Question Port forwarding woes

Mar 28, 2020
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Hello all,

I imagine this questions pops up rather often on here (I can see from the suggested posts above) but I seem to have a - somewhat - unique issue. My router is a FRITZ!Box 7530 and has port forwarding options. I know my computers IP and my public IP and that my public IP isn't private. When I forward ports on my router, they come up as being forwarded however aren't forwarded when I check. Even when I enable the exposed host (DMZ, I believe) option on the router, only 6 TCP ports open, the rest stay closed regardless.

Am I missing something here? The router says the ports should be open but they aren't and even with the exposed host option enabled (which to my knowledge should open every port) only 6 TCP ports open.

I am by no means an expert regarding networking, I've only done this once before and it was a long time ago, but it was with the same router and definitely used to work. Any help would be very much appreciated. I should note.. I'm led to believe my WAN IP is the same as my public IP as the router lists my IP address as the same one that appears when I use IP checker websites.
 

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
Hello all,

I imagine this questions pops up rather often on here (I can see from the suggested posts above) but I seem to have a - somewhat - unique issue. My router is a FRITZ!Box 7530 and has port forwarding options. I know my computers IP and my public IP and that my public IP isn't private. When I forward ports on my router, they come up as being forwarded however aren't forwarded when I check. Even when I enable the exposed host (DMZ, I believe) option on the router, only 6 TCP ports open, the rest stay closed regardless.

Am I missing something here? The router says the ports should be open but they aren't and even with the exposed host option enabled (which to my knowledge should open every port) only 6 TCP ports open.

I am by no means an expert regarding networking, I've only done this once before and it was a long time ago, but it was with the same router and definitely used to work. Any help would be very much appreciated. I should note.. I'm led to believe my WAN IP is the same as my public IP as the router lists my IP address as the same one that appears when I use IP checker websites.
It sounds like you have a software firewall running on the host. That could explain why only selected ports are open.
 
Mar 28, 2020
5
0
10
It sounds like you have a software firewall running on the host. That could explain why only selected ports are open.

That's something that I'd considered too but I checked Windows Defender and both the TCP and UDP ports are enabled for any connections under Inbound Rules. As far as I'm aware there's nothing else that should be blocking the ports from being open.
 
Mar 28, 2020
5
0
10
Ports are only open if there is a program listening on the port and responding. Check that the program is actually active on the port you think should be open.

Yeah, the program (a server) is open when I'm checking the ports. It's setup to use the ports that I've opened but still no dice.