BT Smart Hub 2: Cannot open ports

[Neoptolemus]

Hi all,

I am developing a commercial game at home, and to test online multiplayer I need to open some ports on my router so that I can test that other players can see/join my session.

To achieve this, I have been on the forums here and based on some of the advice I've seen, I've done the following:

• Assigned a static IP to this PC
• Created a set of new rules in the router admin page to forward the correct ports, mapping them to the same internal ports
• Completely rebooted both router and PC just in case

Below is what the settings look like. DESKTOP-2L5TIUJ is this computer, I've double checked. It's plugged into the router through ethernet cable rather than wifi.

However, despite the above, sites like canyouseeme.org still cannot see the ports open, and in testing nobody can see my game session. It's frustrating, because I don't know if the reason is that the ports are closed or my code is wrong.

I have scoured Google and these forums and cannot find any other advice I can try. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[licquorice]

All looks ok. First of all make sure Smart Setup is off and then turn off UPnP to prevent any clashes.

What does https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 show for the ports?

[licquorice]

Shields up will show the ports as Stealth if they are not forwarded correctly, Closed if they are forwarded but no application listening on the port or Open if forwarded and application is listening.

[Neoptolemus]

Thank you for the reply! I have turned off Smart Setup and uPnP was already disabled by the look of it. ShieldsUp is showing port 7777 as "stealth".

This is my "configuration" page under advanced setup:

[licquorice]

A bit drastic, but try a factory reset of the hub, make all the configuration changes and then configure the port forwarding by selecting the IP address of the device rather than device name to ensure it is being forwarded correctly. 

Everything you have posted looks ok but clearly isn't doing what it says it is doing.

[Neoptolemus]

Ok I did the following:

• Factory reset the Smart Hub
• When it was back up, I went into the admin panel and disabled smart setup as the first step
• Then I disabled uPnP
• Then I reset the router, just to be sure
• Added the port forwarding rules, making sure to use the static IP assigned to my desktop rather than selecting the device from the list of connected devices
• Reset the router again and my PC

Still can't access the ports 😞 at this stage I have to assume something else is blocking those ports, but I can't think what it could be. This is a big enough issue that I may have to consider buying a NetGear router or something...

[licquorice]

I really don't know what else to suggest. As a test, I checked port 7777 with no port forwarding and it came back as Stealth, I forwarded port 7777 to a device that wasn't listening on that port and it came back as Closed.

I wouldn't recommend Netgear these days BTW, they don't support BT's implementation of IPv6.

[Neoptolemus]

Well, thank you for taking the time to help, it is much appreciated even if I couldn't resolve the problem 🙂 To be honest, I've been having real trouble with the WiFi recently, with connectivity really spotty even when I'm right next to the router, so I might need to contact BT to get a replacement anyway. I'll keep your advice regarding NetGear in mind.