remote access difficulties

[sowellj]

I am in the process of setting up remote access for my apex. I went through the procedure, assigned ports, hostnames, etc. However, it is not working. I contacted apex, and they feel that some ports are being blocked. I called my ISP and they are adamant that no ports are being blocked. Recontacted apex and enabled remote access on my modem, supplied them w/the port and IP address. They could not find it. Contacted cisco/lynksys, did the same thing and got disconnected after 20 min or so, but the impression I got was that they were having problems as well. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks a ton.

 

[Ycore]

1) What DynDNS name did you register?
2) what port did you specify for the apex and what are you forwarding?
3) what is the brand of your router?
4) Does the Ip currently displayed on your Dyndns site match what you currently have as your WAN Ip on your router?

 

[aquamanic]

If you go to http://portforward.com they have some tools you can run to check to see if your ports are open.

 

[sowellj]

1) What DynDNS name did you register?
2) what port did you specify for the apex and what are you forwarding?
3) what is the brand of your router?
4) Does the Ip currently displayed on your Dyndns site match what you currently have as your WAN Ip on your router?

sowellapex.is-a-geek.com
80 and 80, but i have tried different ones and they have not worked
lnksys wrt320n
yes ... I went to whatismyip.com to get my external IP number

 

[HeneryH]

Well, you seem to have tackled the normal noob problems of not even understanding what Dynamic DNS is and what internal/external address differences are.

Now on to more advanced troubleshooting.

It seems like your incoming requests on port 80 are not being routed to your Apex.

You say that you tried other ports, but perhaps there was an error in how you did that. I would have left the Apex at 80 so that your internal usage would not be burdened by awkward syntax of adding the :xxx after the url. I would have then configured the wrt320n to take external connection requests on 1080 and forward them internally to 80 on the Apex.

Then you'd connect externally using http://sowellapex.is-a-geek.com:1080 .

Can you give that a try and let us know how it goes? I don't know the specific pages to make those configs on your router.

 

[HeneryH]

xxxxx

 

[Ycore]

Your Dyndns registration comes back as 64.234.51.80, verify that matches your result in mywanip.com

I did a portscan and all your ports are closed. So either it's one of the following:

1) Your ISP is blocking common ports. You might try port 8080 instead.
2) Your forwarding is wrong. Either not configured right or forwarding to an incorrect internal IP. Is your Apex on DHCP or static? Either way, verify the IP of the Apex and that this is the IP you are forwarding to on the router. If it's static make sure the gateway on your Apex is correct (should be the LAN interface of router)

 

[sowellj]

Well, you seem to have tackled the normal noob problems of not even understanding what Dynamic DNS is and what internal/external address differences are.

Now on to more advanced troubleshooting.

It seems like your incoming requests on port 80 are not being routed to your Apex.

You say that you tried other ports, but perhaps there was an error in how you did that. I would have left the Apex at 80 so that your internal usage would not be burdened by awkward syntax of adding the :xxx after the url. I would have then configured the wrt320n to take external connection requests on 1080 and forward them internally to 80 on the Apex.

Then you'd connect externally using http://sowellapex.is-a-geek.com:1080 .

Can you give that a try and let us know how it goes? I don't know the specific pages to make those configs on your router.

I tried that approach last night and could not get it to work. Also, I downloaded the portchecker program and get a could not connect to our servers error message each time

 

[sowellj]

Your Dyndns registration comes back as 64.234.51.80, verify that matches your result in mywanip.com

I did a portscan and all your ports are closed. So either it's one of the following:

1) Your ISP is blocking common ports. You might try port 8080 instead.
2) Your forwarding is wrong. Either not configured right or forwarding to an incorrect internal IP. Is your Apex on DHCP or static? Either way, verify the IP of the Apex and that this is the IP you are forwarding to on the router. If it's static make sure the gateway on your Apex is correct (should be the LAN interface of router)

1- I talked with my ISP and they were adamant they weren't blocking any ports .. who knows. I'll try 8080.
2- I disabled DHCP and defined a static address. That IP address is the one I have the router to forward to. My IP address and netmask are correct.

