topic Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub in Broadband & Landline

Port forward not working with EE smart hub

freddy2004 — Sun, 22 Dec 2024 14:56:41 GMT

I just installed the EE smart hub. I'm having lots of problems when I copied port forward rules from the previous router. Most rules were not working. I could not figure out the be pattern. e.g. 9480-9499 udp/tcp worked fine while 5190-5199 udp did not.

Has anyone worked out what definitely works what doesn't?

Has EE got any firmware upgrade plan to fix the bug?

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

Mustrum — Sun, 22 Dec 2024 20:27:31 GMT

@freddy2004 what was your previous router? And which model do you now have Smart Hub is just a generic name, the model number is more helpful.

Did you use a seperate line for each port number, rather than try and use the block of port numbers?

Why not use the old router?

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

aviator56 — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 06:43:53 GMT

Well I’m relieved I’m not the only new Smart Hub Pro user with this same problem.

SH Pro installed 7 days ago, replacing a BR Smart Hub 2 on which I had some 15 or so port forwarding rules running without a hitch, a couple assigned by UpNp, the majority manually.

The new SH Pro does not list any UpNp assigned port forwarding at all, only those I have entered manually.

I run a Western Digital cloud server at home, which assigns IP and ports via UpNp, it is working fine, is accessible from the web remotely, therefore the correct ports must be open and forwarded - the WD device nor its ports are listed in the “Firewall” section.

The issue is complicated by the fact that the majority of devices connected to my network are only listed in the “My Network” tab of the SH Pro if I select the “Not Connected” option, despite them having been assigned IPs and functioning correctly on the network - bizarre!

In fact, I’ve discovered that those devices the router thinks are “disconnected”, which are actually connected, and have manually entered port forwarding or should have UpNp assigned port do NOT work when probed from the Web.

To be clear, the SH Pro is not opening ports for devices it thinks are disconnected, yet have correctly assigned IPs AND are pingable and functioning on my network.

Sorry for long post, but I’ve spent a week assigning ports, re-booting the router etc without resolving the problem. I’m reluctant to do a factory reset on the SH Pro to see if that resolves the issue, because it’ll take me a full day to set everything up again, a day I can’t afford atm.

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

freddy2004 — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:03:41 GMT

I had BT home hub 3 for a few years, which worked fine. EE sent me this Smart Hub Plus, product code SH31B, a few weeks ago after a new contract was signed.

Tried a single port number as a separate rule seemed to work.

I was a hard work to pin down the problem was due to port forwarding on the new hub.

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

freddy2004 — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:07:46 GMT

I have been using port forwarding on the 20+ different routers for about 20 years without any problems, I'm shocked to experience this with EE Smart Hub Plus.

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

freddy2004 — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:16:07 GMT

It seemed to that the attached devices have to use IPs within the DHCP range and reserve them in the address table. I could not port forward a device with static IP outside the DHCP range ( i.e. 192.168.1.64 - 253).

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

Ewan15 — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:49:41 GMT

@freddy2004 This is the same on the Smart Hub Pro so it looks like this is EE policy.

Maybe the addresses that sit outside the range are for use with WIFI Hot Spots that we all contribute to.

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

bobpullen — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:29:56 GMT

@freddy2004 - what firmware version is your Smart Hub Plus running? Some have been upgraded to a newer 2.x build recently and it would be interesting to know if forwarding a range of ports is still problematic? It's an issue that has been flagged by others round these parts in the past.

@aviator56 - There are a few other threads about UPnP too however, I think the Hub Pro is already running version 2.x firmware so potentially still waiting on a fix there? Things not showing as connected when they are is an odd one; is there any commonality between the devices that are doing this? Anything non-orthodox about your network configuration/other settings? e.g. additional access points, servers etc?

@freddy2004 wrote:
It seemed to that the attached devices have to use IPs within the DHCP range and reserve them in the address table. I could not port forward a device with static IP outside the DHCP range ( i.e. 192.168.1.64 - 253).

Very curious. There's definitely not a complete dependency on the hub's DHCP server because I have that switched off entirely and my port forwards are working fine. That said, my client devices are still within the hub's default DHCP range. Might try temporarily setting something up with an IP < 192.168.1.64 and see if I observe the same...

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

Ewan15 — Tue, 24 Dec 2024 07:38:11 GMT

@bobpullen Did you succeed in setting an IP address outside of the DHCP range? I suspect IP < 192.168.1.64 are reserved.

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

bobpullen — Tue, 24 Dec 2024 09:14:22 GMT

@Ewan15 - haven't had the chance to try yet; doubt the opportunity will arise until after the Xmas festivities but I'll be sure to report back.

Just a thought though for @freddy2004 - When you say there needs to be a DHCP reservation, how are you selecting the target device for the port forwarding rule? There are two ways to do this: you can select from a list of client devices (which I assume uses the DHCP table) or you can click the 'Show IP address' button in the column header (which allows you to input a specific LAN IP address). If you enter an IP outside of the DHCP range using the latter method, then what happens?

