readydr job failure: protocol error

I received a message from Netgear accepting this as the solution, Below is my reply.

This is NOT the solution and in addition I did not get an answer to the basic initial question – What is a Protocol Error?

1. I have worked on ReadyDR with Tier 2 & Tier 3 support for extended periods of time. You do NOT need ports 80 & 443 open or NATing to connect devices. I have 3 ReadyNAS Source devices connecting thru a common firewall/router to 3 internal Destination ReadyNAS devices without opening or NATing these ports. Only using ports 5253 and SSH 21/22.
2. Port 5253 seems to be the ONLY port that the source ReadyNAS will use; even though you can manually set a port in the ReadyDR Job setup. With Tier 3 support we setup the 3 Source ReadyNAS devices ReadyDR Jobs using ports 5253, 5254, and 5255. We then setup the destination firewall/router with 3 NAT rules to forward traffic from these ports to a specific Destination ReadyNAS. In ALL attempts traffic was only routed the Destination ReadyNAS that was using port 5253. In setting up the ReadyDR job on each Source ReadyNAS devices the connection to the Destination ReadyNAS could be established, and the Snapshot Share could be created, but always on the Destination ReadyNAS that was using port 5253.
3. Here is the work around I found to allow this to work. I use a Sonicwall TZ300 firewall/router so could be difficult to setup on other routers.
1. All Source & Destination ReadyNAS devices ReadyDR Job are configured to use port 5253.
2. Separate NAT Policy created for each of Destination ReadyNAS devices – all set to route port 5253 to the appropriate IP address for each Destination ReadyNAS.
3. In the NAT Policy configuration the “Original Source” was set using the static WAN IP of the Source ReadyNAS.
4. Effectively routing inbound port 5253 traffic – from a specific WAN IP – to a specific individual Destination ReadyNAS IP
4. After setting up the configuration detailed in item 3 I was able to create the  ReadyDR Jobs and this last weekend was able to perform my first complete ReadyDR replication from all 3 Source ReadyNAS devices.
5. In working with Tier 3 support they concurred that all ReadyNAS devices were sending traffic on port 5253 regardless of the ReadyDR Job configuration port setting. I also validated with them the workaround detailed in item 3. Tier 3 support was submitting the port 5253 issue for further consideration.

In regards to the excessive time for the ReadyDR Job to run I found my Source ReadyNAS connected to a network switch 3 levels down from the “Parent” switch. Reconfigured the network cabling to connect the Source ReadyNAS directly to the top level switch speed increased from around 150kbs to approximately 1.2mbps.