 

[sowellj]

So I set up 8080 on my router, as well as on the apex. I don't believe it is working, but it is hard to tell as I think some set ups get crank if you try to test an external connection using a computer on the internal network ... I am far from computer savvy so bear w/me on the ingorance.

 

[Ycore]

By default Linksys routers enable NAT redirect so you can test externally mapped ports internally I believe..

In any case, I still have port 8080 coming back as closed for you.

Can you:

1) from your home PC can youtelnet to the IP of your apex on port 8080? Go to the command prompt and type telnet "ip address of apex" 8080

2) Please post a screenshot of your port forwarding page on the router.

 

[sowellj]

I just got off the phone w/cisco. They think that my modem is giving my router a private IP address and that is why no one can find it when I give them the IP address. Also, when I got to whatismyip.com, the IP address I get there (which is the one I used to set up the host with), is different than the internet IP address I get on the status of page of my router.

Earlier in the day I talked w/motorolla and they said that their modem was a passthrough device .... and that the problem was on the router side.

Kind of frustrating as tech support for each place basically just points the finger elsewhere.

Ok rant done .. time for food.

thanks for the continued help

 

[tamu]

It really does seem like you are NATing twice.
What is the 'Internet/WAN' IP address on your linksys?

 

[Ycore]

Agreed. Make sure your motorola modem is set to bridge or pass-thru mode. You'll be able to tell if your motorola is also trying to act like a router if the address your linksys has on the WAN starts with 192. or 10. . In any case, if you have the manual for the modem access it and turn on bridge mode. if you don't, call your ISP and have them guide you through it.

It really does seem like you are NATing twice.
What is the 'Internet/WAN' IP address on your linksys?

 

[sowellj]

external IP address from whatismyip.com
64.234.51.80

router internet IP address
192.168.99.197

I talked with my ISP, and they said they don't offer support for the modem they use and that I needed to talk to Motorolla directly. I did that, and motorolla said that it was bridge device, but apparently that is not correct. Guess I will give them a call tomorrow?

 

[RussM]

What model is the Motorola?

 

[Ycore]

Ok, well your modem is definitely acting as a router, as that is a private IP it is handing out to your Linksys. Though it's annoying, at least this solves the mystery as to what's wrong..

Try browsing to http://192.168.99.1 using your computer

If that doesn't work try http://192.168.100.1

If it gets you in turn on bridge/pass-thru mode and reboot the Linksys.

As Russ states, if you can get us the model of the Motorola we can probably guide you better.

external IP address from whatismyip.com
64.234.51.80

router internet IP address
192.168.99.197

I talked with my ISP, and they said they don't offer support for the modem they use and that I needed to talk to Motorolla directly. I did that, and motorolla said that it was bridge device, but apparently that is not correct. Guess I will give them a call tomorrow?

 

[sowellj]

thanks for the help, model is SB5101

the second IP seemed to get me in, however, I couldn't find an option for setting the modem to pass through mode. The second IP gave me a status page basically, but not the capability to change anything.

 

[sowellj]

Still on the phone w/motorolla, they are saying the device is not configurable and is pass through. This just does not seem right to me, seeing as how my router IP address is different than the one whatismyip.com provides.

I bypassed my router, and plugged straight into the modem. How do tell what IP the modem is sending?

 

[Ycore]

Ok, I confirmed it is a modem that doesn't do NAT, but it does have a DHCP server that is supposed to be auto-disabled once it senses connectivity to your ISP.

Below is from the manual:

"The SB5100 family of modems contain an internal DHCP server, which is active until the modem registers with the CMTS. In the case of a problem that prevents the modem from completing its registration, the modem can still give an IP address to the client PC to enable diagnostics access.

This address is given with a very short lease (around 10 seconds) so that as soon as the registration does complete the client PC obtains its proper IP address from the core network DHCP server."

Call your ISP. Tell them the modem is handing out the private IP to your router. Alternatively, try rebooting your linksys.. It may be that it took a lease from the motorola before the modem had a chance to resgiter on the network.