Port Forwarding on the RT-N66U

[geezfools]

I've searched here and all over the internets for help on this, including two calls to ASUS support which seemed to be a joke , at least from what I could understand of the telephone operators.
So here is the deal, just trying to do some port forwarding for my PS3 and a couple wireless cameras. I'm on comcast, am not paying for a static IP and can't seem to get any ports open. I've uploaded a screen shot of the port forwarding page. Firewall is disabled via the router and on my computer (mac running 10.9). I've tried opening ports for the computer, for the ps3, etc. I had no issues with the settings on the older linksys I was using three days ago and have changed nothing besides the new router. Anything else I should be trying or looking at?
Firmware was updated last night to the latest and greatest (right, heh), though if I can get this working right, I would like to take a peek at merlins, though I'm hesitant since I feel like this may be getting sent back to Newegg. From what I've read, other people have had PF issues with this particular router.

Any help would be awesome, thanks!

edit: the BF4 ones are all for the PS3, the last three were tests with the local IP of my computer and have no real meaning outside of trying to find something that is open

 

[geezfools]

just did an NVRAM reset 30-30-30 with no changes, trying the merlin firmware now and no luck already, but gonna change a few settings and see if I get anywhere with that.

edit1:I'm now able to see port 80, but still can't see anything else. I didn't see the firewall check on the ipv6 section, once that was unchecked, 80 opened, but still nothing else at this point

 

[TheOldMan]

Without a static ip, nothing will work. Have you looked into setting up dynamic dns? Asus offers it in the router. You can look at no-ip.org. Comcast has the tendency to shut down home users without a static ip and business internet. If someone can help you defeat Comcast by making the dynamic ip become a static without paying for it, good luck. I will never get internet with any Cable company since they over-regulate the users. DSL is a better choice.

 

[geezfools]

Without a static ip, nothing will work. Have you looked into setting up dynamic dns? Asus offers it in the router. You can look at no-ip.org. Comcast has the tendency to shut down home users without a static ip and business internet. If someone can help you defeat Comcast by making the dynamic ip become a static without paying for it, good luck. I will never get internet with any Cable company since they over-regulate the users. DSL is a better choice.

So am I really out of luck. I set the DNS to googles 8.8.8.8.
I had no issues forwarding ports on the linksys I had before, why is it an issue now? I guess I'm really confused, sorry. I'm assuming my IP isn't static, I wonder how often it changes...

Is port forwarding router specific? I can see my cameras with my phone off wifi, so something is working right, though maybe that has to do with upnp? I'm not sure, this stuff is a little over my head, obviously, but I'm learning a lot!

 

[RMerlin]

Port forwards won't work if you disable the firewall, since the forwards are actually firewall rules.

 

[geezfools]

Port forwards won't work if you disable the firewall, since the forwards are actually firewall rules.

I enabled the firewall via the asus interface and now I can't see 80 or any of the others I've supposedly enabled. When I try one of them, it says the connection is refused.

 

[sinshiva]

how are you testing your port fowards? delete the 'testing' forward and specify only one port to forward port 21. add 3478:3480/both to forward to the ps3. leave local unspecified when forwarding ranges. most of your bf4 port forwards you definitely don't need, those ports just need to be open for outgoing traffic so you can access those ports on the internet, not a problem by default. you definitely shouldn't need 80 and 443 forwarded, for example.

you only need to specify one torrent port forward, and you should specify both rather than tcp

what local ports do you IP cameras use and do they each require their own port forward or is there like a central unit involved?

[edits/]

make the 3659 portfoward 3658:3659/both

you can probably strip all the other bf4 ports besides what i mentioned above

 

[Techno]

OP-

I sometimes use canyouseeme.org to check to see if ports that I have opened on my router are getting through. Maybe that would be helpful to you...?

 

[RMerlin]

I enabled the firewall via the asus interface and now I can't see 80 or any of the others I've supposedly enabled. When I try one of them, it says the connection is refused.

A port 80 forward might conflict with the built-in web interface, which also listens to port 80. You would have to move it to a different port.

Why do you need to forward port 80 anyway? This port is only needed if you run a web server on your network. Your PS3 doesn't host a web server, so you should not be forwarding that port.

Remember that port forwards are for INbound connections, not OUTbound connections.

 

[geezfools]

how are you testing your port fowards? delete the 'testing' forward and specify only one port to forward port 21. add 3478:3480/both to forward to the ps3. leave local unspecified when forwarding ranges. most of your bf4 port forwards you definitely don't need, those ports just need to be open for outgoing traffic so you can access those ports on the internet, not a problem by default. you definitely shouldn't need 80 and 443 forwarded, for example.

you only need to specify one torrent port forward, and you should specify both rather than tcp

what local ports do you IP cameras use and do they each require their own port forward or is there like a central unit involved?

