Type 3 NAT on this EE4G home broadband..found no fix ?

Recently moved house to Wales and found out we had a so called fibre connection that had a line speed of 1mbps which in all honesty is a complete waste of time, looking at the options someone mentioned mobile broadband 4g with EE.

Package for 200gig capped each month is a bit of a joke but it was the only option to get better speeds after telling BT there so called fibre line was not fit for purpose and cancelling.

Even installed the exterior arial at a cost of £100,all is fine and dandy and we get download speeds of around 80/100 which is exceptional .....But the dreaded Type 3 NAT which EE claimed would work for online gaming and that is a complete lie.

Initially when i inquired with EE about the device i was told it was fine with gaming [thats a lie] because with this mobile home router for starters the inner system menu does not have the facility of most 3rd party routers or options and the fact that now when using my Playstation 4 and Xbox One and Nintendo switch i get strict nat [type 3]

I have tried turning on the DMZ and this makes absolutely no difference and i don't even know why this is, does not seem to be a way to port forward and i have racked my brains spending hours on the internet trying to find a way around this, was even going to invest in another 3rd party router with a sim card to see if this would help, but reading various posts this won't make any difference.

Anybody suffering the same NAT issues ? with this system, anyone know any possible answers to get this of type 3.

Even spoke to a so called technical guy at EE who claimed he had the same problem but his manger told him how to fix it, promised to ring me back with this claim but sadly he never did,personally i think he confused himself with the normal EE broadband.

What actual game are you having the problem with?

NAT is very common and a game needing extra settings tweaked is rare, unless you are the host of a match

Sometimes i connect and sometimes joining online games takes forever, the game in question is The last of us from Naughty Dog,a fantastic but frustrating online game 4 v 4.

To be honest i have not tried playing much because of all i have read about type 3 Nat not been suitable for online gaming.

I would just like the option to take it from type 3 to at least type 2 or even fully open type 1 if that was a option.

Edited by time2die (Sun 30-Sep-18 10:54:08)

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

NAT is very common and a game needing extra settings tweaked is rare, unless you are the host of a match

My complete guess would be related to the fact this is cellular. Wouldn't the problem be "double NAT", given the cellular network is doing CGNAT (on IPv4 at least) and the router will be doing NAT ?

Seen a lot regarding this CGNAT you mention and the way mobile comes into the house as opposed to conventional line broadband ?

To be honest i do not really know what this CGNAT means or for that matter what is Ipv4 means' have seen mention that if it was Ipv6 it would not have the Nat issues.

I asked about online gaming with this mobile broadband and EE told me there would not be any issues which in reality is not true.

Have been on the EE forums and this NAT is a common problem and as of yet i have not found a single fix, played with the server settings on the playstation as mentioned by posts that i have found but to no avail and running the test i still get Type 3 regardless of what changes i make inside the EE router or consoles.

I would have thought switching the DMZ button to on would have solved this problem, however nothing changes which is odd ?


This below is one of many posts regarding this issue on the EE Mobile 4g forums.

Re: 4gee wifi box PS4 nat type 3 issue
‎10-02-2018 07:35 PM
EE mobile network uses Carrier Grade NAT (CGNAT), which means that you don't get your own public IP address but share it with other users. So you can't be uniquely id'ed on the Net. This is unlike fixed BB.
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Edited by time2die (Sun 30-Sep-18 10:55:12)

In reply to a post by time2die:

Seen a lot regarding this CGNAT you mention and the way mobile comes into the house as opposed to conventional line broadband ?
To be honest i do not really know what this CGNAT means or for that matter what is Ipv4 means' have seen mention that if it was Ipv6 it would not have the Nat issues.

Yes, the mobile network is quite different. When you buy conventional broadband you get what is called a "public IP address" assigned from the connection to your home router. Then you share that IP address with all the devices you have in the home, typically via WiFi and sometimes by Ethernet cables. The technology that is used to do the sharing is NAT = Network Address Translation.

Typically in mobile networks the IP address you are assigned is not a public one. It is one that has already been shared through a big router by the mobile network. This is known as CGNAT = Carrier Grade Network Address Translation.

It is the same as if you had conventional broadband and connected your PC or Game system to a router, then connected that router to the main one that connected to the internet.

What is unclear is if EE offer a mobile broadband service that does not have this restriction. On a phone or tablet it is not typically a problem. On a home connection it can cause problems, that you are getting.

I asked about online gaming with this mobile broadband and EE told me there would not be any issues which in reality is not true.

It will probably depend very much on the game itself.

Have been on the EE forums and this NAT is a common problem and as of yet i have not found a single fix, played with the server settings on the playstation as mentioned by posts that i have found but to no avail and running the test i still get Type 3 regardless of what changes i make inside the EE router or consoles.

Yes because you can only change one of the routers, there is one inside the EE network that you can't touch.

I would have thought switching the DMZ button to on would have solved this problem, however nothing changes which is odd ?

No because that only works when you don't have NAT happening in the network. You can't control what happens inside the EE network. Only on your router.

You would have to ask EE if they can supply a "public IP address" to the router, in the same way as their conventional fixed line broadband. If they cannot, it is not suitable for your specific game.

Some mobile networks have offered public IP addresses in the past, notably Three on data connections, but I don't know if they still do. There is an extreme shortage of IP addresses which is forcing this.

Thanks for taking time out to explain mate, appreciate it.

You're welcome.

This is the exact reason I use Three.

They are the only mobile provider I've found that as part of their standard package offer a real public IP address.

I use it as my backup Internet connection and it works great with port forwarding / DMZ / anything else just as my standard ADSL2+ line does. It is a dynamic IP address, which is not ideal, but understandable. I just use DynDNS to give it a DNS name and use that.

I use my own 4G device (a RUT950) and router (Ubiquiti EdgeRouter).

The downside of Three is the (currently) lower usage allowance and slower speeds (but still very quick) compared to EE.

I thought Three did that but only on data plans. Not on voice plans.