Help with Port Forwarding!

[BENBOBBY]

Im experiencing a lot of lag while gaming online (Battlefield) and the game forums recommend opening ports on your router so it can connect properly. So I firstly assigned a fixed IP address:

Then I followed the instructions for port forwarding and entered the various suggested values. I selected the protocol as "Both" just to make sure:

Then hit apply and restarted my PC and router. However I then visited several port testing websites and they all report the ports are still blocked??! For example testing port 80:

Have I done something wrong or could my ISP (British Telecom) be blocking the ports themselves? Ive tried temporarily disabling Windows Firewall and my anti-virus. Im still experiencing connection issues in the game too.

Thanks.

 

[RMerlin]

Those instructions are wrong. You should not forward ports such as 443 or 80.

 

[BENBOBBY]

Those instructions are wrong. You should not forward ports such as 443 or 80.

Thanks for the reply and appreciate the concern. Those instructions were taken directly from EAs official website:

Source: http://help.ea.com/uk/article/online-ports-for-battlefield-3/

Might not be a good idea for the long term, but at least if they were definitely open then I could test and help determine what the issue was. So any ideas why its still showing port 80 as being closed? Could the security software on the router be blocking it if its a vulnerability ?

 

[L&LD]

Thanks for the reply and appreciate the concern. Those instructions were taken directly from EAs official website:

Source: http://help.ea.com/uk/article/online-ports-for-battlefield-3/

Those 'official' instructions are still wrong though.

 

[BENBOBBY]

Those 'official' instructions are still wrong though.

They are printed in the manual too. Anyway regardless, can someone please help in getting these ports open. If they are temporarily open and Im still lagging then I can at least rule it out. Thanks.

 

[ColinTaylor]

The instructions are "wrong" in the sense that ALL outgoing ports on the ASUS router are open by default therefore you don't have to forward anything.

Regardless, opening/forwarding ports won't have any effect on lag.

 

[RMerlin]

"Opening" and "Forwarding" is two totally different things, and unfortunately a lot of instructions are written by people who don't know the difference.

Ports 80 and 443 is needed in outbound, which means it must be open. Asuswrt opens ALL outbound ports by default, so there's nothing that needs to be opened by the user.

A forward is used for an inbound connection.

 

[RMerlin]

These are the ones you should open (forward) first:

It makes me sad that a company such as EA cannot tell the difference between the two.

 

[BENBOBBY]

Ok can you help me forward the ports then please. As shown by the testing website port 80 (and others) are closed despite following the instructions.

 

[ColinTaylor]

As we have repeatedly said, and the article you're quoting said, ports 80 and 443 need to be open outbound, not inbound. They are already open. They won't show up on your port forwarding tester because that is only testing inbound connections.

If your game needs any ports forwarding inbound then you should enable UPnP on the router. That way the game will be able to automatically forward any ports it needs by itself, without you having to do anything manually.

If your issue is lag in the game then that is nothing to do with ports being open or forwarded. Again, as the article you're referring to says, opening ports may solve issues of connectivity, i.e. being unable to connect to a server or game, or not having in-game chat. It doesn't solve lag.

 

[ElectronDF]

This is my opinion. Port 80 is a web server port. That means a computer (server) is setup behind your router to display a web page. you probably don't have that. FORWARDING is having equipment behind your router. OPENING is allowing your computer to talk to the internet. People have been saying and it is true, you don't need to forward port 80 for you to talk to the web (opening port 80). Your ISP might block a webserver (using port 80) is why it shows closed.

TLDR: Don't worry about messing with port 80, it won't help you. Same with port 443.

 

[RMerlin]

Your ISP might block a webserver (using port 80) is why it shows closed.

It shows as closed because his PC does not run a web server. Port tester can only test a port if you have an actual service running and answering connection attempts to the tested port.

 

[BENBOBBY]

Thanks for the replies, however I am a bit confused since the article from EA says "opening OR forwarding". Traffic to the game server comes inbound and outbound.

Fair enough regarding ports 80 or 443, but if I try testing ANY of the ports mentioned they are all shown as closed. Even when the game is open.

