[SOLVED] How do I use port triggering on a TP Link MR6400

[Rian_lad]

Hello everyone! I've been looking all over and cannot for the life of me understand how to use port triggering/forwarding. I have contacted the live chat of TP-Link and they were not helpful at all. So I've turned to you guys, please give me the energy to complete this task haha!
So to the matter at hand... I play a fair amount of Elder Scrolls Online and suffer frequent disconnects from the server. I contacted the games support channel and got a generic response, after a reply or three they told me to try port forwarding. Now enter the problem I'm having..
My router does not have 'Port Forwarding' but instead 'Port Triggering' and 'Virtual Server'. I've never done anything with router ports before and was wondering if someone could help me along with it by telling me what numbers to put where etc. I have included a few pictures; one of the ports, one of the 'Virtual Servers' and another with the 'Port Triggering' sections of my router with their descriptions open too.
Thanks in advance for taking the time out of your day to help!

P.S Not sure how to even put pictures into the post so I uploaded them to imgur, hope that's okay!

https://imgur.com/a/tlcFNHJ

View: https://imgur.com/a/tlcFNHJ

 

[SamirD]

If your router has dmz, just put your system in that and see if that fixes the problem. If it doesn't, port forwarding won't either.

 

[Rian_lad]

I'd rather not do that as I play ESO on my PC, from what I understand DMZ opens all ports to the internet which is safe enough to use for consoles but not a PC.

 

[GoofyOne]

G'dday!

I don't know if this will help, but I saw this site that gives port forwarding directions for many different routers .. go here. It does not seem to mention MR6400, although it does have MR6000 which may be similar.

Oh yes it does display an ad when you go to the router selection page, just click on the X at the corner of the page and the AD will close, and take you to the list of routers.
Hope it helps.


{GoofyOne's 2c worth .. which may or may not be actually worth 2c}

 

[Rian_lad]

Ello! I've been on that site already today and it does have something similar but lacks in telling what port goes where. From my understanding the ports in the picture are 'Outbound' ports. But in my port triggering it asks for the 'triggering port' then for an 'external port'. Both of which I have no idea about..

 

[GoofyOne]

You might like to watch this also ... youtube video.


{GoofyOne}

 

[Rian_lad]

I watched that already and it wasn't helpful or I just didn't understand, that person is setting up their router for a virtual server to access cameras. They also done something about a static IP address too but I don't think I need that.

 

[GoofyOne]

Well, sorry my thoughts and ideas are no good today!

All I can say is that networking is very complicated all by itself. Now you are starting to realize why network engineers get paid VERY handsomely 😡. Routers often have very non-intuitive interfaces designed by folks who think everyone is a network engineer like them, boffins who don't understand that other people (users) don't want to spend the next 5 years doing full time study of networking so they can figure out how to do stuff.

ie: the people that designed the router management software thinks it's really easy, but for most people .... just NO

Sorry i couldn't help.


{GoofyOne}

 

[Rian_lad]

Thanks for your input though GoofyOne! I do appreciate it 😀

 

[kanewolf]

Have you verified that you have a public IP on the WAN of the router?

But generally, unless you are hosting, port forwarding is not required.

 

[Rian_lad]

I am not totally sure on how to verify that it is public? I just plugged the sim card into my router and that was about it, no further config required until now. When I contacted Zenimax (game devs) they said I had a variable IP address which I have since followed a few guides on making a static IP through the windows settings.

 

[kanewolf]

I am not totally sure on how to verify that it is public? I just plugged the sim card into my router and that was about it, no further config required until now. When I contacted Zenimax (game devs) they said I had a variable IP address which I have since followed a few guides on making a static IP through the windows settings.

You look at the WAN section of the router GUI or the status page. Something that shows the IP address on the WAN side.
You compare that to https://whatismyipaddress.com/ If they don't match you don't have a public IP and you can't port forward. It just won't work.

 

[Rian_lad]

I compared them and they don't match.. What do I do about that? Can I do anything about that..?

 

[kanewolf]

I compared them and they don't match.. What do I do about that? Can I do anything about that..?

Is the number listed in the router a 192.168.x.y or a 10.x.y.z or a 100.x.y.z ? If you have ANY of those cases, you don't have a public IP address. That means that there is a router somewhere between your router and the internet. If it is your ISP you can ask if you can get a public IP address. You will probably have to pay for it.
Without a public IP address, you can't port forward.
As I said, to connect to a remote game server, you don't have to port forward in most cases. Even if you could port forward, it might not change anything.

 

[Rian_lad]

You're 100% right, it does start with 10. I'll contact my ISP about it, thank you very much for the help!

 

[SamirD]

I'd rather not do that as I play ESO on my PC, from what I understand DMZ opens all ports to the internet which is safe enough to use for consoles but not a PC.

You're right, but the idea was to see if DMZ worked and then work on the port forwarding. But if DMZ didn't work (which it wouldn't have due to the 10.x.x.x address), it would have indicated an issue outside your network.