Ports

I have two broadband connections, one from BT and the other from Xilo.
I have a slight problem, I want to host a server for me and my friends but no one is able to see my server when I'm connected to Xilo, but if I'm connected to BT they can.
BT has the BT Business Hub 2 router and Xilo is using a DGN1000 both set to firewalls enabled and UPNP.
I have tried DMZ, port forwarding, static ips, firewalls off and on but no matter what I change on my DGN no one is able to see me, I swapped the DGN for a Belkin one but the problem continues.
Unfortunately I cant connect the BT router up to Xilo to see if that works, any ideas what to try next?
Xilo state they don't block ports.

Edited by deleted (Mon 27-Aug-12 17:23:56)

Do you have 2 seperate house networks or just the one. Do you have any 'manual' settings set on your server that are set for the BT network and hence will not work for the other. Try using your server as a pc first with DHCP, then set it for a static address after that. If your intent is to use the xilo network to run the server, make sure the static IP/subnet/DNS/Gateway point to the xilo server only and that the bt/xilo servers use different IP addresses etc...

Yeh I use two different networks but run the server on the same pc after switching networks.
I've already tried everything you've said done with manual and dynamic settings.
Kinda stuck really :/

Yes if you have two broadband connections the first question is what does your LAN look like (diagram if you prefer)?

In other words, do you run both broadband connections at the same time both providing internet access from the same LAN (which is ok, and the usual reason is failover or load balancing) - in which case your problem may be routing given what you have already tried.

The second question is, if you want to host a server, what kind of server - on the default port(s) for that type or custom, and

Thirdly, on what operating system (e.g. depending what version of Windows / Mac the method varies for setting network configuration).

Can only make random suggestions without knowing more!

Pretty much what I would have suggested.

If both are used at the same time, the packet could be going back to the wrong gateway.

Matt

The server is an old game called Red Faction only requires one port 7755 and I have to phone lines coming in with to different routers and 1 computer but I'm only connecting to one internet at a time its just everything works on my BT one but it doesnt work on my xilo

OK I was partly checking in case it was something like FTP where there the ports for the data connection are dynamically chosen in addition to port 21 that most people would see listed in how-tos.

That kind of service was made when it was assumed there is already a true end-to-end connection without stuff like NAT to get in the way,

If it is just one port and the computer is accepting connections when on one of the routers I think we are safe to assume the computer side of things shouldn't need further changes.

So for the Xilo one we only need to consider the router and the ISP side of things (much as you have been doing).

1) With the computer hooked up for the Xilo connection, check the public IP using something like the TBB tool and confirm this is the same as what you have been giving out as the IP for the others to connect to

2) check your router firewall
DGN1000 (having checked the user manual) has a similar interface to many Netgear (Home) products when it comes to configuring rules, including my old and common DG834G


The basics:

First define a service, which specifies a port number (7755) and whether it is TCP, UDP or both (try both if not sure)

Second define an incoming rule, which specifies the service you are allowing, which WAN addresses are allowed in (the public IPs of the other people you want to allow to connect), the LAN address of the computer to forward to, whether to allow or block and whether to log.

To set that up you may want to initially choose Allow Always and Log Always or Match (so you can check the log to see if the router sees the incoming requests)

Note if the other people connecting do not have static public IPs you will either have to allow all WAN addresses or large ranges based on the block the ISP gives out (if you have heard of RIPE you can ask your other persons for their current IPs and find their ISP ranges there, otherwise it is going to be Allow All).

Thirdly this model also supports reserved LAN IP addresses so you can add an entry for the computer to ensure it is always given the same LAN IP from the Netgear as you need that for the incoming rule, while leaving the computer IP settings on Auto so you can connect it to either router without keeping changing things by hand.

EDIT: (I originally asked if you had enabled uPnP but reading again I see you have. I have revised the section below)

I don't know if that game does use uPnP to request ports opening automatically (it's something I only use if I trust all the computers / software on my LAN). You can still check the UPnP Portmap Table from time to time to see if anything is actually using it

Edited by prlzx (Tue 28-Aug-12 00:58:44)

Very simple answer!

Unless you've got a decent enterprise router between your server and the two ADSL Routers then you'll only ever be able to use one connection at a time.

Why?

