xxxx)
    Reason: Connection timed out

    But figured I'd check again as I left comp and this message for 10minutes in search of food and three different sites now report the port as open.

    Will see how it goes for a few hours, but usually everything grinds to a hault and the only way to fix it is by going back to "obtain IP address automatically" and a reset of modem and router. Say usually, this time the modem DHCP is off and through blind luck managed to grab the latest firmware off the safecom website and update to that. Guess we'll soon see...

    *EDIT* Port is now reporting as closed again.. No wait, checked before submitting this edit and now its open again!!! Something seriously weird is going on...
    Last edited by mehmeh; 26-10-2008 at 05:05 AM.

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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    Well good news is the internet hasnt ground to a hault. I gave uTorrent a 4GB download and it managed it. Bad news ports are still not reporting as open consistently. Last night it seemed to be hit and mess, see edit above ^^

    This afternoon I am getting...

    Error: I could not see your service on xx.xxx.xx.xx on port (58xxx)
    Reason: Connection refused

    Error: I could not see your service on xx.xxx.xx.xx on port (16xxx)
    Reason: Connection timed out

    Anyone shed any light on this?

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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    Limit your upstream to ~40kb and you should see a speed increase.

    With respect to remote connections and port forwarding, I'm afraid I cant help you

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    Re: Port Forwarding nightmare!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve B View Post
    Limit your upstream to ~40kb and you should see a speed increase.
    Lowered it from 47kb/s to 40kb/s.. Hopefully that'll help a bit as my download speed has me close to tears at the moment

    Havent experienced any hickups or router/modem lockups since my last post, but the ports are still reporting as closed. Anyone got any insight? If it could be router related I'll happily invest in a new one, but I'm loathed to throw money at a new one only for the same result.

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