Port Forwarding Help; Netgear WNDR3700; Server Hosting

Hello, I have recently been trying to host a server for a game (Minecraft) to play on for my friends and I. To be able to host a server, you must port forward on the router. This is my problem. I have almost everything right (In my opinion) yet nobody can ping my router and all of the ports are closed when trying to connect from outside my Local Area Network. I have internet access and never have any problems connecting to sites so obviously the common ports for email and the internet are working. They just show up as closed and for incoming connections (The players to play on my server) that is an issue. I use progams online such as canyouseeme.org to check if a port is open. All of the programs can not find any of the ports open or even ping my router! My router is a Net Gear WNDR3700 and my internet provider (isp) is Comcast. I have a Dynamic IP normally, but I have set up a static IP and reserved it on the router for the computer that is to host the server. I have portforwarded the default 25565 port for the server to the computer from my router using its internal IP address 192.168.1.19 . I have used cmd to check the port to see if it was listening by typing in netstat -an and it went on to show that the port was in fact on and listening for incoming connections. I am using a Windows Vista, as I would rather not run a server from a windows 7 laptop even though it has the capabilities. I have also shut down all firewalls on the computer hosting it and on the router itself. It is dangerous, I know, but I can turn them on later once I can get the server to work without them in the first place. With the port forwarding all set up, I try running the server using my internal IP address with the port 25565 attached to the end. It works, but only people in my LAN can join the server. Anyone trying to connect using my external IP address [removed]:25565 (:25565 for the port) fails to connect to the router/port and come up with Server Connection Timed out, Can not ping router, ect, just like the Port checking programs have. I am stumped. I have port forwarded for TCP and UDP connections as well. Comcast only blocks around 8 ports, none of which are even close to the port number 25565. I don't have any firewalls on, yet somehow nothing is showing up. This is an error from canyouseeme.org: Error: I could not see your service on [removed] on port (25565) Reason: Connection timed out , here is one from PDFChecker, a tool downloaded form portforwarding.com. I have followed the port forwarding guide specifically for minecraft servers on my router and I only found that I already did what it had said to do. Update: I may not have set my computer to a static IP. But I have used a program called Hamachi and it uses a Dynamic IP address to run servers and I do not believe that is the problem. I will watch this thread very closely to answer any questions I might not have answered. The bottom line is I have port forwarded correctly (I'm highly sure), shut down all firewalls, and out side connections still can not connect. Help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you

i don't run a games server but do have 2 other types of server running on my pc without any problems. must admit it sounds like you have everything setup correctly, but i'll just run through the steps anyway. 1:- setup a static ip address from your router to the pc(in the connection rules on the pc) that's going to be the server, so it doesn't change when ever the pc is turned on/off. eg. 192.168.0.3 2:- open the port in the firewall on that pc. eg. 25536 3:- now open the port in the routers firewall and send it to the static ip address. 25536 to 192.168.0.3 tcp/udp 4:- find out what your real ip address is from somewhere(a nice simple way is to just go to speedtest's web page) now this will/can change often(mine usually stays the same for months and only changes if i turn off my router but does change every so often without me doing anything) unless you pay for a static ip from your isp.eg. 277.277.277.277 5:- now to connect to the server from outside your lan you need to enter 277.277.277.277:25536 or 277.277.277.277:25536/nameofserver 6:- to check if it's working from another pc at home then just enter 192.168.0.3:25536 or 192.168.0.3:25536/nameofserver if you have all the ports and ip address correct then i'd think the problem lays with the way you've setup the server itself or your isp and not the port forwarding. and yes it is important that you setup a static ip address for the pc to the router. eg. 192.168.0.3

i don't run a games server but do have 2 other types of server running on my pc without any problems.

must admit it sounds like you have everything setup correctly, but i'll just run through the steps anyway.

1:- setup a static ip address from your router to the pc(in the connection rules on the pc) that's going to be the server, so it doesn't change when ever the pc is turned on/off. eg. 192.168.0.3
2:- open the port in the firewall on that pc. eg. 25536
3:- now open the port in the routers firewall and send it to the static ip address. 25536 to 192.168.0.3 tcp/udp
4:- find out what your real ip address is from somewhere(a nice simple way is to just go to speedtest's web page) now this will/can change often(mine usually stays the same for months and only changes if i turn off my router but does change every so often without me doing anything) unless you pay for a static ip from your isp.eg. 277.277.277.277
5:- now to connect to the server from outside your lan you need to enter 277.277.277.277:25536 or 277.277.277.277:25536/nameofserver
6:- to check if it's working from another pc at home then just enter 192.168.0.3:25536 or 192.168.0.3:25536/nameofserver

if you have all the ports and ip address correct then i'd think the problem lays with the way you've setup the server itself or your isp and not the port forwarding.



and yes it is important that you setup a static ip address for the pc to the router. eg. 192.168.0.3

On step 5 you gave an example of 277.277. on and on, the only number like that on my Router is the Subnet Mask which is 2.55 2.55 2.55 ect. On step 6 you went on to see if the sever is working from home. It does work from home inside the lan. That is perfect. It doesn't work however, outside the lan. I checked my isp, comcast, and it doesn't block many ports so I doubt it is them. xx.xx.xx.xx is my ip address externally and has been for a very long time. You do not need to enter the name of the server. I think the real problem is, that all of the port checking systems out there, say that all my ports are closed, however that is false, as I have internet connection! I wonder if my router is masking the IP, not allowing it to be pinged. Thanks for the steps, I will try going through them a few more times, but I must say at this point that I am skeptical. I might see if there is a web server guy or comcast guy or someone who can help is available.

