Opening Ports on Orbi

[PhoenixV]

I need some advice on how to set up Port Forwarding for Wi-Fi Calling to work properly through Orbi. There are multiple phones that utilize this feature so I can't specify a particular IP address.

Ports that need to be open:

UDP 123

UDP 500

UDP 4500

Ports 52000-59999

Please let me know the best way to do this....

[st_shaw]

You cannot forward a single incoming port (e.g. UDP 500)  to more than one IP address on the LAN. Think about it...how would the router know to which of your multiple phones to forward the incoming connection?

The only way this could be done is if you had multiple WAN IP addresses (one per phone), or if the connections are all initiated by the phones on the LAN (in which case no forwarding rule is needed).

You should review why you think this forwarding is necessary.

[PhoenixV]

Yes I suppose I might have to use a port trigger instead. As to why, as I said before, WIFI calling on our cell phones is dependent upon communicating through these ports, and since I have no service in my loction I am dependent on it.

[st_shaw]

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@PhoenixV wrote:

Yes I suppose I might have to use a port trigger instead. As to why, as I said before, WIFI calling on our cell phones is dependent upon communicating through these ports, and since I have no service in my loction I am dependent on it.

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I stil think you are mistaken.  You might need to use these ports on OUTGOING connections, but this requires no port forwarding or other configuration. These ports are related to VPN connections, by the way.

Why do you believe you need port forwarding? What are you looking at that makes you think this is required?

Give a link to a reference that indicates these ports must be opened.

[PhoenixV]

Actually I am correct, as the tech support documents from T-mobile exist all over. Basically, the WiFi Calling feature sets up a secure tunnel connecting back to the servers.....

[st_shaw]

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@PhoenixV wrote:

Actually I am correct, as the tech support documents from T-mobile exist all over. Basically, the WiFi Calling feature sets up a secure tunnel connecting back to the servers.....

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Good.  So post a reference to one of those T-mobile documents so someone can help you.

[PhoenixV]

The attitude exhibited in your reply is unappreciated and uncalled for... help is however appreciated. There are those of us who do know what we are talking about (maybe not about everything but certainly for many things, and this happens to be one of them). See the link below and help if you can:

https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-12601

Now WiFi calling which is built into a device such as an iPhone requires the same port usage. I can give you that article as well should you continue to doubt the ports used. 

Regards...

[st_shaw]

I don't doubt that WiFi calling uses these ports.  What I doubt (for good reason) is that it's necessary to forward these INCOMING ports to individual IP addresses.  If that were the case, WiFi calling would not work on 99.9% of WiFi networks. That's simply not credible.

The document you posted says to open these ports if you are experiencing problems.  This would be because many corporate firewalls block these ports OUTGOING. This document therefore does not mean it is necessary to forward these INCOMING ports for the service to work.

There are also plenty of references on the web stating that no special configuration is required for WiFi calling to work. As I understand it, the WiFi calling works by your phone establishing an OUTGOING VPN connection to a T-Mobile server.  This requires no special router configuration, because the traffic is initiated from the LAN and is allowed by default on virtually all consumer-grade routers.

So, what makes you think port forwarding is necessary?  Do you own Orib and are experiencing problems with WiFi calling, or are you just trying to determine if it will work if you purchase Orbi.

If if's the former, please provide details on the specific issues you are experiencing so someone can help you. There are several things that could cause issues, such as trying to use VPN at the same time (because VPNs use ports 500 and 4500) or Back-to-my-Mac (because this uses port 4500).