Apologies I said "lag" to simplify things for non-gamers, I am 'rubberbanding' (stuttering) and sometimes getting kicked for no packet flow by the anti-cheat software:

"Game disconnected: you were kicked by PunkBuster. Stated reason: PunkBuster kicked player 'BENBOBBY' (for 0 minutes) ... No Packet Flow"

I have tried with and without UPnP although EA advises to try disabling if having problems. Since the ports were shown as closed I thought it was likely to be the source of the problems. If you have any other suggestions though it would be appreciated as the game is unplayable at the moment. I have tried disabling any antivirus/firewalls on my PC.

Thanks.

 

[RMerlin]

Fair enough regarding ports 80 or 443, but if I try testing ANY of the ports mentioned they are all shown as closed. Even when the game is open.

As we said, this is because those instructions are wrong. A port tester will only be able to test a port that is really set for inbound - I suspect that the vast majority, if not the totality of the ports listed on that support page are related to outbound traffic - something a port tester CANNOT test.

UPnP is all you need to automatically forward the proper ports (if there is any needed - most games do NOT require any port forward). If you are still lagging, then your problem lies elsewhere.

 

[BENBOBBY]

As we said, this is because those instructions are wrong. A port tester will only be able to test a port that is really set for inbound - I suspect that the vast majority, if not the totality of the ports listed on that support page are related to outbound traffic - something a port tester CANNOT test.

Sorry but I dont get in what sense they are "wrong" as you keep insisting since they refer to opening OR forwarding those ports. They may not be applicable to ASUS routers or it may not be advisable but they are not wrong per say from what I can make out. You yourself even mention about forwarding ports!

Anyway aside from that debate, is there any way I can manually open/forward ports for the inbound direction?

 

[ColinTaylor]

If you want to manually forward ports then you would do it exactly as you have already described in your first post.

 

[RMerlin]

Sorry but I dont get in what sense they are "wrong" as you keep insisting since they refer to opening OR forwarding those ports. They may not be applicable to ASUS routers or it may not be advisable but they are not wrong per say from what I can make out. You yourself even mention about forwarding ports!

Anyway aside from that debate, is there any way I can manually open/forward ports for the inbound direction?

That's the problem: they do not specify which of these ports are inbound, and which are outbound. So, there's no way to properly configure anything with what they provide.

You've already tried forwarding all of them as per your screenshots, including those that shouldn't be forwarded, and it didn't change anything to your issue.

 

[BENBOBBY]

That's the problem: they do not specify which of these ports are inbound, and which are outbound. So, there's no way to properly configure anything with what they provide.
You've already tried forwarding all of them as per your screenshots, including those that shouldn't be forwarded, and it didn't change anything to your issue.

If I set them to open in both the inbound and outbound directions then it rules out everything. Yeh but as shown in the other screenshot from the port tester they are still shown as closed even with the game running! If you say that the tester measures inbound and the port forwarding sets up inbound and they are still reported as closed obviously something still isnt right. Are you able to port forward on your routers ok? Thanks.

 

[ColinTaylor]

You are not understanding how port forwarding tester works.

The port forwarding rules are correct. The reason the tester is showing the ports as closed is because there is nothing "listening" on that port at 192.168.1.153

 

[BENBOBBY]

You are not understanding how port forwarding tester works.
The port forwarding rules are correct. The reason the tester is showing the ports as closed is because there is nothing "listening" on that port at 192.168.1.153

Ok then. Shame theres not some way to test it actually works or determine whether my ISP is blocking ports. Would you guys possibly have any other ideas what the issue might be? I think it all relates to packet loss as thats what I get kicked from the server for. Pinging the server shows 0% loss though. Here is the traceroute of my connection to one of the servers:

As can be seen in the second step the request timed out which might indicate a problem? However when running a test on PingTest it indicates a good line with no packet loss:

ColinTaylor - I see you are from the UK, I dont suppose you happen to know if BT blocks ports or throttles connections? Im on BT Infinity and never used to have this problem before switching to BT (although the company I was with used BTs lines). Thanks.