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)