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Forum Discussion
Port Forwarding
Hi, I noticed the other day that I can no longer access my cameras away from home. Checked the ports that were forwarded and they all are closed now. Ports have been open for 9+ years but all of a sudden are no longer open. I haven’t changed any settings and have the same setup as I previously had. What could cause this? My setup is I have my ATT router in bridge mode with my Orbi connected to it. Any help is greatly appreciated.
6 Replies
DerfW wrote:
Checked the ports that were forwarded and they all are closed now. Ports have been open for 9+ years but all of a sudden are no longer open.First thing to check is if our Orbi does still get a public routable IPv4 address assigned. More and more ISPs are no longer associating these addresses to consumer connections. Much more they tend to change parts of their infrastructure towards Carrier-grade NAT - without letting the customers know. Just looking at the dynamic DNS and use whatever tool or site to check for open ports alone isn't sufficient.
- Not sure of exactly what the public IPv4 number is but would it begin with 108.XX.XX.XX?
If so, yes I have that address.- This 108.x.x.x address is the one you have got assigned in your router WAN resp. Internet port, or the one your DDNS does point to for the NAT connection? 100.64.0.0 to 100.127.255.255 would be the typical CGN address range.
It would be helpful to know which model of Orbi router this is and what version of firmware is currently running.
(would also be useful to know if the firmware has been updated between the last time port forwarding was checked by observing a camera and now. I understand that most people do not track firmware version, so this information may not be available.)
How was the status of port forwarding no longer working determined?
- By opening the Port Forwarding screen and observing that the entries are no longer there?
- By attempting to connect to a camera and the connection failing?
(If this is the case, could you please look at the Port Forwarding definitions. If they remain as before, there is a good chance that the public IP address has changed and the DDNS has not changed with it.)
If would also be useful to know if the ports can be forwarded again. i.e., when the entries are defined:
- Do they work?
- Do they remain in effect for some time?
- The Model is RBR50.
Firmware version: v2.7.4..24
I am not sure if the firmware has been updated between the last time port forwarding was checked. I periodically log into the router and check for updates.
I checked to see if port forwarding was working by attempting to connect to a camera and DVR and the camera connection failed and all camera connections fail in the dvr. After that, I used an online tool to see if the port s to the cameras and dvr were open and it says they are closed. I have static IP addresses on my cameras and dvr and have those reserved in the Orbi to those cameras and dvr. The Port forwarding definitions are the same as before.
DerfW wrote:
The Port forwarding definitions are the same as before.This is the key. If the router is still forwarding incoming connections on specific ports to specific devices on the LAN, then the issue is most likely the public IP address. (I was totally unable to come up with an explanation for how the port forwarding definitions would just "disappear" from the router configuration. Glad that is not the issue.)
I think what schumaku and I are focused on is how you are attempting to connect to the DVR and individual cameras:
- Are you connecting to a specific public IP address? If so, does it match the public IP address of the Orbi router?
- Are you connecting to a URL? If so, does the URL point to the public IP address of the Orbi router?
The public IP address assigned to the router is shown on the Orbi web interface Advanced Tab Home Page:
This is the IP address that can be tested with those web based "are ports open?" tools, and it must be the IP address that is used to access the cameras and DVR.
