What else can I do to get the red light to be green on Smartlink Radio setup - or back to Flex?

K8JK · May 25

I have a very interesting Smartlink problem - my 8600M will register the radio to Smartlink, but I cannot get past the dreaded “red dot” on testing network settings.

Before we walk down the road of CGNAT and other network settings, I worked with Ken Wells for several hours reviewing network and radio settings. We tried the automatic settings and the port forwarding settings, to no avail.

I brought (bribed) a friend over with their 6600M, and connectivity on my network is no problem. I took my 8600M to their house and I still have the same issue I have at my house.

Ken Wells walked through getting an RMA for me, but sadly I believe the RMA got tangled up with another issue on my 8600M - fan noise that reminded my of hydraulic lifters on my 63 corvair…

The radio is back from a visit to Flex. Despite the technician’s report stating no problems were found with the fan, the fan noise is gone! What is puzzling is the technician stated they performed a factory reset on the radio, but upon return to me, my smartlink account was still logged into the radio.

Other things I’ve tried was yet another network that I know to absolutely NOT be CGNAT (so now we’re up to 3 different networks), a new Smartlink account, a different power supply (someone will ask, I know).

Other thoughts will be appreciated, especially constructive ones. I know the network and operator configuration are usually the first (and rightfully so) targets, but I think I’ve covered all my bases up till now.

So this morning, I loaded a UPnP analyzer tool (I could have used Wireshark, but it’s been a few minutes since I’ve used that tool, and didn’t want to reintroduce PTSD) and the discover packet is displaying NO DATA….that’s really strange…..

Yes, I’ve logged a ticket again, but it’s a holiday weekend…. I even responded to the support survey (that showed up before the radio did) that I’m not happy…(OK, I’m happy that for whatever reason the fan doesn’t sound like the ground start PU of an F14)….just really not happy.

Yes, I own some blame for having two tickets on the same radio at once in the system, but shouldn’t a smart ticketing system show this?

Thanks for your time and patience reading this….I wish I would have kept my 6600M….I didn’t have this issue on the exact same network….

Jim K8JK

K8JK · May 26

Well, it was an interesting experience. Out of nothing but desperation I removed any trace of the Flex 8600 from my network, then forced a hard reset of the radio without it being connected to the network, I had completed some of these steps before but went on to chase other bunny rabbits....so this ws the first time through all of this in this order.

Magically (something I cringe about) UPnP data started showing up from yhe radio to the network, and I was able to get the rig logged into Smartlink, and made it past the "green light" test... Lookss like I won't have to replace the 8600M with a nice shiny new Icom after all.

73
Jim K8JK

W2PP · May 26

see my review of the IC 7760. You made the right choice

Mike-VA3MW · May 27

Magically (something I cringe about) UPnP data started showing up from yhe radio to the network, and I was able to get the rig logged into Smartlink, and made it past the "green light" test... Lookss like I won't have to replace the 8600M with a nice shiny new Icom after all.

Jim, can you expand on this? I really can't see how this can happen from SmartLink or having 2 TLS securing ports opened on your router. If you have a support ticket open, then I would like to hear their findings.

However, it's important to clarify a common misconception: having an open port on your router does not automatically mean your network is vulnerable to external attacks.

An open port merely listens for incoming connections—it doesn’t initiate or allow access unless there is a program actively responding on that port. If there’s no service behind it, or no malware inside your network to exploit it, then the port is essentially a dead end. In other words, the real risk stems not from the open port itself, but from what’s inside your network that might respond to it.

73

Geoff AB6BT · May 27

Here's something I found recently that was preventing the Green indication when testing the Smartlink connection on a new radio.

I don't know if this helps and you may have a different problem

I had previously set up Smartlink with a different radio using UPnP. The router UPnP section still had port forwarding 4994 and 4993 to the old radio's IP address.

I removed the old UPnP rules and then the new radio passed the connection test with no problem.

It may have to do with the creation of new UPnP port forwarding rules and their priotity in the list in the router. Perhaps someone can elaborate.

Mike-VA3MW · May 27

If you wish to debug this, we can pretty simply.

