IBB & port blocking?

[mauvehillgus]

Hello all,

I was recently doing an installation of a router/firewall combo for a friend of mine in Drogheda and found that I couldn't get my device to pass in ANY traffic.

I had wanted to put in a simple IP camera that would listen on port 2050 (or similar) internally, and then pass any port 2050 traffic from the internet directly to this device by NATting into the LAN IP address of the camera.

I had two firewall devices with me - one provided by my mate and another that I know works - it's in use since then as a temporary measure for one of my clients (different provider - Eircom, sitting behind a low end Cisco Router), doing exactly the same job.

When the first device wouldn't play ball, I decided to use the second one, blaming faulty kit - to no avail.

Anyone know if IBB have started blocking traffic on specific ports? The camera was listening and responding happily on port 2050 internally. I had some colleagues run port scans against the IP address on which I was presenting to the internet, and I used GRC to test whether or not the specified port was open. All reported that there was no device listening on the "far end".

I tried a couple of different ports - but there were no packets passed through to the internal address. I know that the config of the appliances were right - I work with them nearly all day every day - and also the second device has been used elsewhere for the same task with very little reconfiguration work.

The connection speeds were fine - 1.8Mb up and 1.75Mb down - just no pass through of packets.

I can't think of any other possible explanation for the difficulty. Any ideas anyone?

[Scotty]

Can you test it on port 80? I use port 80 (in Drogheda too) for torrents and its definitely not blocked.

[paulmac84]

I've just checked my IBB connection for traffic over port 2050, and it works fine. (Tested with grc.com and bittorrent)

I know this might sound a bit simple, but have you checked that port forwarding on the router is set up correctly? Have you configured your firewall to allow traffic on this port? How about Windows firewall or another software firewall blocking access?

HTH,
Paul.

[JimmyJoeJohnson]

Lads I can tell you straight away I am 100% certain IBB do not block ports or shape traffic on their network.

[TRAB]

Originally Posted by JimmyJoeJohnson

Lads I can tell you straight away I am 100% certain IBB do not block ports or shape traffic on their network.

i cant really imagine that they don't shape traffic, as nearly every provider does that now...
i was with ibb before, and had bad problems after about 1,5 years... i had an very high amount of packet loss with there connection, what made it impossible to play online games... as they could not solve that issue at the time and they where very "ratty" on the support phone, i canceled the contract straight away with them...

... now i am with chorus and everything was fine till 3 weeks ago... i found out the chorus made a fusion with some other provider last month and since then the shaping problem appears... however, they told me that they hope to have it sorted by Friday this week... will see....

... unfortunately, there are still stupid people that download an very high amount of crap over p2p networks, so the isp's have to shape there traffic or they pay a lot of money to the server centers on the main land... the pity is, that this affects online games as well....

[blacknight]

Originally Posted by TRAB

i cant really imagine that they don't shape traffic, as nearly every provider does that now...

Can you provide tangible examples?

[paulmac84]

I don't think they do traffic shaping or port blocking, my experience is that the IBB network just can't handle the amount of traffic it's carrying, resulting in connection time-outs and reduced speeds.

[JimmyJoeJohnson]

Originally Posted by TRAB

i cant really imagine that they don't shape traffic, as nearly every provider does that now...
i was with ibb before, and had bad problems after about 1,5 years... i had an very high amount of packet loss with there connection, what made it impossible to play online games... as they could not solve that issue at the time and they where very "ratty" on the support phone, i canceled the contract straight away with them...

... now i am with chorus and everything was fine till 3 weeks ago... i found out the chorus made a fusion with some other provider last month and since then the shaping problem appears... however, they told me that they hope to have it sorted by Friday this week... will see....

... unfortunately, there are still stupid people that download an very high amount of crap over p2p networks, so the isp's have to shape there traffic or they pay a lot of money to the server centers on the main land... the pity is, that this affects online games as well....

Dude I work in Irish Broadband, believe me, we don't traffic shape.

[mauvehillgus]

Originally Posted by paulmac84

I've just checked my IBB connection for traffic over port 2050, and it works fine. (Tested with grc.com and bittorrent)

I know this might sound a bit simple, but have you checked that port forwarding on the router is set up correctly? Have you configured your firewall to allow traffic on this port? How about Windows firewall or another software firewall blocking access?

HTH,
Paul.

Howya Paul,

Thanks for the suggestion. Windows firewall was out of the equation as the firewall was passing traffic straight to the device.

I've not been back to the site since - the camera was an added bonus - had it worked...

I may, for pride, go back up there one of the evenings and see why it didn't work. I guess I'll just put a machine outside the firewall and watch to see what the packets do as I try to pass them in.

The firewalls were configured correctly. Both of them reset to defaults and set up from scratch on numerous occasions. Besides which, I set these yokes up on a near daily basis - for just these scenarios.

I also had some colleagues check the configs - in case of serious "user error" on my part - it was a Saturday morning, and I'd fallen into bad company in a hostelry the night before.

Guess it was just one of those things. If it works next time I'll let you know.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

[paulmac84]

Sorry I couldn't have been of more help.

I would be interested in finding out what the solution is, sounds like a bit of a puzzler!

Cheers,
Paul