Unable to forward port 80

[Yellow-Banana]

I was with Plusnet but they moved me over to EE a few weeks ago. I was sent a new router:

EE Hub Manager

• Product code: SH31B
• Firmware version: r4.26.3-R-1923144-PROD-83002
• GUI version: 3.14.5

I have a Synology NAS which I access from outside the home over HTTPS. The SSL certificate is provided by Let's Encrypt, and to renew the certificate, port 80 must be open and forwarded to the NAS. All was well until today, when the certificate expired and the NAS attempted to renew it.

It all worked fine with my Plusnet router, but forwarding port 80 does not work with the EE Hub Manager. The NAS uses UPnP to set port forwarding rules on the router. This works for all my other required ports, but it fails to set up and verify forwarding of port 80. If I go to the router's UI and forward port 80 manually, it is then listed along with all the other ports as a forwarded port, but it doesn't actually get forwarded. For example, if I go to an open port check tool, it says port 80 is closed.

There are some other threads on this forum complaining about this, but not all have the same router, and I couldn't find a solution.

I'm not going to do a factory reset, since I've only recently set up the router from factory condition, and I know from experience that a factory reset never solves anything, and it just wastes a couple of hours while you have to set everything up all over again.

Unbelievably, I telephoned EE support and was told that they do not provide technical support for port forwarding! This is EE, which is part of BT. I expected first class technical support, not this.

Does anyone know how to get port forwarding of port 80 working on a EE Hub Manager? Product code SH31B.

Thanks in advance.

[XRaySpeX]

I tag @bobpullen  who is a whizz at Port Forwarding Port 80.

[Yellow-Banana]

Out of curiosity, I'd still be interested in whether this issue can be solved, but in the meantime, I'm so **bleep**ed off with EE support that I've just phoned up Plusnet and they are taking me back. Good.

[XRaySpeX]

Curiously, yes, it is soluble!

[Yellow-Banana]

"Soluble" is the right word, since I just dissolved the EE contract. 😅

[bobpullen]

@Yellow-Banana - I am successfully forwarding port 80 so it is possible.

I assume you are successfully forwarding port 443 (or whatever you're using for external access) else you wouldn't be able to reach your NAS at all from outside?

What does the port forwarding table look like in the Hub Manager? i.e. what ports are forwarded, to what devices, and can you see any UPnP rules listed (they'll be greyed out with a tick in the UPnP column)?

Reason I ask is because we've seen other cases where port forwarding rules that are added do not work if they appear below  automatically created UPnP rules. See my post here. That was a different hub type but perhaps the same applies to the SH31B.

[Yellow-Banana]

Hello @bobpullen - thanks for your reply.

As mentioned, I've decided to go back to Plusnet, but because we won't be at that home until next month's activation date, I'm still interested in fixing the problem until then.

I access the Diskstation UI of my NAS over HTTPS on port 5001. Also over HTTP on port 5000, but that just redirects to HTTPS on port 5001. I only require port 80 because Synology uses Let's Encrypt for an SSL certificate, and the Let's Encrypt challenge requires port 80 to be forwarded to the NAS.

There are a whole bunch of UPnP rules listed. Some are created by the NAS, as expected, and some are created by Tailscale.

[JimM11]

@Yellow-Banana And also this post linked. Common look, common feel so common 💩

Solved: Smart Hub 7 plus - Port Forwarding horror. - The EE Community

[Yellow-Banana]

Yes, thanks, I read all that thread (and other threads) before I posted. It's not really all that comforting to know that other people have the same problem and are just as frustrated as I am.

[JimM11]

@Yellow-Banana If you do not need the EE Hub for anything then just replace it with a proven Hub that works, one way to get round it all, Landline DV Digital voice if needed by EE is the only real stumbling block. Even though you get it all working any FW update from the EE bods may cause havoc on a fully working system, been there done that and no longer an EE Customer. Painful though it may be, once the uPnP rules are in and written that is the big stumbling block to get over. My opinion only....

Another way may be pick up a 2nd hand BT Smart Hub 2 unit, think that works well with none of the real EE currently mixing it up. Covers the landline as well.