Port Forwarding Issue

[MisterWoody_]

Hi all,

I had port forwarding working fine yesterday, but overnight I think my Smarthub Pro 7 had a firmware update to 
r3.8.26-R-1595999-PROD-1
and I can no longer seem to get this working even after removing the rule and re-adding.  I have restarted the router to no avail.
Anyone else having a similar issue? It's only day 2 of me having this hub/router and I've just returned my previous smarthub.
Many thanks

p.s. Something that did cross my mind, netgear recommend a factory reset after upgrading firmware, and I had issues with one of their routers when I didn't do this step, but after it was rock solid; so is the lack of a factory reset potentially an issue?

[Ewan15]

@MisterWoody_  The label on the box hints at the Firmware the router come which on mine was 2 49 5. It seems any new Pro Router will update to r3.8.26-R-1595999-PROD-1 (however routers that are on version r3.8.24-R-1531355-PROD-1  will not update to this version).

NB Factory resetting your router will not change the firmware version that has been applied.

[MisterWoody_]

Hi Ewan.

Thanks for the tip about the box label.  (I'm aware that the factory reset wouldn't change the firmware version. I mentioned it as it was a Netgear advised instruction if there were router instabilities after a firmware update which in the case I had fixed an issue related to frequent wifi dropouts)

[MisterWoody_ · Accepted solution]

OK - so this looks to not be related to port forwarding at all but a windows PC firewall issue I believe.

Booting to linux gives flawless results, so I'll start investigating the windows side.

Thanks for all the suggestions and help

Update - adding incoming rules for port 443 on TCP/UDP has resolved the issue

[MisterWoody_]

Indeed - I never meant to suggest that it would.  As my initial post mentioned this is recommended by Netgear for their routers and after doing that I had a rock solid connection.

So I was looking for best practice.

Unfortunately - after the factory reset it's made zero difference so in this case I assume not applicable.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Barneyabz]

@Ewan15  where have you heard that Pro routers on older firmware update to r3.8.26 but those on r3.8.24 do not update? Is that for real? do you know the reason why?

Also, do you know when a new firmware update is coming to the Pro? At the moment my Pro is in a drawer as it is too unreliable (on r3.8.24). It periodically loses all throughput - devices show as connected to internet but nothing works. Switch router off and on and it starts to work again....until everything freezes again a few hours or a day or two later. Very annoying, especially when you are working from home and need reliability. I'm currently using my old Smart Hub Plus but would love to use the supposedly more powerful Smart Hub Pro as I have an extender with that as well to give me even stronger coverage.

[MisterWoody_]

I believe I have the latest update for the PRO hub and extender, and they're performing pretty well - no disconnects other than a brief hiccough when streaming video on my mobile and it switched from the extender to the hub.

I have done a bunch of factory resets since the update when trying to troubleshoot my port forwarding issue (turned out to be a windows firewall issue in the end that is resolved). If you don't have a huge amount of config infor set up on your PRO then I'd recommend doing the factory reset - and if it's tucked away being unused at preset then I assume there's no real issue in trying that. You'd want to pick a time that it isn't during your workday though if working from home as it will take at least a few minutes to get back up and running.
It would be nice to have a manual option to load the latest firmware, but my understanding is it's a custom OpenWRT firmware and like the BT smart hubs is upgraded remotely during a presumably off peak interval.
My equipment is on r3.8.26-R-1595999-PROD-1
Hope that helps

[Ewan15]

@Barneyabz  My observations are based on my own tests and what other users have posted concerning firmware upgrades.

I have two Pro Routers one which I have had for many months and the other that EE sent me recently.

I could not get my older Pro to upgrade to r3.8.26 from r3.8.24 just as others have observed, however my new router upgraded from it's out of box software version, initially to  r3.8.25 then overnight to  r3.8.26.

Other users have reported their recently supplied Pro upgraded to r3.8.26.

So I do not know the reason why, but the observations appear consistent.

[bobpullen]

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@MisterWoody_ wrote:

OK - so this looks to not be related to port forwarding at all but a windows PC firewall issue I believe.

Update - adding incoming rules for port 443 on TCP/UDP has resolved the issue

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Are you talking about adding these rules on the Windows machine itself? I wouldn't expect you to have to do this. Have you checked to ensure that your Windows network connection hasn't reverted to 'Public' instead of 'Private' following the firmware update?

[MisterWoody_]

I'm actually happier that I had to intervene an add this rule to be honest.

You are correct that it appears to have set itself in the 'Public' profile rather than 'Private'.

At some point I'll likely set up something like a mini form factor pc or raspberry pi to handle the site instead.

Thanks for the feedback

[MisterWoody_]

I wonder if there is something slightly different in the hardware for the two routers? That may prevent a version upgrade potentially - but I think the software is a customised Open WRT firmware image and I've no idea how to check.