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

Derek_B — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 11:39:07 GMT

I was also having issues with port forwarding not working on my new EE router (even turning on the DMZ didn't help) which had been working fine on my old BT router. Ended up talking to customer services for nearly an hour but no success, they wasnt aware it was an issue but said they would pass it to the technical team.

I've had to use my old TP-Link router which I had as an access point (comically was cheaper than an actual access point when bought) which works fine, just for first hour internet was a bit iffy but has settled down fine now. You can find info for 3rd party routers if you google search "EE 3rd party router", just note that support won't be able to run diagnostics on it.

So considering what everybody is saying it has to be an issue with either the hardware or firmware of the new smart hub as 3rd party and BT works fine.

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

XRaySpeX — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 14:42:19 GMT

@Derek_B : No need to Google! In Using & Configuring a Third Party Router you'll find everything you need to set up your router incl. the BB PPPoE creds. which are now the same as BT's.

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

freddy2004 — Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:56:29 GMT

Just report back my latest experience with this Hub again.

I was trying to put another fixed IP into the hub's address table, but I could not log into the router:

I tried waiting for more than 10 minutes after hitting OK and power off and on again. It never managed to get out a dead loop to show the EE logo.

I had no choice but to hard reset it. I'm not going to manually enter ~60 lines of single-port forward rules again as I'm sure this is not the last problem. I cannot afford the time and interruption to my connection. I'm going back to my old BT hub.

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

freddy2004 — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:36:14 GMT

I thought I should give the Hub another try before the holiday ends. I think the chop error and the dead loop at the logo page may well be an upgrade not finished cleanly. After a hard reset, I checked the FW version which is r1.35.0-R-1138091-PROD-83002. I cannot tell which FW it was running before, as there's no log of the upgrade if any.

I tried the range port forward again and I discovered that extern traffic for any port within the range will be sent to the lowest internal port of the range: e.g. if I open 1500:1509/1500:1509 and external traffic is trying to connect to 1505, the connection will end up at 1500! If the process at 1500 is down, then the connection cannot be made, even the process at 1505 is up.

I then tried to enter ~50 single port rules, I ended up with no connection to any of the ports I opened.

My conclusion is I CANNOT use this hub as it is to do the job I need.

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

aviator56 — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 20:58:21 GMT

Interesting, but my port forwarding is definitely not working for IP addresses in that range.

There is definitely an oddity with my SH Pro router not believing devices are connected, but are clearly given IP addresses and are pingable,

It’s making the router not fit for purpose, none of my security cameras are accessible.

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

aviator56 — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 21:10:27 GMT

@bobpullen My SH Pro has a 2x firmware.

Devices in IP ranges above 192.168.1.64 are variously connected by WiFi and Ethernet via an 8 port switch or an 8 port POE switch depending on their location.

Of those devices the wired connections generally show as “connected” but not always, some are shown as “disconnected”, most of the WiFi devices show as “connected”, but not all very oddly, one being an Rpi running FR24 flight tracking software that is on WiFi, with manually entered port forwarding that just isn’t working - an external port prob shows the port shut, that is clearly accessible from the network internally.

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

freddy2004 — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 09:21:23 GMT

I have a Linux server running various processes using wired connection with a fixed IP. Each of the processes has its own unique port number so it can be identified from external clients.

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

bobpullen — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 12:39:25 GMT

@aviator56 - I'm a bit confused about your situation. Are you able to provide any more detail about what is specifically forwarded where, how the port forward rules are configured, and how you have asssigned static IPs to the destination devices? Did you try using the IP address in your port forward rules rather than selecting a device from the drop down?

@Ewan15 wrote:
@bobpullen Did you succeed in setting an IP address outside of the DHCP range? I suspect IP < 192.168.1.64 are reserved.

As mentioned, I currently have the DHCP switched off on the hub but I've trieds and yes, I can forward trafffic to a local IP below 192.168.1.64. This is the outcome of me forwarding external TCP 22 to a local machine assigned the IP address 192.168.1.10: -

@freddy2004 - Not sure why the single rules haven't worked for you; must have taken an age to enter them all! Seems from other threads that there's definitely a firmware update on the horizon that might resolve the range issue. Bit of a catch 22 though as the hub will need to be connected and online in order to receive it 🤔

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

freddy2004 — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 06:36:23 GMT

@bobpullen Thanks for the reply.

Maybe there's a maximum number on the port forward rules. But I don't know what that number is.

As far as I can see, the port range forward bug at the moment maps all ports within the external range onto the internal starting port.

I'll find a work around by reducing the number of ports I need for now until the bug is fixed.

Re: Port forward not working with EE smart hub

freddy2004 — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 08:21:00 GMT

The Hub firmware has been upgraded to r2.68.11-R-1260390-PROD-83002 overnight.

The range port forward seems to behave properly now! 😍😍😍

Very eventful holiday period with everyone yelling at me.

I thank everyone for the helpful discussions.