RT-AC66U Ports Not Forwarding

[ZFX]

I have an AC66U that I am trying to forward some ports so I can run my FTP server and a small mindcraft server. I had the latest OEM firmware on there because the router is semi new and I wanted to give it a good shake down before I put Merlin's firmware on. I had the 2 ports I need forwarding to the two internal network IP's working great until today. I decided to change my mindcraft server around so I can easily do some plug in work for my kids. I added a new port of 32. My old port of 31 was still active. Once I got that server working, I deleted the port 32 to leave port 31 running so the kids dont have to change anything in their Mindcraft clients. This is where I ran into problems.

Once I deleted port 32, port 31 stopped forwarding too. So I deleted, remade the rule in the port forwarding section many times. I rebooted my router, dsl modem and computer hoping this would fix it. I even tried a new internet browser. Nothing worked.

I thought it must be a bug in the OEM version of ASUS' firmware since there are a ton of them. I flashed Merlin's latest on there and still have the same problem. So I reset the NVRAM via telnet, power button and the wps button. None of them fixed the port forwarding of port 31, it stayed closed.

I am now at a loss as to why my router just stopped forwarding those ports. I even tried forwarding the default port of 25565 thinking maybe it had something to do with the port I picked. Oh, I might add that port 21 for my FTP is working fine and is open. It is the only one that will open or close with the port forwarding menu. If I delete that rule, it closes, when I add it, it opens.

I am looking for any ideas of where to go from here. It feels like there is something broken in this router and I don't know how to fix it.

 

[ZFX]

Looks like I did everything possible? I was hoping someone might have a fresh idea. This is so frustrating.

 

[MasterC]

Did you ever manage to solve this issue?

I have recently installed some software that has required me to open up a few more ports, and no matter what I've tried nothing seems to open them. I have a few existing ports that have been opened for the last year or so, and they are still open. Any new ports I add to the port forwarding settings doesn't seem to work.

Any suggestions here would be welcome....

 

[sinshiva]

i just tested adding a new port forward and it worked just fine. your problems most likely have to do with the host you are forwarding to, assuming you have the correct destination. additionally, your ISP may be filtering ports for you.

what ports exactly do you need forwarded?

 

[encryption]

I wonder if it is the latest firmware that's causing this problem, I have the 68U and I can't get FTP port forwarding to work for the life of me after I updated the firmware.

 

[MasterC]

I have a suspicion this has something to do with the firmware. I've tried a couple of the last few releases of the Merlin builds, but nothing has worked.

I've been trying to open a multitude of ports (8080, 8090, 9090, and other random ports) and nothing seems to work. I've got ports 52199 and 30200 open from the last time I updated my port forwarding settings a few months ago. And I've also verified that my ISP is not blocking any of these ports....

 

[sinshiva]

i just tested forwarding ports 21, 8080, 8090 and 9090 to a webserver on my lan, all of which succeeded

(the browsers weren't happy about trying to use port 21 for http, though.)

 

[RMerlin]

I have a suspicion this has something to do with the firmware. I've tried a couple of the last few releases of the Merlin builds, but nothing has worked.

I've been trying to open a multitude of ports (8080, 8090, 9090, and other random ports) and nothing seems to work. I've got ports 52199 and 30200 open from the last time I updated my port forwarding settings a few months ago. And I've also verified that my ISP is not blocking any of these ports....

Post a screenshot of your configuration. I can assure you that port forwarding is working fine on the router, it is a configuration issue on your end.

Port forwarding is a very basic feature in the firewall code.

 

[=]H[= Apollo|Hawks]

Do you have UPnP turned off? When I turned mine on after countless hours of trying to fix the problem, all my port foward issues went away.

 

[speedingcheetah]

Are you leaving the "Local Port" field blank...? It should be.

The Help pop up says this:
"Leave this field blank if you want the incoming packets to be redirected to this port."

I was frustrated when I first set port forwards and it did not work, but soon as I left that field blank, works fine.

About FTP, did you disable(or change its port number)in the routers FTP server before setting the forward to an other LAN device using FTP?

It depends on what service or software you are using that require either TCP or UDP, if you are not sure, select Both option.

 

[MasterC]

I've tried both leaving the local port field blank, as well as filling it in. My existing port forwards that I've had in place for a while have this information filled in and seem to work just fine. As well, as tried setting for both TCP and UDP and both, with no different result. The entry for SABnzbd is the one I am specifically trying to open on port 8088.

UPnP is enabled.

As per the attached image, my port forwarding settings for J River and Plex have been working fine for months, over numerous versions of firmware.

I have never touched any of the settings in the routers FTP settings.

I must be missing something very obvious

 

[speedingcheetah]

I've tried both leaving the local port field blank, as well as filling it in. My existing port forwards that I've had in place for a while have this information filled in and seem to work just fine. As well, as tried setting for both TCP and UDP and both, with no different result. The entry for SABnzbd is the one I am specifically trying to open on port 8088.

UPnP is enabled.

As per the attached image, my port forwarding settings for J River and Plex have been working fine for months, over numerous versions of firmware.

I have never touched any of the settings in the routers FTP settings.

I must be missing something very obvious

Do you have the device you are trying to forward directly connected to this router you are setting the forward on?

I ask cause I see you have a forward for "Asus Second Router".

Also, is the device using a Static IP address. (manual DHCP assignment setting in LAN/DHCP Sever Tab).

 

[habskilla]

In SABnzbd, have you set the SABnzbd Host = 0.0.0.0?

 

[MasterC]

The device is my main PC which is directly connected to this router via ethernet.

I use static IPs for most of my devices on this router, including the PC I am trying to use with port forwarding (in this case, 192.168.1.11).

 

[habskilla]

@MasterC
In SABnzbd config under General, is SABnzbd Host set to 0.0.0.0?

 

[MasterC]

Yes, I have set the host setting in SABnzbd to 0.0.0.0.

I'm not sure why that would affect the port forwarding issue?

 

[habskilla]

if it's not set to 0.0.0.0 the outside world won't be able to get in.

 

[MasterC]

Well, problem solved!

I removed all my port forwards, saved my configuration settings, did a factory reset, reloaded my saved configuration file, re-added all my port forwards and voila! Everything is working as it should.

Why did this work? I really have no idea. Hopefully this helps out anyone else that is having similar issues.

Thanks to all on this forum who offered many helpful suggestions!

 

[geekparrot]

Hi All,

New here but I am having the same issues. I tried MasterC's resolution (saved the config file, did a factory reset, tried the setup again) but no luck. I am using Firmware Version:3.0.0.4.374_5517 (I assume that's the latest version, upgraded yesterday). Is this a known bug with the stock ASUS firmware?

Port forwarding should be very simple, but this is confounding me. I've done it on every router before this with no issues.

Thanks for any help!

 

[steves]

I have the same issue sort of. I'm Running version 3.0.0.4.376_1123 on a RT-AC66R.

Any port forward from the WAN to Local IP works fine as long as the port number is the same. For instance, publicIP:8080 will forward to localIP:8080, however publicIP:8081 forward to localIP:80, defaults to the routers IP.

Its painful because I have several access points on the network I would like to monitor remotely but they can only be accessed through port 80. I've done this fine on other types of routers.

Any ideas?