topic Re: Port forwarding on Three 5g broadband in Broadband

Port forwarding on Three 5g broadband

krasy8 — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 21:50:18 GMT

Hi Three Team!

I have been a Three customer for quite some time now and recently added 5g broadband to my account. I am struggling with setting up port forwarding so I can access my selected device on my home network from outside of it (for example from work network or mobile device) via ssh.

I have set up port forwarding on my router but when I try to ssh into it from a different network it doesn't work. I have tried to change APN setting to manually changing it only to Pv4, following some suggestions which I found on-line but unfortunately, it has not worked. I tried to contact Three technical support but was not able to get through the call center jungle.

Please can anyone assist?

I'm using ZTE MC888 router.

Thank you in advance.

Konrad

Re: Port forwarding on Three 5g broadband

DanH — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 16:29:20 GMT

@krasy8 Hi - I was able to get port forwarding working after I contacted Three and asked for an IPv4 profile. Changing APN settings on my router was not enough. I was able to connect to FTP servers and webservers running on a local machine on TCP ports 21 and port 443 respectively. I have the same router as you. Good luck

Re: Port forwarding on Three 5g broadband

krasy8 — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 22:21:44 GMT

Hi @DanH
Thank you for your reply, I’ll keep your suggestion in mind but for now I’ve managed to find a workaround using my nord vpn service and connected my devices through its meshnet which doesn’t require port forwarding and I think is more secure. It allows me to connect via ssh with no issues.

Re: Port forwarding on Three 5g broadband

krasy8 — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 22:24:31 GMT

Also worth adding that after speaking to technical support I got the official info about Three not supporting port forwarding which many other users mentioned and challenged. Maybe when AI eventually takes over customer service sector the customers finally will be able to get consisten info…

Re: Port forwarding on Three 5g broadband

2025_SB_ — Sun, 17 Aug 2025 12:45:04 GMT

I have been looking at switching to Three broadband but they are telling me they "do not support port forwarding".

(Currently with Hyper-optic but they keep bumping their prices up now £30pm for 50mb bb I already have port forwarding set up with them so it's just a price driven move). So have Opal router plugged into my Hyper Optic home router, set up with port forwarding. I can then travel with a Slate-AX travel router, log on to internet from anywhere in world, and surf the web displaying my home IP address.

How can it be done if you cannot access the Three router interface and set up port forwarding at home? I am not technical but was able to follow Hyperoptic instructions to set it up with them. But if Three don't support, it seems plugging in a secondary router at home is not enough in itself.

Any helpful comments welcome.

Thanks

Re: Port forwarding on Three 5g broadband

2025_SB_ — Sun, 17 Aug 2025 12:52:56 GMT

Hi @DanH ,

Is there an Admin panel, or user interface to access the Three Router ? I was told by Three (just now) they don't support Port Forwarding. Without access to that, being able to direct the Three router for Port forwarding how is it possible? Surely just plugging in secondary router to Three Router won't work?

Grateful for any helpful comments or suggestions

Thanks

Re: Port forwarding on Three 5g broadband

MymsMan — Sun, 17 Aug 2025 15:28:47 GMT

See https://community.three.co.uk/t5/Broadband/Remotely-connecting-to-Three-home-network-with-VPN/td-p/50845 for a guide I wrote on setting up a VPN to allow remote access to my home network.

IMO it is easier and more secure than using port forwarding

Re: Port forwarding on Three 5g broadband

2025_SB_ — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 07:53:29 GMT

Thank you. The laptop I want to do this with is a work laptop and without admin rights I cannot download anything such as Nord VPN. I suspect this means port forwarding is my only option?

Re: Port forwarding on Three 5g broadband

MymsMan — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 09:49:35 GMT

Do you have another windows or linux box connected to your home network?

You only have to have the VPN on one computer to give access to the entire network and it is actually easier if it is not the same computer that you want to access remotely! Some users have reported installing tailshark on a NAS device