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Fixed IP SIM question

ithomas7

Casual Member
Ive started using a Vodafone unlimited SIM which works great so far, I get speeds of around 100/30 which seems very stable, but I'm unable to port forward to ipcams and connect to them externally, as ddns won't work, and also noticing strict nat settings on the Xbox, I discovered the issue relates to Vodafone only providing public IP addresses

I've read that Three (3) doesn't have this issue as they allocate fixed ip addresses so wondered if anyone has any experience with using them and are port forwarding/nat issues not an issue for anyone?
 
Generally if you want a static IP on mobile then you'll probably need to get a business connection as this is not a feature that is normally sold to ordinary consumers. Most mobile operators will use some form of CGNAT (IP address sharing) and that tends to make port forwarding quite tedious.

I know some people on Three UK seem to have no problems, although others (e.g. some with the Huawei B525) have to put the supplied router in bridge mode and then use another router, like one from/with pfsense, to do the port forwarding. Not all mobile routers can do bridge mode.

Three's implementation generally seems to be more flexible than other operators and so people do tend to have better luck, although quirks should still be expected.

Sadly I've no experience of Vodafone's new unlimited plans so I'm not sure if they do things differently.
 
Many Three users also suffer from the same issue. The only workaround seems to be to get a L2TP VPN service (such as AAISP's @ £10 /m) so that you get a fixed IPv4 address, and setup this up as a L2TP bridge/link on a new router connected to the Vodafone one. Most third party routers have such an option.
I would stay away from cheaper mass providers such as NordVPN because a) they don't provide a fixed IP address b) the speeds on their UK servers are pants especially at peak time. They certainly won't offer around 100 Mbps like AAISP do.
 
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I am on Voda and have locked my router into a specific band for increased download speed. The IP does not seem to change, unless I change band, it loses connection etc. So maybe locking the band may help a little?

Are you able to connect to the cams via the IP address rather than name?
 
Thanks for the replies so far, I might give Three a try at some point as only signed up for a monthly rolling contract with Vodafone.

For the IP cameras I can port forward and connect locally with no issues but it just fails each time after I setup ddns and try to connect externally

The router I have is TPLink MR6400 but haven't looked to in-depth at the settings to see what else I could try
 
You have to use a special program. I have a Huawei B525 so I use LTEInspecteur. There is one for Android too. You'd have to make sure it works with your router.
 
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Three do a free 200mb per month sim, really good for testing non data intensive issues like mast capabilities and IP issues before committing to a purchase.
 
After trawling through a lot of old forum posts, mainly on Vodafone, it seems there's no way to get a fixed/private IP address which makes port forwarding and open NAT for console gaming not easily achievable. It looks like I will be cancelling my Vodafone contract for now but will keep checking to see if this changes in the near future as I'm really happy with the speeds
 
NAT issues may be router-specific as well. I've no experience of the X-box, but my son had NAT issues with both the PS3 and PS4 when I was using EE's supplied branded router. The same SIM in any of TP-Link MR6400, Huawei B593-S22 or Teltonika RUT240 worked fine, and there are extensive posts on EE forums about this issue. I don't think anybody got it working with EE's own router.

I also had exactly the same issues with IP cameras. I don't need real time video viewing, so the workaround I adopted was to FTP still images from the cameras to a local NAS that syncs automatically with Dropbox. I can then view the still images remotely with only a short time delay.
 
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NAT issues may be router-specific as well. I've no experience of the X-box, but my son had NAT issues with both the PS3 and PS4 when I was using EE's supplied branded router. The same SIM in any of TP-Link MR6400, Huawei B593-S22 or Teltonika RUT240 worked fine, and there are extensive posts on EE forums about this issue. I don't think anybody got it working with EE's own router.

I also had exactly the same issues with IP cameras. I don't need real time video viewing, so the workaround I adopted was to FTP still images from the cameras to a local NAS that syncs automatically with Dropbox. I can then view the still images remotely with only a short time delay.
I thought of something similar for the ipcams as port forward works fine internally so can just upload internally to my NAS.

For the xbox I just couldn't get it to open the NAT regardless of what settings I tried changing, from what I read it's purely because Vodafone don't provide a fixed/public ip address and it seems hit and miss for people on Three and EE. I might try the other 2 but don't think I can get 4G+ so the speed wouldn't be much faster than I currently get
 
I've done some more testing this afternoon and plugged my pay any go O2 SIM into the tplink router and the xbox has connected with a fully Open NAT. The downside is the speed is nearly half of Vodafone!
 
Look on the bright side though - half of 100/30 (your original posting) is still a pretty decent speed for most purposes, although O2 seem to have the most restricted "unlimited" definition if you do have to go down that route...
 
With the announcement of Vodafone partnering with Xbox, for their game streaming service, I'm wondering if something will need to change now on the Vodafone infrastructure and allow public ip addresses/open NAT?
 
A properly configured CGNAT setup shouldn't cause too many problems, so my guess is they'd just setup a profile for that specific service to minimise problems. Whether or not this helps general XBox Live connectivity is a good question.
 
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