Edit: Removed actual ip address. Not a good idea to advertise in a public forum like this. Z

go here :- https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

it'll tell you what your ip address is.. ie. 71.206.xxx.xxx plus other info.

now just click proceed in the bottom box, you'll get a security warning box popup just click continue, now type into the white box

25560-25570

and then click on the "user specified custom port probe" button at the bottom

this will then scan ports 25560 through to 25570 of your router, if it doesn't show your port 25565 as red and open then you haven't set up the opened port correctly in your router.

you need to add a firewall rule that sets that port to always allow tcp/udp to the ip of your pc(it does need to have a static ip address).



it's not really a good idea to advertize your ip address on a forum either, especially when your opening it to the world..

just had a thought do you have a modem as well as a router? (not an all in one like i'm used to) if so then you need to open the port in the modem to the routers ip as well as from the router to the pc's ip..

I don't believe you need to do anything to the broadband modem.

I run a web server (Apache) on one of my computers) and the only changes I made were to port forwarding on the router (Called Virtual Servers on my Belkin) and setup a static IP. I did not have to make any changes to the cable modem.

I did have to make an inbound rule exception in my firewall on the computer as well, although if it works on the internal LAN then that part is probably okay.

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80 gets through the router to the Apache server with no problem.

been that long since i ran a stand alone modem i couldn't remember if it even had a firewall to be honest but thought i'd mention it just in case because i'd bet that's where the problem lays if it does..

Yes I do have a modem as well as a router. The weird thing is the modem does not seem to allow me to connect to the internet even from the computer it is connected to. Usually people use their modem to connect when they don't have a router. I will now follow those steps to see if the port is open

Port Status Protocol and Application 25565 Stealth Unknown Protocol for this port Unknown Application for this port This is what I got as the result. For some reason the port is in Stealth mode? It also has an unkown Protocol for this port and an Unknown Application (Probably the server). Could this be the problem? And when it gave me my external ip address, it added things such as .va.comcast.net and had letters in the front. Would I have to add that to my address when people try to join? Another report shows: Port 25565 Name: - Purpose: - Description: The GRC port database does not currently contain any specific information about this client port. (See below for a discussion of "client" ports.) Related Ports: - Background and Additional Information: No specific data is currently available about this port. A total of 64512 client ports occupy the range from 1024 through 65535. Although there are many significant ports within this range detailed in this directory, the great majority of client ports are not defined for any specific purpose. They are used as temporary, local "scratch" ports when Internet clients, such as web browsers, eMail, and news clients, connect to the service ports of remote Internet servers. However, if you feel that this particular port is important enough to warrant specific notice and mention here, please see the note below regarding participation in our online newsgroups. We would like to hear from you. The entire contents of this page is copyright © 2008 by Gibson Research Corporation.

The other thing is, I can't seem to find a firewall on my router. I already added the port to port forwarding anyways so the firewall, if there is one, would allow it through anyways.

stealthed means the port is not open and your router modem doesn't respond to pings,(usually a good thing, but not when you want it opened. ) so means the port has not been opened correctly yet. i'm afraid you've confused me a bit here, you say your modem doesn't allow you to connect to the internet even when connected to the pc. yet it's the modem that does allow everyone to connect to their isp's and the internet. they are either stand alone units or part of a router supplied to you by your isp and without which nobody can connect to the internet. so i'm assuming you connect your modem to the telephone/cable line and then your router is connected to the modem, and all pc's connect to the router correct? you say you have added the port to your router but please check it says always allow and not allows block, i've made that mistake before even tho i added the port i hadn't changed it's status to always allow.

please run the port scan again, if you used the numbers i put into my instruction post because for some reason i thought you were scanning for port 25536 and not 25565, i've since edited the post with the correct numbers, sorry. i just opened port 25565 in my router and ran the scan, i get the result of closed instead of stealthed, now the reason i think it says closed and not opened is because i have no server running on that port so it gets no reply and says it's closed but on ports that i do have opened with a server running i always get an open result. to open a port in my router i first need to add the port as a service, giving it a name and specifying which port(range) to open and once that's done i then have to go into the firewall rules to add and allow that service to run, so please double check with your routers instructions on exactly how to open a port in your router because just adding the rule in one place doesn't mean it's going to be used yet to open the port.

I tried the port scan with the port despite the typo, and the answers I posted were the correct answers. Do you know how to make a router unstealthed? And what I mean is, when you try to use the modem by itself to connect to the internet, it won't work. It is weird. Anyways, I am trying to find firewall settings on my router, but so far I can not.

here's the instruction manual for your router.. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=ca…Au2l5ZTCNEZX3yA

have you set up a static ip for your pc yet? if not make that the first thing you do.

follow the steps in it to open the port, if after you've checked you've set it up correctly and it still doesn't work then i think the problem may be the modem, Ztruker says you don't need to change anything with the modem and i just can't remember how they work but would bow to his better knowledge every time, just in case tho see if you can find it's ip address then log into your modem then see what settings if any are available in there to open ports.

if after you've setup port forwarding on your router and it still won't show as open, power cycle both the modem and router, in other words unplug both leave them off for at least a minute then turn on your modem wait until it connects to your isp and all lights are on and steady then turn on your router and when that's connected and all lights are on try and see if the port is now open.

don't worry about your ports being stealthed that is a good thing and when we finally get to where the problem is and open the port you'll find all your ports except that one will still be stealthed.

Thank you, I'll get working on that and post another reply when I'm done. I've been fairly busy lately!

One thing I've noticed is that my router is currently getting my ip address dynamically from my isp. Is that a problem? I can use a static ip address but it makes me use one from a DNS server. I don't think, however, that it matters if the router is Dynamic or Static as long as you reserve the internal ip address of the computer I am running the server from. I have done that. Tomorrow I will try a few different things from the server application itself.