Port Forwarding with two Radios

Steve K9ZW

K1VL

I have not operated two Flexradios remotely from the same LAN via port forwarding but I have done a lot of port forwarding in general.  I am assuming you have a single external IP address that needs to be shared by multiple internal "hosts" (the radios in this case). The translated ports on the external (Internet facing) interface need to be unique otherwise the response from the remote client will not be routed to the proper internal LAN IP. Just pick unique external ports ports for each radio. You need to translate the ports in addition to the IP's. The external ports cannot overlap for each radio. 

David Decoons, wo2x

Mike-VA3MW

What Dave said.  You can have as many Flex radios on SmartLink behind your router as you like.  The only key part is that WAN side ports are unique.  What that means is they are not in use by ANYTHING else.  

I have 2.  This is what it looks like on the Router.

Erika - KØDD

Very good Sexy Flexy...  That's what I'd do also...  PLus everything on my network has MAC address DHCP reservations only also...  I have only one or two extra IP addresses configured in the pool just in case we bring something new into the house is all. Everything else is assigned to an item including the smart TVs, Radar Range and Smart Dishwasher... Just kidding about the Radar Range.  Look those up, ha.

Also if an IP spoofer tries spoofing their way into the router and getting access they'd need the correct MAC spoofed ALSO. Kinda tough to guess that game from across the planet...   Always do manual port forwarding if you can...  The effort up front is well worth the result over time.

Leaving it automatic is an open door for hackers to snoop around with port sniffers.  They are going to try that anyway... 

This was the issue with the raft of foreigners connecting and trying to log into radios in the last few years.  Make it so they don't have an easy time of it.  OH one more thing....  There is a common list out there of PORT PAIRS on the internet.  Make darn sure the external port pairs you select are NOT being used for things like (example)  World of Warcraft comm links and other silly things.  Just like Mac Addresses all being an individualized serial number, there's groups of Port combos out there THAT ARE WELL UTILIZED only for various applications...  find out exactly what they are.  Have fun this is not all that tough, just detail work and sort of understanding what things are for...  Erika DD

Mike-VA3MW

Hi Erika

All excellent points and I could not agree more that turning off uPNP and doing it manually is very good practice.  

The challenge that our support team has to deal with is that about 90% of our customers have no idea what you said.     I wish I was making that up, but it is very true.  They do not have the experience in advanced networking such as this. 

We spend a lot of time helping customers with network issues, port fowards, double NAT issues or ISP's who do not provide a WAN address to their router.  We also spend a lot of time undoing what they attempted to do and really busted things.

We will always recommend to leave uPNP on and leave DHCP turned on for the radio assignment, but that is from a supportability perspective as it just works 99% of the time.  

Mike