When setting up port forwarding on a Smart Hub 2, it only works if the source and target ports are the same.
i.e. If I setup port 3389 forwarding to 3389 it works.
If I setup port 12345 forwarding to 3389, the incoming traffic is not forwarded to port 3389. There is no evidence of blocking in the technical logs.
I haver tried this with different external and internal ports and forwarding only ever works if the external/internal ports are the same. This should not be the case.
Is this a known bug in the Smart Hub 2. The software was last updated in July 2021 when my Fibre link was activated.
Works fine for me, just tried forwarding various random external ports to internal port 80 and can access the web server fine. Cache cleared from browser each time to ensure not accessing cached content also made sure server wasn't accessed unless port number was appended to public IP address.
Firmware version v0.27.06.04290 BT
I have now done a re-boot on the hub and it seems to have started working correctly.
The problem was very frustrating as I was away from home for 2 weeks and was unable to RDP onto my home systems due to the bug.
The fact when I was back home I could create new or edit existing rules that only worked with identical in/out port numbers implied the Hub was working also any existing rule with identical port numbers had also stayed working whilst I was away.
Obviously for security I do not use a standard port number for RDP connections and this was the one thing that stopped working.
I can't see a way to remote access the BT Hub and force it to reboot remotely if this occurs again. 😞
@Bobins wrote:
I can't see a way to remote access the BT Hub and force it to reboot remotely if this occurs again. 😞
Unfortunately, you can't.
Not entirely sure how using a non standard port really helps security, port scanners will scan all ports not just standard ones.
@Bobins wrote:
I
I can't see a way to remote access the BT Hub and force it to reboot remotely if this occurs again. 😞
You could use a GSM switch to control the power to the home hub by dialling the unit.
They cost about £25.
Many port scanners look for the commonly used ports rather than scanning the whole 65000+ ports not knowing what might actually be behind an uncommonly used port.
It's not necessarily a security fix using a non-standard port but it is an improvement over using the standard easily guessable one.
Still need proper security behind whatever port is used.