Can you post a screen shot of your Router uPNP tables and the SmartLink setup in SmartSDR that shows the port numbers it is expecting.

Without those, we are sort of guessing what the problem is.

Geoff AB6BT · May 27

Hi Mike,

I don't know if your last message was addressed to me.

All is fine now after I did as I mentioned in my previous post.

I guess my question is can the same external ports (21000/22000) be forwarded to the same internal ports (4994/4993) of multiple IP addresses?

Mike-VA3MW · May 28

No, you need new external ports pointed to the new IP address for additional radios. You can have as many as you like. If you do use uPNP, each radio does the configuration on its own so there are no conflicts. It does actually, ‘just work’. This is the way TCP/IP was designed to work.

If you understand networking, you can do it on your own and then do a manual configuration in SSDR. It does describe how in the user manual for SmartSDR. Section 9 I think.

Geoff AB6BT · May 28

Mike,

With the old UPnP table there were entries forwarding 21000 to 4994 and 2200 to 4993 (I believe) of IP Address 192.168.2.120.

The new radio is 192.168.2.130 (DHCP) with the same ports.

It wasn't until I removed the entries pointing to 192.168.2.120 that I could get the new radio to pass the Smartlink connectivity test.

Is that expected or just coincidense?

I can manually configure it but I'm trying to understand the UPnP part.

Thanks

Mike-VA3MW · May 28

It sounds like your Router didn’t delete any old uPNP table entries. It is good practice to have those deleted on a router reboot.

The way it works is that when you reboot a radio with SmartLink configured, it sends a uPNP configuration to the router.

A device tells a router its UPnP rules using the UPnP IGD (Internet Gateway Device) protocol. First, it sends a multicast discovery message using SSDP (Simple Service Discovery Protocol) to locate the router’s UPnP service. The router responds with a URL to its device description XML, which the device fetches to identify supported services like WANIPConnection. The device then sends a SOAP request over HTTP to the router’s control URL using the AddPortMapping action, specifying details like the internal IP address, internal and external port numbers, protocol (TCP or UDP), description, and lease duration. This tells the router to forward a specific external port to the device’s internal port. The router confirms success or failure via a SOAP response. The device can later renew or remove the mapping using additional SOAP actions.

If there is a port conflict with the request, then it is up to the device (radio) to resolve any errors.

Geoff AB6BT · May 28

Mke,

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I thought there was a lease time for the UPnP entries but I couldn't find it; it must be hidden or at least difficult to find.

So…I suppose best practice, if using UPnP, would be to reboot the router prior to configuring a new radio for Smartlink. (I actually cleared the table rather than rebooting.)

Or configure port forwarding manually.

Thanks again.

Mike-VA3MW · May 28

There should be no need. It should just work the first time.

There might be a bug in there when using 2 radios that you have tripped over, but in order to find the root cause, the support team would need more details.

Geoff AB6BT · May 28

I've found a solution that works for me.

Perhaps someone else can benefit from this tidbit.

K8JK · May 28

Mike I agree with everything you’ve written about the uPnP protocol…the catch was, for some unknown reason, MY 8600M was not sending anything but blank payload messages. After forcing a complete reset of the radio, and booting the image that Ken Wells provided as a troubleshooting methodology , My 8600M starting actually sending uPnP messages, populating the router rule set.

It was pretty weird to me, as an owner of a Flex6400M and a Flex6600M I had never seen this issue. As I understand it, there are a few other glitches that prevent using static addressing on the 8600M at the moment.

Good news is my radio is working in time for me to use it remotely….(with only a few days to spare before I leave)…the bad news is I had the opportunity to send my radio back to Flex and not have the issue resolved…even worse, the fan noise issue is still there even after the technician stated they could not duplicate my problem….when I return I will log yet another trouble ticket on the fan noise..

Great little radio, but for a few hours I was ready to send the monster back and go buy something else…admittedly I’m a tad bit spoiled, I’m used to spending decent cash for a product, and having it work correctly….

73
Jim K8JK

What else can I do to get the red light to be green on Smartlink Radio setup - or back to Flex?

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