[edits/]

make the 3659 portfoward 3658:3659/both

you can probably strip all the other bf4 ports besides what i mentioned above

I'll get this setup and see what happens. The whole reason for all of this is I have the battlefield premium, which gives you upgrades on BF4, etc. It's been super buggy and people have mentioned that opening some of the ports has helped with overall gameplay. I think it's more crap code, but I wanted to give it a shot. I may be confusing forwarding and opening since I'm not super savvy (I hope that's evident at this point, sorry, I'm trying )
The cameras do seem to be working. The software is iCam and the cameras are foscam 8918s, they run be default on 80, but they suggest going to 8090 if there are any issues, I had them that way for one reason or another on my linksys and wanted to put it back that way, may not be required.
I don't really torrent at all and only threw that on since it was on the dropdown list of selections, I think transmission (default torrent app) uses a different port anyways, I'll deal with that when I need to get something that way.

OP-

I sometimes use canyouseeme.org to check to see if ports that I have opened on my router are getting through. Maybe that would be helpful to you...?

that's what I've been using, along with another site, just to double check

A port 80 forward might conflict with the built-in web interface, which also listens to port 80. You would have to move it to a different port.

Why do you need to forward port 80 anyway? This port is only needed if you run a web server on your network. Your PS3 doesn't host a web server, so you should not be forwarding that port.

Remember that port forwards are for INbound connections, not OUTbound connections.

You've helped me make more sense of this, thank you. I don't need to forward 80 and realistically, I'm wondering if I need to forward any at all. My main reason (as mentioned above) was to open some ports for the game to hopefully function better. Should I be doing something different to "open" them and maybe not forward them? Sorry I'm not savvy, I'm sure I read something on one of the game forums and now I look like an idiot, yay.

Anyways, I'll go off the above info and see if I can forward those, even if that's a moot point at this time.




Thanks for all the help guys, much appreciated.

edit: I opened those ports above, but when I go to canyouseeme, they all still say connection refused, is that normal?

 

[RMerlin]

You've helped me make more sense of this, thank you. I don't need to forward 80 and realistically, I'm wondering if I need to forward any at all. My main reason (as mentioned above) was to open some ports for the game to hopefully function better. Should I be doing something different to "open" them and maybe not forward them? Sorry I'm not savvy, I'm sure I read something on one of the game forums and now I look like an idiot, yay.

There's a difference between "forwarded" and "open". Forwarded implies you need to tell your router to redirect any inbound connection on these ports toward your device.

Open, however, simply means that a firewall must be configured to allow these connections to get through, regardless of the direction. In the cast of most home routers (such as the RT-N66U), all outbound connections are allowed by default, so there is no port to open.

So when they say to open port 80, what they really mean is to ensure that you allow anything on your network to access remote websites.

edit: I opened those ports above, but when I go to canyouseeme, they all still say connection refused, is that normal?

Those port scanners will only tell you if a port is correctly forwarded - it tests inbound connection. It won't test outbound connections.

 

[lurice0]

Port Forwarding

ok so geezfoolz was saying he wants to forward the ports. and TCP ports 80:81 are supposed to be forwarded according to the popular sight , portforward.com.
(I have had lag issues/1 or 2 bars connectivity/ping in every room with online multiplayer COD problems on PS3 ever since i got my VPN on router working..)
Also on Basic Config,
Enable Port Forwarding: Yes
Famous Server List: (what is best for ps3?)
Famous Game List: (should i leave blank?)
FTP Server Port: 2021 (is 2021 ok? or in conflict?)

And then, i have my ps3 ethernet cabled up to my router and on my ps3 i set its ip to 192.168.1.xxx and thats what i used for the ip address field on the router under, WAN, Port Forwarding Tab. i forwarded all the ports for playstation network according to portforward.com. I also forwarded all ports for ps3 call of duty black ops part one. and just want to know if we are doing good. Shout outs to Merlin for his work.

 

[ColinTaylor]

ok so geezfoolz was saying he wants to forward the ports. and TCP ports 80:81 are supposed to be forwarded according to the popular sight , portforward.com.
(I have had lag issues/1 or 2 bars connectivity/ping in every room with online multiplayer COD problems on PS3 ever since i got my VPN on router working..)

You don't need to forward any ports. The "popular" sites are wrong. They have blindly copied the port list from the PlayStation FAQ whilst not understanding that that list is for outgoing connections, not incoming! (As Merlin pointed out earlier, the PS3 isn't running a web server so why would you forward port 80!)

The symptoms you describe are most likely caused because you're going through a VPN.

 

[lurice0]

Not surprisingly, Merlin and ColinTaylor must be right. Later, I noticed sometimes, after rebooting my router, i could get good bars to play. I would think it was something i did with the ports or something that fixed it and then i would forget about it and then later the problem would return.. And so I learned that after rebooting, then using the popular site http://www.iplocation.net , that i had to keep rebooting until it said it was near me. (also the ports weren't even forwarding anyway! not sure what i was doing wrong there. its also strange how many youtube videos you can find telling you to forward those ports, to fix a moderate/strict NAT type to make it an OPEN NAT type on ps3) So a 3mbps download speed is sufficient to play online multiplayer, its just all about Ping.