cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Port forwarding on ZTE MC801A 5G router not working

elarry
Regular

To access the OpenVPN server on my home network from outside, I need to set up port forwarding on the ZTE MC801A 5G router provided by Three. I found the settings in the router settings under Advanced Settings - Firewall - Port forwarding. I entered the LAN IP address of my OpenVPN server, set the port range to the port used by the server, and applied the changes. However, both canyouseeme.org and yougetsignal.com reported that the port was still closed. Restarting the router and my computer didn't help.

I called Three Customer Services. They said that they didn't restrict port forwarding, and advised me to contact the device manufacturer, ZTE. I called ZTE and described what I did. They confirmed that my procedure was correct, and told me that my router was custom-made for Three, so Three could have limited the functionality...🙄 When I called Three again telling them my conversation history, another Advisor said that it could be due to the default Safe Browsing restriction (adult content filtering, of which I failed to see the relevance) on Three home broadband. However, even if they removed the Safe Browsing block, port forwarding is still not working.

This is frustrating - I used to have the same settings on my Virgin Media Superhub 3 and it worked smoothly. I saw a few posts online reporting similar problems on this router. Someone said port forwarding only worked when it was in bridge mode, but I don't have another router and don't plan to have one. Has anyone successfully set this router up for port forwarding?

22 REPLIES 22
elarry
Regular

Hmm, the screenshot was broken, so I'm posting it again.

MC801A 3internet APN settings.png

CSpec01
Fledgling

I had an issue today where the Three router acting as a bridge did not let the replacement router connect to the internet. The fix was strangely setting the APN mode to 'manual' without changing anything else, haha!

Let me know if this fixes your issue as that'd mean the portforwarding problem you've encountered is different to mine 🥲

SZCG
Fledgling

I had exactly the same issue.  Unable to access AOVPN.  Three confirmed no ports blocked and I was on 3internet APN.  I toggled to Manual and it’s now working.  Maybe the Auto setting tries to find three.co.uk APN so blocking access.