Hi Rzee, I do realize that . . . I was always able (previ...

[Rochelley]

Hi Rzee,

I do realize that . . . I was always able (previously) to reserve that IP address on the router for that machine, but with this new Bluecurve router, they've disabled some of the advanced features that used to be accessed by logging in to the router itself.  There appears to still be an option to reserve an IP address in the router settings, but because I am trying to reserve the IP that DHCP has already assigned to my machine, it says there is a conflict and won't let me reserve that address.  I'm wondering if I disconnect my machine from the network temporarily, then set up a reserved IP address on the router which is the same as the address I've assigned to my machine, would that achieve my goal?  It seems to me that when I plug my machine into the network again, the router should recognize it by it's MAC address (which I also would have used to set up the reserved IP), and all should be well.  Although I'm more tekkie than the average computer user, I'm still no expert so I could be missing something here.  I use RDP to this machine every day so i want a static IP so that it doesn't change on me one day when I'm not there to fix it.

[mdk]

@Rzee -- within the router, designating that IP-address as a "static" IP-address removes it from the range of addresses that are available for the DHCP-server, thus totally preventing the network conflict that you have predicted.

[Rzee]

That is not the best practice. Most consumer routers will not have the ability to exclude a single address from within the DHCP pool. I do not know if the BlueCurve has that capability. Furthermore, because DHCP is not aware that you have fixed that IP address at the server, it would be a matter of time that a conflict would arise when it leases that address to another device.

[mdk]

@Rzee -- That is not the best practice.

I disagree. It is "best practice" to "reserve" an IP-address within your private network, e.g., for a printer, or for a file-server, or for access from the public Internet to a specific "private" computer.

> Most consumer routers will not have the ability to exclude a single address from within the DHCP pool.

My experience has been the opposite -- most consumer routers do have that capability. But, since we are talking about the DHCP-server inside the Shaw router, rather than a third-party router, it does not matter.

> I do not know if the BlueCurve has that capability.

It does.

Furthermore, because DHCP is not aware that you have fixed that IP address at the server, it would be a matter of time that a conflict would arise when it leases that address to another device.

That is correct. If you do not follow "best practices", by "reserving" a private IP-address for a device, then, theoreticaly, you open yourself to a "conflict".

P.S. Note that the Hitron router has a "memory" -- if you connect a device to it, and your device gets an IP-address, and then disconnect the device from the Hitron for several weeks/months, then when you reconnect it, you will get the same IP-address that was assigned when the device was FIRST connected to the Hitron.  In practise, this minimizes the chance for a "conflict".

[Rochelley]

I'm back . . . with more port forwarding problems.  I finally had it working with my BlueCurve router perfectly for months and months so I could use RDP to connect to my home machine during the day.  Then we had a big snow storm and my area had pods knocked out (so Shaw tells me), which supposedly surged or otherwise knocked out some of the functionality on my router.  I tried for two weeks to get my RDP up and running without any success.  So Shaw switched out my router a week ago . . . presto, RDP is working again.

All of a sudden today, no more access to RDP.  I come home and test the port that's supposed to be open according to the settings on the Blue Curve Home App and it is closed.  But Shaw BlueCurve says its forwarded.  I cannot stand the unreliability of this service!  What gives?  Does anyone know why it works one day and not the next?

[mdk]

@Rochelley -- from a computer on your LAN, access http://www.who.is

It will show you the "public" IP-address that Shaw's DHCP-server has assigned to your cable-modem.

Then, from a command-line prompt in Windows, enter:  nslookup 24.68.1.2

if your "public" IP-address is "24.68.1.2".

The answer will be: Name:    S01067cb21b32aec7.gv.shawcable.net

This name is a combination of a 5-character "prefix", followed by the 12-character MAC-address of the device that issued the DHCP-request, plus the "suffix" for your area, e.g., "Greater Victoria on Shaw Cable (dot) Net".

Similarly, after entering: nslookup 24.68.1.3

the answer will be: Name:    S010670037ed2bcb2.gv.shawcable.net

namely the identical 5-character prefix, followed by the 12-character MAC-address of a different computer, followed by the identical suffix.

So, if you try RDP to that name, you will always connect to the cable-modem at that unique MAC-address, no matter what the CURRENT IP-address that Shaw's DHCP-server has assigned to your cable-modem.

Then, if your port-forwarding is correct, the one computer on your LAN with a (non-changing) "private" IP-address will receive the RDP connection-attempt.

QED

[Rochelley]

Hi mdk,

I don't think it's the IP address that's causing me a problem presently.  It's the port forwarding.  When I got the new Shaw modem/router just over a week ago, my port opened and RDP worked great for 3 or 4 days.  Then suddenly, stopped working.  I changed nothing.  So of course I assume it has something to do with the Shaw modem/router.  Today I set the modem to bridge mode and set up my Cisco router, which has never had any trouble with port forwarding.  It turns out that the port forward doesn't work on that either.  This all leads me to believe that Shaw is blocking the particular port I am trying to open.  It appears it was allowed with the brand new modem/router for a few days, and then bang, it's blocked period, at the modem.

I can't think of any other explanation for it to suddenly stop working and doesn't even work on my own router with the proper port forward setup.  And yes, I have the firewall configured to allow traffic through that port.  I use a non-conventional port for RDP as I am on it a lot and 3389 is so commonly used for RDP, I thought it might afford me a bit better security if I use a port that is quite different from 3389.  I checked that this port is not commonly used by any other services, and as mentioned numerous times before, this has been working for me for a long, long time until about 3 weeks ago when I started having trouble with my 2nd to last Shaw modem/router.

Would Shaw do that?  Block certain port requests from getting past the modem?  I truly am about to give up on Shaw completely and go back to another provider.  Any other ideas about what I can do about this port issue?

[shaw-tony]

@Rochelley I'm not aware of any ports being blocked by our modems. If you have the modem in bridge mode, passing everything to your router, it should be working as expected. What I would recommend is completing a factory reset for both the BlueCurve modem (setting it to bridge mode again) and your Cisco router when setting up your port forwarding settings. 

[Darkesha]

I have Plex client running on the FreeNAS box (BSD).

This client has x.x.x.x IP and is not listed on the device list for port forwarding. I need to forward a particular post so I can stream my library outside of my network.

Any idea how to do this ?

[mdk]

@Darkesha -- your Shaw cable-modem has a "public" IP-address on the Shaw network.

So, from any computer on the Internet, you must connect to this "front-door" to your home network, via its IP-address.

Your Shaw cable-modem provides "private" IP-addresses to all the devices on your home network, e.g., "10.0.0.xxx".

Your PLEX client is "listening" on a specific port (a number between 1 and 65535).  You must connect to this port to reach the client.

Use the BlueCurve app on your smart-phone to configure the BlueCurve device: "all incoming traffic on the port NNNNN is to be forwarded to the private IP-address that is assigned to the FreeNAS computer".

Compare to entering a very-large building that is rented by 65535 independent businesses. First, you have to find the public address of the building, and enter it. Then, a "security-person" will personally escort you to one of the offices, depending on the private office-number that you have been told to visit. You won't be able to access any of the other offices, and you have to have entered the correct building.