Question Port Forwarding Issue

[j3rkface]

I'm trying to setup a server for a game (assetto corsa competizione). I launch the server and get an "ERR: TCP socket error detected 10054" message. I used https://canyouseeme.org/ to check and see if the port i setup on port forwarding was open and working. Here i get the message that connection was refused. So I'm assuming something is wrong with my port forwarding. Here is what I've done.

• I've triple checked that the port forarding in my router was setup correct
• I disabled all firewalls on my computer just to check and see if that was an issue
• I've setup a static IP
• I called my ISP to see if they block ports (they don't)

I probably blocked out more than I needed here, but I wasn't sure. I can provide more information if needed. just let me know. Thanks in advance for help.

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[bill001g]

There are 3 common things that make port forwarding not work.

1. Be absolutely sure you have a public IP. Check that the IP you see in the wan setting on your router matches the IP you listed that starts with 76.76

2. Although your port forward rules look correct try to use the DMZ option instead. That is much simpler to configure and it allows all port through so for apps that might use something different than you though it will work. You can then try again to get the port forwarding rules setup since they are confusing in most routers.

3. Make sure the program is actually started and running on the port. You can generally see the application as listening on the port in the network tab of the resource monitor. You should also be able to access the application via the local IP address from another machine on your lan. I am unsure if you can play that game you want just on the lan but it is a good test if you can because the traffic goes directly between the machines so it lets you test things like firewall rules.

If this still all looks good then you try the brute force approach. Load a program called wireshark on the machine. This will capture all traffic coming to the machine. You want as little running on the machine except your game to avoid having to dig through massive amounts of data. What you want to find out is when you attempt to scan the port from the internet does the machine see the packet and if it does see the packet does it respond. You are going to have to play with this tool to learn it. You are looking for a packet that will be marked as a "SYN" packet coming in from some ip on the internet to the port you think your server machine is using.


......a addition edit turn off the IPv6 in your machine nic settings just to be sure you are using only IPv4 addresses.

 

[j3rkface]

Thank you bill001g for the reply and help.

1. As far as I can tell its the same. When I go in my WAN settings I see nothing about an IP address. (screen shot below). The only place I can see a the same IP address in my router settings as what appears on "whatismyip.com is under "internet" tab in my basic settings in my netgear router (2nd screen shot). I can confirm that IP address matches exactly what is on whatismyip.com. But agian, its not under my WAN settings. Let me know if that looks correct.

2. I believe I have my DMZ setup as well. You can see that in my first screen shot. I double checked it was pointing to the correct IP address for my system as well.

3. This may be my problem. I didn't realize I needed my program to be running in order to check if the port was open with a tool like canyouseeme.org. I have NOT have the program running. I haven't because it doesn't seem to work. I've assumed that the reason it would not work was because my ports are not opened correctly. Whenever I launch my server (This is an assetto corsa compitizione server) I get an "==ERR: TCP socket error detected 10054" (3rd screen shot) which I assumed was related to port forwarding. Maybe port forwarding is not my problem after all??? Do you happen to know what this error means. My research pointed me to a port forwarding issue.

Thank you again for the help!

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[bill001g]

I agree the first 2 point look fine. I will assume the 192.168.1.x IP you have is the same as you see when you do a IPCONFIG /all.

The 3rd one is tricky because it depends on the program and I have never used that program. Port forwarding when you use DMZ is almost impossible to screw up, you only have to get the IP of your server correct. It is hard to say if the program has a issue connecting to the port inside the OS or if it in some way is attempting to request some server connect to the port and it is failing.

If you look at the network tab in the resource monitor you will see a part of the display that says "listening port". You should see your program listed and some generic firewall setting. It should be active on the port you think and allowed by the firewall.

 

[j3rkface]

I checked out those listening ports and everything there looks okay. Any other thoughts? At this point, I'm wondering if it is something with the server software, or maybe my setup? I'm at a loss.

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[bill001g]

Can't tell when you black them out. Port numbers are not unique to your machine , in fact the port numbers tend to be the same on everyones machine running a particular application.

So if one of the ports you blacked out is 10054 then it is more of mystery.

Load wireshark and see if you see traffic coming in from the internet when you test. You might be able to brute force your way through it and find the packets. You can try a display filter like tcp.port==10054 but it is rather tricky to get filters to do what you need when you don't know exactly what the data you are looking for.

 

[j3rkface]

bill001g, thank you for your help with all of this. I'm happy to share port numbers if it is helpful. I'm not sure exactly what is safe to share verse what is not safe to share so I've blacked out numbers to be on the safe side. Let me know if it's helpful to provide you with specifics.

I download wireshark and launched it, but I really don't know how to use it or what exactly it is for. I'll have to watch some videos. Do you mind pointing in the right direction of how to use it. This is getting a little over my head. Thank you again for the help.

 

[bill001g]

The port numbers do not really matter. In this case it doesn't posting it would not make a difference one way or the other.

After going back and looking at this again it might be a different issue. The message you show complains about a TCP session on port 10054. If the actual program you are concern about is called accServe.exe in the latest image from what I can tell the only TCP port that is open is the one that start with 911x. The port you blacked out for that program is a UDP port. It does not have a port connected/listening for 10054 using TCP.

After a brief look at the instruction for setting up that server it doesn't list 10054 as a needed port. I am unclear what that message really means. I would be more suspect that there is some configuration error. This is where you also need very strong knowledge of what the server is actually doing.

It would be nice if wireshark was easier but it really is a tool that requires a lot of knowledge of how data really is transmitted and the additional complexity of not very obvious syntax commands. It really is like trying to drink water out of a fire hose there is just so much information. It is made much worse when you don't understand the game server code enough so you know what to look for. This It is something you use when you get very desperate. It has lots of easy to use reports if you for example just wanted to see how much traffic was going to different web sites.

My guess would be this is most likely something wrong with the server program rather than a network issue but that is purely a guess by me.