Three Home Broadband blocks incoming connections

[Ihuss]

Does anyone know why Three blocks incoming connections on their 5G Home Broadband network and how I can circumvent this?

I need to be able to remotely access devices such as NAS, Media server, DVR/NVR, VPN, etc hosted on my home network which was I was able to easily do before with previous ISPs (like Virgin Media, Sky, BT). I have the 5G Outdoor Hub set as IP Passthrough/Modem mode but the traffic is not even reaching my internal firewall router and Three Technical Support said they can't help as it's not supported to port forward and I can cancel my contract within the 30 day cooling off period. 

[Ihuss]

Hey Pete

Thanks for getting back to me.

The IP changing is not the issue as I had dynamic IPs with other ISPs like sky, bt yet never had the issue I’m now having with Three home broadband. Beside I use a DDNS service anyway to connect. I am also using 3internet APN since the 5G outdoor hub comes preconfigured with it.

Any attempts to connect to my home network resources that sit behind the 5G outdoor hub fail within a matter of seconds as if the connection is being dropped before it hits my firewall and also port scans show all ports as being closed despite being opened on my firewall.

is there anything I can try to be absolute sure that the Three network/5G outdoor hub is not dropping the incoming connections?

is there anyone else in this community that is having the same problem as me?

please assist further.

[PeteG]

I don't have a hub for testing at the moment, sadly - are you able to check the admin page to see if there's an option in there to open/forward certain ports? 

Pete

[Ihuss]

Hi Pete

Yes there is a port forward option available only when the hub is running in routing mode however whatever rule you put in there still no incoming traffic gets through. The port forward option is greyed out when the hub is set to IP pass through/modem mode which is understandable since then you'd expect all traffic to traverse unfiltered (similar to other hubs from other ISPs). So regardless of whether the hub is set to routing or IP Passthrough the incoming traffic is still being blocked/dropped.

Is there an anyone else here that has managed to get incoming traffic reaching their internal network unhindered?

[PeteG]

Hey there. 

Incoming connections shouldn't be blocked. It's likely you're having the issue due to the IP address changing or something like that. You should be able to resolve the issue by running a DDNS service. Also, you will need to make sure that you're using the 3internet APN on your Hub, as that's the only one that'll give you a dedicated IP address without using CGNAT. 

Pete.