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ZTE MC888 WAN IP address & port forwarding

daxliniere

Casual Member
Hey gang,
I just received a ZTE MC888 modem from Three UK for a 5G service. The morons at tech support had no idea how to answer my questions, so I thought I'd seek help from the ISP oracles here. :)

1) Why is the WAN IP address shown in the modem (Status Information>Detail Information>WAN IP Address) different to the result when I use icanhazip.com ??? Ignore this, forgot I had browser VPN enabled. 🤦‍♂️

2) In my old NOW-TV modem, I could set inbound and outbound port forwarding. In the MC888, there is only a single section under Port Forwarding Settings. When I try to access my private VPN from outside the network, it cannot connect and I can only imagine this is because I can't fully define my inbound and outbound port forwarding.
Is there a solution to this?

Thanks every for reading this far,

Dax.
 
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You're probably behind CGNAT. What are the first 2 octets (groups of digits) of your WAN IP? What APN name are you using?
Without a public IP port forwarding makes no sense.
 
Hi Green,
Thanks so much for your fast response.

I can answer my own question #1 - because I had a browser VPN running 🤦‍♂️ , but still unsure about #2.

The first 2 are 188.28. The RPi on the inside of this network correctly reports that IP address (via messaging, checked for changes every 10 secs), but the VPN client on my laptop (at home) can't connect to the RPi.
 
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Well, you have a public IP and you should be able to access your network from outside.
Make sure your port forwarding configuration has a proper ip, port and protocol then test it from outside of your network.
 
Oh yes, definitely tested from outside the network. The trouble is that it wouldn't connect. On my previous NOW-TV modem, I had it set like this:

Outbound services:
LAN user: RPi's IP address (ports 1-65535) WAN user: 0.0.0.0 (VPN port)

Inbound services:
LAN user: Unifi USG-3 IP address (VPN port) WAN user: 0.0.0.0 (ports 1-65535)
 
Okay, so I enabled Advanced Settings>System Security>Ping from WAN filter and tried to ping my IP address from outside the network (using an online tool) and it comes back with host unreachable. Something definitely seems wrong here.
 
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Inbound services:
LAN user: Unifi USG-3 (VPN port) WAN user: 0.0.0.0 (ports 1-65535)
I don't know what parameters you have available, but typically you need to specify something like this:
source host - any
source port - any
protocol - tcp or udp or both
external port - tcp or udp port number that you need for your server
internal port - usually the same as external
internal host - the local address of your server

My Three's IP is pingable, just checked. But it looks like they are indeed blocking the incoming TCP/UDP traffic.
 
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I don't know what parameters you have available, but typically you need to specify something like this:
source host - any
source port - any
protocol - tcp or udp or both
external port - tcp or udp port number that you need for your server
internal port - usually the same as external
internal host - the local address of your server

My Three's IP is pingable, just checked. But it looks like they are indeed blocking the incoming TCP/UDP traffic.
Hmm, that's odd, then. I wonder why my modem isn't pingable? Whatever it is, that is surely a problem.
What modem are you using, Green? Is yours 5G as well?
 
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The inbound port forwarding rule you've set should work but if you're using a USG why not put the MC888 in to bridge mode so it'll present the WAN IP directly to the firewall?
 
This is definitely odd. I put the modem into bridge mode, but I still can't ping the public IP address.
IP address obtained using whatismyipaddress.com
IP pinged using dnschecker.org/ping-ipv4.php

🤷‍♂️ o_O
 
Presumably you've checked that your firewall is set to respond to ping requests on the WAN?
 
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Oh absolutely, but at least if you're getting a basic ping response you know the public IP is routable and can then focus on the port forwarding (if in router mode and not bridge) and/or VPN service behind it. Assume you're still not getting a ping?

What IP is being presented at the firewall WAN?
 
I run my tests from VPS and completely forgot that I have an outbound firewall rule there. I've added a few arbitrary ports as exceptions in VPS firewall and was able to see incoming traffic behind my Three router/bridge on all these ports. That worked for both TCP and UDP.
In short - I see no blockings.

@daxliniere what kind of VPN you use? What port and protocol is required for it to work?
 
After more hours on support chats and phonecalls, I called up Three Business to cancel my service. By chance, I happened to get a (UK-based) guy who used to work technical support for EE. He actually understood what I was asking and put out a message on his internal Teams group and the official answer from Three: their network does not support port forwarding and therefore private VPNs.

WTAF? Does anyone know if a 5G broadband provider in the UK that supports, you know, normal business-grade features?
 
The speeds on this modem, even in a server room with no windows, is insane. 350Mbps down and IIRC 52Mbps up. £20/month! The trouble is that I can't remotely access my network (Wireguard VPN), which is a deal-breaker for me.
 
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