Solved Portforwarding not working

[kathy025]

Router: Aztech DSL5018EN

STEP 1: My laptop connects via wifi to the router and I have just set it to a static IP using Simple Static IP.

STEP 2: I added a rule for port 8080 following this guide.

However, when I check if the port is open, it is saying it cannot be reached.

I do not have any other antivirus installed apart from Microsoft Security Essentials. Did I mess up the settings somewhere?

 

[GokAy]

Any firewall? You may need to open the port from firewall too.

 

[kathy025]

I am only using the Windows 7 Firewall. I have now added the following Inbound Rule:

But to no avail. Any other thoughts?

 

[GokAy]

Did you restart your router yet? Worth a try.

 

[kathy025]

Restarting the router didn't work either.

 

[GokAy]

This shouldn't matter but... try an IP outside of DHCP IP range, or make a reservation for the current IP.

I helped a friend with port forwarding for RDP yesterday, pretty much the same things you set and worked first time. Differences are that was LAN and his router only does single port forwarding.

Try disabling router firewall for diagnostic purposes?

 

[kathy025]

The weird thing is, it worked with Dynamic IP before the first time I tried it. I just created the rule and did not even have to open a port in the Windows 7 Firewall. When I rebooted my laptop, my Local IP changed (which was expected of Dynamic IPs) and I thought I'd just update the router rule to the new Local IP. Nothing else was modified apart from that and it just stopped working after.

My next attempt was to make it Static IP (which is the context of this thread) and set it to the previously working Local IP (i.e. 192.168.254.100) to no avail.

My laptop is back to Dynamic IP now with a new Local IP (.104) but it's not working anymore.

Anything you can infer from these actions?

 

[kathy025]

Do I need to tinker with Port Triggering?

 

[GokAy]

I doubt, from Wikipedia:

Port triggering is unsuitable for servers behind a NAT router because it relies on the local computer to make an outgoing connection before it can receive incoming ones.

 

[GokAy]

Can you change the outside port to something other than 8080? It may be interfering with the routers remote management page. Public Start and End ports to, say, 8081. No other changes are needed. Restart router too if doesn't work right away.

Edit: Make sure the IP in port forwarding is the same as your laptop's IP, of course

 

[kathy025]

Hello GokAy,

You mean like this?

I used the current IPv4 address from ipconfig for the Local IP.

Unfortunately...

(I tried forwarding port 80 but it also failed.)

When I access my web app using my Local IP, it works:
192.168.254.101:8080/myWebApp

When I try to access using my External IP, it times out:
180.191.103.188:8080/myWebApp

 

[GokAy]

You changed too much
Go to port forwarding and change the internal ports(private) to 8080. Keep public ones as 8081.

192.168.254.101:8080/myWebApp - this is correct if you are inside the network

180.191.103.188:8081/myWebApp - when you are connecting from Internet, notice 8081

 

[kathy025]

Hi GokAy,

Here's the current rule:

I tried accessing using 180.191.103.188:8081/myWebApp but it timed out as well.

 

[GokAy]

Ok, Did you ever try to connect to 192.168.254.101:8080/myWebApp from your phone? Maybe it is a permission issue with Tomcat?

 

[kathy025]

I used my tablet to connect to 192.168.254.101:8080/myWebApp and it works.
The external IP did not work though.

Are there settings you need to see that can help you diagnose?

 

[GokAy]

This myWebApp is the actual app or some management screen? I read that tomcat by default restricts management from Internet or something like that

Anyway, not sure if this would help but can you also add outbound rules to allow 8080 for both protocols in Windows Firewall?

 

[GokAy]

Well, I downloaded and setup Tomcat on a virtual Win7 Home Premium x64. After opening the ports 8080 TCP/UDP in Windows Firewall and creating the port forwarding on router, I can connect from outside.

Here are the steps:
- Extracted tomcat to C:/tomcat
- created JAVA_HOME variable with C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_45
- ran startup.bat
- Created UDP/TCP port 8080 rules to allow
- Create port forwarding to virtual OS IP, external 8081, internal 8080
- tested with Firebind Reflector Demo1
- also connected to ZenMate VPN through Firefox, success too

 

[kathy025]

Sorry I haven't been around, got busy with internship. I'm still baffled as to why it stopped working, it did before. Right now I reserved 192.168.254.101 to my laptop (connected to router via wifi) so even if it's dynamic IP, I will always have that address (effectively working like a static IP).

Is there any diagnostics I can run (cmd line or some tool) that can help us tell what's going wrong?

 

[GokAy]

All I can think of at the moment is where id the tomcat folder? Perhaps it is a permission issue.

 

[kathy025]

Hello GokAy

This myWebApp is the actual app or some management screen? I read that tomcat by default restricts management from Internet or something like that

myWebApp is the actual app itself.

All I can think of at the moment is where id the tomcat folder? Perhaps it is a permission issue.

D:\xampp\tomcat

Here are my most current settings:

1) Set Dynamic IP with reservation.

2) Checked ipconfig.

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::7db6:2f63:90fe:38b4%12
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.254.101
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::1%12
                                       192.168.254.254

3) Set port forwarding rule.

4) Set inbound/outbound rules for port 8080 in Windows 7 Firewall.

5) Tested port.

Those are the configurations I did. If you need other details to help diagnose, please let me know.