R7000 Port Forward HTTP/80 no working - firmware version V1.0.6.28_1.1.83

Today I upgraded my NETGEAR R7000 firmware to "V1.0.6.28_1.1.83." I was previously running "V1.0.5.48_1.1.79" but neither firmware version allows me to forward HTTP (port 80) to my internal web server (CentOS 7 virtual machine).

I can access the sites internally on my local network (LAN), in fact on both firmware versions. I can adjust the port forward to a different port, such as 8080 which works but not port 80.

I've also been able to successfully forward other ports so I am completely baffled by this issue. I’ve read several other posts and the issues vary. Some users say that NETGEAR locks down port 80 for the router management. Other users say that after updating their firmware port forwarding broke for their Apache web servers, some even say that Ready SHARE breaks port forwarding but as far as I can tell none of these issues have been confirmed as the problem.

I’ve done a hard “Factory Reset,” re-configured the router and am still unable to forward traffic from the WAN to my LAN for HTTP traffic. I’ve also downgraded the firmware which did not work. I have since upgraded to the latest firmware version “V1.0.6.28_1.1.83.”

I don’t believe this is a hardware issue as other ports work. There has to be something wrong with the firmware. Perhaps one of the new features is restricting access to port 80 or has broken forwarding for that specific port and protocol.

If NETGEAR doesn’t fix this my next network hardware will be another brand. Any and all support would be greatly appreciated.