Port Forwarding Issues with Westell a 7500

I'm having troubles getting port forwarding to work on my Westell 7500 router. I have used the instructions provided at http://www22.verizon.com/ResidentialHelp/HighSpeed/Networking/Troubleshooting/PortForwarding/123866.htm

Having set up my own port forward I had my aplication test the port and I was told it was closed. Then I went to a third party web based port testing site (http://www.canyouseeme.org/) to confirm that the port was indeed closed and not just a problem with my aplication. The site told me that the port was closed.

So I decided to try one of the pre-created port forwards included with the modem. Using the port number provided I changed the port my aplication used and it still self-tested as closed. I then went back to canyouseeme and it too told me that the port was closed.

I should also note that in the "Port Forwarding" screen on the router the delete icon (I'm assuming that is what it is - the icon has a red X through it) does not respond to being clicked on. When I hover the mouse over the icon I get the following text overlay in the bottom left corner of the Chrome browser window - javascript&colon;deleteEntryStart(5,document.TableMgr,0);

To sum up, neither a personal nor a pre-fab port forward show in tests to be working and a function also appears to be not working.

Here's the rub - I am told by tech support that this is an L3 issue. L3 issues are not covered under regular tech support and are very expensive buy. My gut feeling is that the router is defective, but I need some way to confirm this before I start making a stink with customer service. I don't want to spend $39.00 to be told my router is broken before I can send it in and I have a feeling that customer service is going to want to have solid evidence that the problem is not pilot error before ponying up for a replacement modem.

Does anyone have any suggestions for testing the router more thouroughly? Is this a known issue? Or does anyone have any suggestions about programming the port forward?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to address this!

Accepted answers

Silmenume

Hello everyone,

I apologize for the tardiness of my reply. I had two people who were microsoft certified IT try and help me out (a friend and my nephew) and came to no avail. We became fairly convinced that the problem might lay in the modem/router itself and I set myself on a journey to try and get Verizon to send me a new router. That hit a brick wall because as far as they were concerned as long as I had general internet access and could get email then they were going to have to charge me exorbitant amounts of money for help or I would have to buy a new modem/router out of my own pocket. So I gave up.

Then yesterday I noticed an IP and port number on my application showing in the bottom right corner. It did not match the LAN IP of my computer, though I had set and forced the IP address within the application. The IP address was that of LogMeIn Hamachi. For some reason my program was attempting to use Hamachi as my Local Area Connection over that of my Ethernet Local Area Connection. I called my IT friend and he had me "check the order of the Local Area Connections" and they were in proper order - Ethernet then Hamachi. So I nuked Hamachi.

Now all port forwarding appears to be working in general. I can test the ports through various web sites and my application itself now shows that its own port forward test shows functionality/connectivity.

I apologize to everyone who spent time with me trying to figure this out. I deeply appreciate your efforts and thank you for your time.

Best

edited for clarity.

All comments

dslr595148

#1 Check the IP Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway and DNS Server(s) on your computer.

For example if you are on Windows XP..

a) Go to Start -> Run.

b) Type in cmd and press enter.

c) In the new window, called the command prompt, type ipcconfig /all and press enter.

#2 Going to the Default Gateway, got you to the Westell?

#3 In the Westell go to Advanced -> Private LAN OR Advanced -> IP Address Distribution (which ever exist in your router{

#4 What is the Starting and Ending IP Address?

#5 In the Westell go to Advanced -> Universal Plug and Play OR Advanced -> UPnP (which ever exist in your router)

#4 If you do not have at least two special computers that support UPnP where you can not define the ports that they use, turn off Universal Plug and Play (UPnP).

#6 In the Westell go to System Monitoring -> Gateway Status

#7 In there, you should see the same IP Address that you at https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 in the same paragraph as

There is no standard governing the format of these machine names, so this is not something we can automatically determine for you

#8 If not, please report back that fact.

#9 What software firewall is on your computer?

#10 Without posting what your public IP is, what was the result of the port checker?

For example connection refused.

#11 What program are you trying to forward for?

Silmenume

Reason: Connection timed out

IP Address – 192.168.1.27

Subnet Mask – 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway – 192.168.1.1

DNS Servers – 192.168.1.1

Yes

Start - 192.168.1.15

Stop – 192.168.1.47

UPNP – disabled

The Broadband IP Address in the Gateway Status window and the IP address at https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 match

Windows Firewall (Windows 7)

#10

Using www.canyouseeme.org the result of the port check was as follows -

Error: I could not see your service on xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx on port (xxxx)

Reason: Connection timed out

dslr595148

Ok.

#1 Setup a Static IP on the computer that you want to host on / forward to.

See as need be, http://portforward.com/networking/static-win7.htm

#2 The Static IP can either be:

a) Above 1 but below 15

b) OR Above 47 but below 255

For example 192.168.1.6

#3 In the router forward to the IP Address that you setup on your computer.

Silmenume

Hello,

I did as you said, setting up a static IP address outside the bounds of the DHCP limits.

Then I changed the port forward to the new LAN IP address and tested connectivity.

I did retain internet connectivity, but the port did test show closed on three different port testing sites.

I did check on my router bios and it is up to date - though I did not reflash it.

On a side note, in frustration I downloaded and installed a trial version of something called - Port Forwarding Wizard Home. I did work as advertised, e.g., for 15 minutes at a shot I was able to port forward using the product and test its claims against said three port testing sites. I don't know it if was actually playing with the router or was doing something within Windows. Just a data point. I could show that my router is capable of port forwarding (it's not broken) or that the application was doing some fancy foot work with the guts of Windows networking. I do not consider this a solution as I don't have the money to spend for this application.

Thanks for your help so far. I hope we can get this sorted out.