[SOLVED] Any tips on port forwarding? (I've tried everything I can find online)

[Cakedestroyer242]

Hey,
I have an Asus DSL-AC52U router and I have been trying to set up port forwarding for a craft server for the last 4 days. I have allowed port 25565 inbound and outbound through my windows firewall. I have setup the port forwarding and it looks correct. I can join the server with other computers on the same network. Does anyone have any ideas what the problem might be? After 4 days of scouring the internet I haven't been able to find any solutions.
Thanks!

(Here is a link to some photos -

https://imgur.com/a/CnIe128

View: https://imgur.com/a/CnIe128
)

 

[vov4ik_il]

You could just set the server as DMZ first, in order to bypass NATting in the router and then fine-tune it when it is functional.
For the OS part, I tend to blame the firewall rules, try with it being off first, and then make an exception by the server application instead of just opening the port.

 

[bill001g]

Go to the main page on the asus router it should show you the WAN ip. Does this ip match the ip you see on sites like whatsmyip. If they are different you do not have a public IP and port forwarding will never work.

 

[vov4ik_il]

Go to the main page on the asus router it should show you the WAN ip. Does this ip match the ip you see on sites like whatsmyip. If they are different you do not have a public IP and port forwarding will never work.

This statement is true in very few cases, where you get the public IP by DHCP right at the endpoint. The vast majority of ISPs will still (1:1) NAT your traffic even with dedicated public IP, in order to accommodate local services like IPTV and save on traffic forwarding.
Besides, even with dynamic WAN IP, one can use a server with DDNS... did I miss something?

 

[Cakedestroyer242]

You could just set the server as DMZ first, in order to bypass NATting in the router and then fine-tune it when it is functional.
For the OS part, I tend to blame the firewall rules, try with it being off first, and then make an exception by the server application instead of just opening the port.

What do all of these words mean? Is there a video I could watch?

 

[Cakedestroyer242]

Go to the main page on the asus router it should show you the WAN ip. Does this ip match the ip you see on sites like whatsmyip. If they are different you do not have a public IP and port forwarding will never work.

Yeah they are different

 

[Cakedestroyer242]

This statement is true in very few cases, where you get the public IP by DHCP right at the endpoint. The vast majority of ISPs will still (1:1) NAT your traffic even with dedicated public IP, in order to accommodate local services like IPTV and save on traffic forwarding.
Besides, even with dynamic WAN IP, one can use a server with DDNS... did I miss something?

I have tried to set up a DDNS and I think it is working except for the port fowarding part. If i go to the ddns link thing I setup it does redierct me to my router.

 

[bill001g]

That means there is another router in the path doing nat and it would need port forwarding rules. Unless you have 2 routers in your house you are out of luck. You must have a public IP assigned to the WAN port of your router by the ISP.

You need to contact them and see what they say. Some ISP will give you one for asking. Other want a extra monthly fee and some have no ability to provide public IP to customers.

 

[vov4ik_il]

What do all of these words mean? Is there a video I could watch?

Your router has a DMZ setting (page 69 of the manual). This is the address of a LAN (your home network) machine that all unknown packets from WAN (internet) will be forwarded to. Set it to your server LAN address (10.4.7.26) and remove the other rules you had created in the router.

Temporarily turn off Windows Firewall and test. If it works, turn the firewall back to ON and create an application rule within it, then test again to see if the rule is working properly... until it does.
Once the firewall exception is set up, you can move on to the router part tuning...

I have tried to set up a DDNS and I think it is working except for the port fowarding part. If i go to the ddns link thing I setup it does redierct me to my router.

As expected, it has nothing to do with your ISP... as long as an outside packet is being redirected to your router the ISP is not filtering it and has the NAT set up transparently (the vast majority of cases).

 

[Cakedestroyer242]

remove the other rules you had created in the router.

So just the port forwarding rules?

 

[vov4ik_il]

So just the port forwarding rules?

the ones on the screenshots in the 1st post

 

[Cakedestroyer242]

Ok I used DMZ and turned off windows firewalls but it still couldnt find it

 

[Cakedestroyer242]

That means there is another router in the path doing nat and it would need port forwarding rules. Unless you have 2 routers in your house you are out of luck. You must have a public IP assigned to the WAN port of your router by the ISP.

You need to contact them and see what they say. Some ISP will give you one for asking. Other want a extra monthly fee and some have no ability to provide public IP to customers.

@vov4ik_il is this correct?

 

[vov4ik_il]

@vov4ik_il is this correct?

It is, and it is assigned, otherwise, this

I have tried to set up a DDNS and I think it is working except for the port fowarding part. If i go to the ddns link thing I setup it does redierct me to my router.

wouldn't work... Unless specifically requested, NAT filtering is not done by the ISP as it is a pain to maintain.

Ok I used DMZ and turned off windows firewalls but it still couldnt find it

Can you explain how do you check your server?
Try this:

1. Leave the DMZ setting set to the address of the machine where you run your server
2. Open an FTP server (I would use 3CDaemon, you can get it from here)
3. Add an exception for it in windows firewall like here
4. Start the FTP server
5. Check with the website you used earlier for open port #21

If that part works, it would mean your server is not set up properly...

 

[Cakedestroyer242]

Ok i started a FTP server using the built in windows way (https://www.windowscentral.com/how-set-ftp-server-windows-10 - I tweaked a few parts to make it publicly acessable). Then I changed the firewall rules. I then used the DMZ thing to send everything to my computer. The website said that porrt 21 was closed.

 

[vov4ik_il]

IIS is tricky, I would avoid it for the testing part. Pls, try with the 3com tool (you would have to undo and stop IIS first) or try on another machine (would have to update the DMZ setting for that).