Linksys WRT1900AC no opening remoterig ports on the internet

[N6TR]

(Sorry - I had posted this in the wrong place earlier)

Decided to buy a new router and spend $240 at BestBuy for a "good one".

I have found that for some reason - the router is not wanting to put the ports for the remoterig boxes out on the internet (WAN).  The port forwarding stuff all works fine within the LAN.

I can take a port number that talks to other port 80 web pages (camera - AC switch box - network attached storage) - change it to the local IP address of either of my remote rig boxes - and the external port is no longer open (verified by my laptop using my cell phone to get to the interent - or also by using ping.eu which is a nice tool).  This is also happening for the other ports used for radio control (Audio - command - SIP).  Somehow the Linksys is deciding the IP address should not be made available on the internet?

This all worked fine with my old Belkin router that I was replacing.  I decided to replace the router because I was getting choppy audio using any of the better audio quality settings and though that maybe how SIP was being handled had something to do with it.  That probably still exists BTW - even when making sure the SIP stuff is disabled in the router. 

After at two hour chat with Linksys which only resulted in my issue getting escalated to someone who could really understand it - I now seem to have Linksys engaged on trying to root cause this.  I'll update this as I make progress. 

I guess for now - this is a heads up that the WRT1900AC might not play well with remoterig boxes - and perhaps someone else has seen this and figured it out?

Tree N6TR
Boring, OR

[sm2o]

Hi.
It sounds strange, the Remoterig boxes way of handling IP is not unique, and I have never heard before about anyone having a router which have port forwarding problem with only the Remoterig boxes. I hope Linksys will check it up. I have used and still use linkys routers myself, but I have always changed to the DD-WRT firmware, but it looks like the DD-WRT community has not released anything for WRT-1900 yet.

73 de mike

[dj0qn]

Hi Tree,

I have the same router in my Florida QTH. The port forwards are easy to setup, but are somewhat
hidden. You find them under the Security section under "Apps and Gaming". Then you find menus
with port forwarding within that part.

Are you saying that you tried this and it didn't work? I can test it more if you want, but it would
seem strange that you can't get it to work.

Note that port forwards work by default internally. In other words, no ports ever need to be forwarded
if using the same network.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[N6TR]

Thanks Mike and Mitch. 

Yes - the port forwards are a bit hidden under "games".  And yes - they are pretty easy to setup. 

However, they are not playing at all with either one of two remote rig boxes.  And yes - THIS IS STRANGE.  I have had three phone calls and some email contact with tech support from Linksys (it was Monday morning in The Philippines).  They are very curious about what is going on. 

Simple problem statement - port forwarding is working on the LAN (internal) but not out to the internet.  However, other devices - like web cam - AC switch box and network attached storage do.  The question is - how does the Linksys know to treat the remote rig devices differently? 

This might make a good novel.  The fact that you have this working Mitch is very interesting.  Can you perhaps send me a screen shot of your port forwarding config page?  tree at kkn dot net.  Thanks.

Tree N6TR

[dj0qn]

Hi Tree,

I currently don't have the RemoteRig hosted in Florida. However, I will be back there in two
weeks and can run a test with you if this isn't solved by then.

Port forwards have no effect on the LAN, don't let that distract you. You reach everything with
or without port forwards. Port forwards only affect access from the outside.

Maybe you have SIP still turned-on. Go to "connectivity" and then "administration" and make sure
that the SIP box is unchecked. That would also prevent it from working. You may also turn the
firewall off. If you are using NAT and have firewall software on your PC's, then this is anyway overkill.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[N6TR]

Thanks Mitch.  Understand all you are saying.  While I don't need to port forward to work for the LAN - it is interesting to me that the port forwarding that I setup does work on the LAN.  The issue is that somehow the Linksys is deciding not to open those ports externally to the internet - where it has no problem doing it for other ports that go to other devices. 

It seems that there must be some kind of handshake that is being done where Linksys decides not to activate the port. 

Yes - I have SIP unchecked.

Tree

[sm2o]

It's not how it works. There is no handshaking, the RRC do not know that the router has made port forwarding. If the router do the port forwarding correct only the router knows about it.

73 de mike

[N6TR]

Issue has been root caused and resolved.

I was careless about updating the Gateway sever IP address and it still had the 192.168.2.1 entry from the previous router.  Moving it to 192.168.1.1 resolved the issue!!

Tree N6TR