Question I spontaneously can no longer port forward

[Mikestriken]

I have been running this Minecraft Server recently with friends until last Thursday when I attempted to log on through public IP to test my friend's connection to the server and my connection was refused I was confused as to why until I narrowed it down to my port no longer being forwarded. I went onto my default gateway checked that things were still being forwarded which they were. I tried getting an application to use UPnP which failed: (http://upnp-wizard.findmysoft.com/) and this one straight up didn't start (https://sourceforge.net/projects/upnp-portmapper/).

After that, I called my ISPs tech support and he told me that I had tried all the troubleshooting he would and he said it most likely was the fault of the router so I swapped that out and it didn't work still.

What I have on the default gateway and a port checker's results (

https://imgur.com/a/p8eXyQS

View: https://imgur.com/a/p8eXyQS
)


Any ideas as to how my network can suddenly just refuse to accept port forwarding rules out of the blue?

 

[The Paladin]

reboot the router ?
save settings, then reset to default settings then reinstate settings?

 

[Mikestriken]

https://imgur.com/a/CHd8Tk1

View: https://imgur.com/a/CHd8Tk1


I shall attempt the upper link, and I did confirm that the port was still forwarding as before and all the IPs are correct...

Result:
RIP still no work.... I did reset it as well.... FOR WHY does this not work

 

[The Paladin]

is it just a particular port ? have you tried porting another one and testing it with https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/

 

[Mikestriken]

is it just a particular port ? have you tried porting another one and testing it with https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/

I have also tried the default Minecraft port of 25565 but to no avail...

 

[Mikestriken]

UPDATE THAT MAY HELP PEOPLE:
I use Moonlight game streaming if anyone knows what that is, but point being is that the software has it's own UPnP mapper and after attempting to map ports with that and failing I did get a log of what happened and it may help you guyz!

https://pastebin.com/WuWLTAnR

 

[Mikestriken]

I have found A way to solve the issue and allow me to forward my ports however it is not a viable solution, I CAN activate what is known as a DMZ on my default gateway:

https://imgur.com/a/6hqOHd5

View: https://imgur.com/a/6hqOHd5


HOWEVER after looking into what that does......

https://imgur.com/a/NnQiuUU

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

In other words.... BASICALLY MAKE MY PC MORE EXPOSED THAN A PORCUPINE ON IT'S BACK!


EDIT:
With some further experimentation with the DMZ feature I find that it is only opening the port I want opened (port 6969) and no other ports regardless of if they are being forwarded or not.... TF not even the ports adjacent to 6969 (such as 6970 or 6968) are forwarded!?!?!? someone plz explain what the DMZ feature does!

Also I don't count this as a solution bc what if I want to forward another port or what if I want to use moonlight gamestreaming and stream some of my games to another computer? so I still need to figure out how to port forward again...

Also WHO MAKES A FEATURE THAT FORWARDS ONLY THE PORT 6969!?!? LOL

UPDATE:
I found out why the port was being forwarded only on port 6969 through use of the netstat command and luck due to the server not running.... it was uTorrent, if you recall when I was trying to forward ports using UPnP, I recalled that uTorrent worked for port forwarding a long time ago so I have it a shot yet the port was still closed. However evidently whenever I flick on the DMZ feature it allows uTorrent to get through....

New problem however, although the port is forwarded and I can run the minecraft server successfully whenever I attempt to connect to the server (not through my local address and instead my public address) I get this new error:

https://imgur.com/a/n91tQE3

View: https://imgur.com/a/n91tQE3


Can I just say why THE HELL CAN I NOT CATCH A BREAK WITH ALL THESE ISSUES THAT CAME STRAIGHT OUT OF NOWHERE, IT WAS WORKING JUST FINE LAST WEEK WHAT CHANGED!?!?!?

UPDATE:
And to make matters even more interesting, it seems that the ports are now "open" regardless of if the router is on DMZ mode or not... so long as the P2P client is set to the same port.... I still however cannot connect to the server for the same error up above even though I turned DMZ off and ports still refuse to forward the normal way....


UPDATE:
I found out that RDP does the same thing as uTorrent in that it makes a port open however I cannot bind my server to that port so long as RDP is active so USELESS.... However I will note that the port didn't forward unless 2 criteria are met, the first is that port 3389 must be forwarded and the 2nd was that I enabled RDP in window's settings.


I should also add that I went ahead and spent $60 on my own router just in case my ISP was preventing me with the default router, but same issues persist.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!

 

[Mikestriken]

I despise that you guyz couldn't help me out......
HOWEVER I HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION:

EXECUTE ME FOR BEING A DUMBASS AND HIRE AN ACTUALLY INTELLIGENT PERSON TO FORWARD PORTS AND WORK ON SERVERS!

Yeah, I read multiple times things like:

https://imgur.com/a/Hpd1DeY

View: https://imgur.com/a/Hpd1DeY


And I thought that they seemed unlikely since it seemed that I could no longer connect to my Nvidia library through Moonlight Gamestream....

and THROUGH THIS ENTIRE TIME I DIDN'T DOUBLE CHECK IT because I thought I already had, well I think I did check it beforehand however I put it a 1 instead of a 0 or was off by a digit in an IP somewhere in the configs which broke everything and thus I didn't really "check" it....

But yeah, today at 6 pm EST I checked it again and realized that I have been the biggest dumbass and this has been one of the hardest lessons to learn about port forwarding as it took 5 days of depressing work that led to nowhere and wasn't solving my issue to find out that the cause was as described in the screenshots............

Basically what I can infer from what I learned
Is that your router automatically makes a port look like it is closed even if it is set to be port forwarded unless an application (in this case my minecraft server) is open and running therefor actively using the port.... if minecraft is USING the port then the port will be open, but if minecraft is NOT using the port it will look closed.... The reason the router does this (as learned from trying to use uTorrent and RDP to forward the ports for me) is that only 1 thing can use a port at a time, you CANNOT run 2 things through 1 port, which is why some applications may request that you forward multiple ports because multiple things need to access those ports.... Why do ports only allow 1 thing to access them at a time? well because if we have this feature were unused ports that are open are closed and that only 1 thing can use a port at a time then some hacker can not scan your router for ports that are open and then access your computer or files through that open port as that port that is open is open only because SOMETHING IS ACTUALLY USING IT and 2 THINGS CANNOT USE A PORT AT THE SAME TIME...

at least this is what I can infer from my experience...
so yeah, I am a dumbass and this thread can now be closed...