Cannot access internal device using ipv6 pinholes

[EE5HT]

I have EE full fibre broadband and IPv6 is enabled using the EE Smart Hub Plus router. When I perform IP address checks it reports both IPv4 and public IPv6 address, (not a ULA or link-local address).

I wish to remotely connect to a server on my local network using the servers IPv6 address. I can successfully connect to the server remotely using it's IPv4 address using port forwarding on the router. But after opening a port in the IPv6 Pinholes menu does not allow me to connect remotely, the port is closed. I can connect to the server via its IPv6 address from my local network, but not from outside of my home.

When contacting EE support over the phone, I was told they would not help me, they can only help when the connection is not working

Has anyone managed to access an internal device from the internet using IPV6 pinholes?

[EE5HT]

What was the solution?

[bobpullen]

I saw a similar complaint about this elsewhere on the Internet a few months ago. These were my findings at the time: -

Configured a pinhole rule for port 22 pointing to my SSH server on the local network (selected via the drop down in the Hub Manager dialogue).

Allowed SSH IPv6 traffic through the firewall running on the SSH box.

Tried opening an SSH session to the GUA address whilst both on and off my network.

Failed on both counts and tailing the firewall log on the SSH box, I can't see any v6 traffic hitting it.

So, strong suspicion it's a bug and is not working properly.

[bobpullen]

@EE5HT - see my reply to your other post here.

[EE5HT]

EE support is borderline useless, I guess the solution is to move to another provider, which one supports IPV6 properly to access internal servers?

[EE5HT]

Moving to another provider isn't feasible due to a two-year contract that requires paying all remaining monthly fees. Essentially, I'm stuck with EE and their low-skilled support, which is limited to remotely restarting the hub. Additionally, 99% of them are unfamiliar with IPv6.

Is the Smart Hub Pro as inferior as the Smart Hub Plus? Reviews suggest their admin interfaces are identical, implying similar functionality issues.

I'm considering replacing my current setup by purchasing a generic router from Amazon and configuring it myself. If anyone has successfully done this, I’d appreciate hearing about your experience. Specifically, is it possible to correctly expose an internal server to the internet using an IPv6 address?

[TraderTravel]

I have a wireguard server setup which I have setup to support IPv6 (and IPv4) to allow me remote access into my home network. This is important for me as if I use my mobile, EE use CGNAT on their mobile network meaning that IPv6 is the only way forward if I want to access anything in the house when I am not home.

My my case I have everything setup, and to be perfectly honest it just works. The pinholes interface is not too bad, although in my case due to other issues reported on this forum, I have setup a separate DHCP/DNS server (using dnsmasq and unbound) to my EE Smart Hub Pro. I'm not sure if this separate setup is making sure that everything works.

I know when I was originally setting up the dual stack environment, I kept on having issues mainly because of some misconfiguration around DNS servers.

[EE5HT]

Good to know the EE Smart Hub Pro is working with IPv6 pinholes.

It suggests that  my current router  (Smart Hub SH32B) is simply incapable of exposing a device with a public IPv6 address 

I will try buying the Hub Pro on Ebay and just plug it in to see how it goes - as opposed to pay EE an extra £10 pm to "upgrade"

In any case, if anyone managed to use pinholes with SH32B please let me know

Thanks 

[JimM11]

@EE5HT You are wrong in the assessment for the trapped period!

[EE5HT]

UPDATE

Ordered a EE Smart Hub Pro, the equipment is identical to the Hub Plus; IPv6 pinholes don't work at all, the port is inaccessible from the internet. Here are the steps I went through:

1.  https://test-ipv6.com/ returns 9/10 
2. Advanced Settings ->  IPv6 -> Configuration:  ULA enabled  and Allocation Mode: Stateless
3. Advanced Settings ->  IPv6  -> Pinholes: a single line where  Device is the IPv6 from an internal computer, Start and End are set to 9999 and protocol is TCP
4. Restarted the router and the internal computer
5. Trying to connect to port 9999 with the IPv6 of the internal device fails