Because your server has a default route set right, you can only have one default route. Unless you want to split a subset of Internet IP's through different ADSL connections?

It's not a point of port forwarding/firewalls etc... The traffic comes in from both ADSL lines and get's forwarded to the server. The servers goes Oh Hello... Then sends a resonse. It's TCP/IP configuration is only set to send to one default gateway... I'm guessing the XILO router...

A few of us thought that in so many words and asked about the setup.

The OP seems to have stated that they only connect the computer to one or other router at a time (otherwise as you indicate there is the matter of routing or what the computer uses as the default gateway).

Edited by prlzx (Tue 28-Aug-12 00:53:36)

Something you can do temporarily is enable remote management on the Netgear router (make sure you have a good admin password first).

Sounds odd but this will test that you can indeed make incoming connections to the public IP, then you only have to resolve why the traffic isn't making the last hop to the computer on the LAN.

Note if you have PING (or ICMP Echo Request) disabled on the Netgear router, you can enable it*, as it's another helpful tool for diagnosing problems like this.

If you still can't ping the WAN IP of the Netgear router or open its web interface remotely (while connected to the BT router or 3G or some other connection) then something else is wrong.

(*) In case anyone asks, it is a long time since being "not pingable" was considered to be a security measure. It is used for legitimate purposes (such as automatically determining the MTU of a given route) and more recently has taken on some essential roles in IPv6.

Edited by prlzx (Tue 28-Aug-12 01:11:44)

Red faction lists my name on the server browser instead of me having to give my IP out to everyone.
I have tried everything but the remote management, will do that later tonight after work and let you know.

In reply to a post by Lively:

Red faction lists my name on the server browser instead of me having to give my IP out to everyone.

Any possibility the server browser is not updating the IP for that name when you change connections then (or similar result if your listing is cached by the other copies of the game)?

Not being familiar with the game I'm guessing your local copy of the game registers with some online service which populates the server browser either as soon as the game is started or only when start to host a session.

One experiment would be to exit the game and ask the other persons to say how long before you disappear from the server browser, then change connections, restart the game and see how long before you reappear in the list.

Remote management failed, I see what you mean but I'll explain about the server browser:
I would start up my PC which automatically connects to Xilo, host a game and no one can see it, switch instantly to BT and have people be able to see it :/

Sorry for double posting.
I plugged my draytek vigor 120 v2 in and plugged my pc straight into that using windows pppoe cilent and people are able to see me on xilo!
Problem is, the draytek modem only seems to connect on 10mbps lan and not 100, which gives me a very bad throughtput of 2-6 Mbps instead of my consistant 16 Mbps on the DGN1000 router

Does the internet work though the Belkin or DGN1000 router on the xilo connection? No one appears to have asked this basic question. It's just that with it working using a modem and pppoe authentication I suspect an authentication issue (wrong username/password pair set on the router) and I'm not sure if you have ruled this out.

Yes, works very well gives me 16 Mbps throughput.

Interesting - if the internet can see your PC when you are on Xilo via a modem (+ PPPoE) but you can't connect to the Netgear router remote management in a web browser
http://xilo public-ip:remote-management-port-number/)
from a different (e.g. BT connection), even if remote management is enabled from all WAN addresses,
that would point to something else being wrong on the Netgear router.

Note on using PPPoE, depending on your version of Windows it might not automatically enable Windows Firewall on that PPPoE connection (to the computer it is another interface almost as if you added another network card), which would put your computer directly on the internet (as PPPoE via Draytek modem gives your PC the Xilo public IP).

In that case there is nothing left to block the game from working (or any other incoming ports for that matter!)

Where the "LAN" connection of the Draytek modem is being reported as 10Mbps, it is not a LAN connection as such but just an icon representing the PPPoE session / settings so a "speed" stat might be more related to modem sync or as opposed to ethernet data rate, especially if the exchange lowered your sync speed because of the disconnections.

But I haven't used the built-in PPPoE client for ages so can't confirm this.

Edited by prlzx (Thu 30-Aug-12 20:19:07)

Lively here, what I meant when I said LANI mean clicking Local Area connection on my PC and the speed there says 10Mbps my sync on the modem is well above that.
As for the noise margin increase with restarts, Im on full LLU