Three and gaming

Does 3 use cgnat? My friend is trying to set up an xbox with 3 router and it is saying double nat. He bought an Asus RT-AX86U so he could put the the Zyxel 3 router in IP passthrough (Bridge) and the Asus could do the routing. He set up a DMZ on the Asus to the Xbox after bridging the Zyxel. But still no go. I am now wondering if this configuation is ever going to work?

I believe Three is the only network that doesn't NAT. You do need to select the 3internet APN, which is only available on "real" Three (not MVNOs such as Smarty and iD).

In reply to a post by richi:

I believe Three is the only network that doesn't NAT. You do need to select the 3internet APN, which is only available on "real" Three (not MVNOs such as Smarty and iD).

The name will connect on the other MVNO's but will still be CGNAT. The other telcos have services without NAT, but you have to be a business to get these services, not sold to home users.

Some people have used an AAISP L2TP tunnel to enable gaming over other telcos where fixed line broadband was unachievable.
https://www.aa.net.uk/broadband/l2tp-service/

In reply to a post by jchamier:

The name will connect on the other MVNO's

The way Three works is you can type any old garbage in the APN box and it acts just as if you'd used three.co.uk. The only special APN I know of is 3internet (from memory, 3services and 3netaccess used to behave slightly differently, but I don't think they're valid any more).

In reply to a post by richi:

The way Three works is you can type any old garbage in the APN box and it acts just as if you'd used three.co.uk. The only special APN I know of is 3internet (from memory, 3services and 3netaccess used to behave slightly differently, but I don't think they're valid any more).

I understand this is normal practice, and actually probably does the same on the other networks. The profile for your account at their end controls.

You'd be surprised how often that's not the case. For example, EE doesn't give any connectivity if you put in the wrong APN, as I discovered by wasting time fixing SWMBO's phone when her new SIM didn't auto-provision and I mistyped it.

Also, Lebara users can get faster throughput on a congested cell by changing the provisioned APN to one of Vodafone's.

In reply to a post by richi:

You'd be surprised how often that's not the case. For example, EE doesn't give any connectivity if you put in the wrong APN, as I discovered by wasting time fixing SWMBO's phone when her new SIM didn't auto-provision and I mistyped it.
Also, Lebara users can get faster throughput on a congested cell by changing the provisioned APN to one of Vodafone's.

Shame, it reduces support calls. Oh well... and hilarious that Vodafone haven't secured their APN from their own MVNO customers...