Unable to access media center off home wifi

[jagterp]

I am only able to access my media center using the Companion app over my home wifi. I have read the set up guide and am still having difficulty. The external IP address in the Companion app and Ceton Companion Services Configuration are the same. The Companion app defaults to port 5832 and the Companion Services Config defaults to 0. If I enter 5832 in the Config and test port forwarding, I receive a message that the port is not properly forwarded. I'm not sure what the next step is to resolve this.

[Motz]

To use the app remotely and off wi-fi you need to enable port forwarding on your router. We have a small guide here:
http://cetoncorp.com/documents/CetonCom ... sGuide.pdf

Also you can find guides to your specific router here:
http://portforward.com/english/applicat ... efault.htm

[Bruh-Man]

I have a NetGear R6300 that will NOT let me use the Ceton Companion over the internet. Local Network is fine, so I know it has to do with the port forwarding. I've tripple checked my port forwarding settings after I have read the following:


To use the app remotely and off wi-fi you need to enable port forwarding on your router. We have a small guide here:
http://cetoncorp.com/documents/CetonCom ... sGuide.pdf

Also you can find guides to your specific router here:
http://portforward.com/english/applicat ... efault.htm

I still can't get it to work. I'm having the same issue with my Remote Potato server as well. can't see the servers from the internet. I know many people have been helped in this forum. Can you help me?

[foxwood]

To help verify whether you have set up your portforwarding properly, you can use the Shields Up website.

Ignore all the editorializing on the site, just click the Proceed button on the page above, and then enter the external port number that you have set up in your port forwarding rules, and then click the "User Specified Custom Port Probe' button to see if the Shields Up server can get any kind of response from your "server". If Shields Up can't see anything, then your Port Forwarding isn't working, and the Companion app won't be able to see anything either when it's not on your LAN.

In case you missed it - IGNORE EVERYTHING else on the Shields Up website - Gibson is quite opinionated, and some of his opinions are rather "quaint".

[Motz]

If you are using Remote Potato make sure that it is not set to the same ports as the Ceton Companion.

Also do you guys have any 3rd party firewalls installed or any antivirus installed on the computer?

[foxwood]

Motz, would you consider setting up a simple "Remote Access Debugger" script on a Ceton website that would send a simple handshake request to the Companion services on the specified port on the requesting IP address (so it can't be used to probe anyone elses setup)?

I think you're already displaying the remote IP address in the Companion Services App by reaching out to a Ceton Web server, having an additional test that would make a test connection on the user specified external port might save some some headscratching.

[Motz]

We actually have a Remote Access (port forwarding) test in the companion services that basically does that.

[foxwood]

We actually have a Remote Access (port forwarding) test in the companion services that basically does that.

Sorry - it's been a long week, and it's been a while since I actually looked at the Companion Services tool.

[Motz]

No problem at all

[Bruh-Man]

"If Shields Up can't see anything, then your Port Forwarding isn't working, and the Companion app won't be able to see anything either when it's not on your LAN."
Shields up doesn't seem to find Port 5832 for the Ceton Companion, nor does it see Port 9080 - 9083 for remote potato. What am I doing wrong. The port Fwd configuration is exactly what it's supposed to be. what is my next option to fix?

Does it matter that I have a Time Warner Cable Internet Modem connected to my Router. May be a dumb question, but I recall getting a "2 NAT translations" message on the Media Center Server? I really need to get this to work so I can get my view on while I'm out of town.

HTPC: Velocity Micro Cinemagix Grand Theatre
Ceton InfiniTV 4
Remote Potato
Ceton Companion
TV Provider Time Warner
Extender - HP MediaSmart Connect / XBox 360
Router NetGear R6300

[Bruh-Man]

This is the report I got back from ShieldsUp
----------------------------------------------------------------------

GRC Port Authority Report created on UTC: 2012-12-01 at 04:38:17

Results from scan of ports: 0-1055

0 Ports Open
1047 Ports Closed
9 Ports Stealth
---------------------
1056 Ports Tested

NO PORTS were found to be OPEN.

Ports found to be STEALTH were: 80, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139,
443, 445, 593

Other than what is listed above, all ports are CLOSED.

TruStealth: FAILED - NOT all tested ports were STEALTH,
- NO unsolicited packets were received,
- A PING REPLY (ICMP Echo) WAS RECEIVED.

[Bruh-Man]

# Service Name External Start Port External End Port Internal Start Port Internal End Port Internal IP address
1 Ceton Companion 5832 5832 5832 5832 192.168.1.11
2 Remote Potato 9080 9083 9080 9083 192.168.1.11

[Bruh-Man]

# Service Name External Start Port External End Port Internal Start Port Internal End Port Internal IP address
1 Ceton Companion 5832 5832 5832 5832 192.168.1.11
2 Remote Potato 9080 9083 9080 9083 192.168.1.11

[Bruh-Man]

Here how my port forwarding is configured for both my Ceton Companion:


# Service Name External Start Port External End Port Internal Start Port Internal End Port Internal IP address
1 Ceton Companion 5832 5832 5832 5832 192.168.1.11
2 Remote Potato 9080 9083 9080 9083 192.168.1.11

[Bruh-Man]

From the windows firewall service I ran a diagnostic for incoming connections and received the following message:
"Reconfigure your network"
To prevent problems other computers or devices might have when connecting to your computer, no more than one device should perform network address translation."

I'm not certain what this means because I only have 1 router, but I do have a VOIP Phone/InternetModem combo connected to the router. is this by chance causing my the network to think more than one device is performing NAT?

Contiinuing on in the windows firewall diagnostic I received some more info:

"Problems Found'
Security or firewall settings might be blocking the connection - Detected
More than one Device is performing network address translation (NAT) - Detected

I do not have any 3rd party firewalls running. I even disabled the windows firewall and still got the same results.

I realize I'm no Network expert but would appreciate the help.

[Motz]

Yeah this all looks correct. It is probably something really simple that we are missing.

Any AntiVirus software installed? If so it can be blocking all traffic incoming on specific ports.

Here is what my router (Netgear WNDR3700) looks like under port forwarding:

port.PNG (11.57 KiB) Viewed 1988 times

[foxwood]

This is the report I got back from ShieldsUp
Results from scan of ports: 0-1055

0 Ports Open
1047 Ports Closed
9 Ports Stealth
---------------------
1056 Ports Tested

That's not a "User Specified Custom Port Probe". It doesn't tell you anything useful.

[foxwood]

I'm not certain what this means because I only have 1 router, but I do have a VOIP Phone/InternetModem combo connected to the router. is this by chance causing my the network to think more than one device is performing NAT? .

It doesn't "think" that more than one device is performing NAT - it's telling you that more than one device is performing NAT. That means that the VOIP Phone/InternetModem combo is probably a router too.

Post the model numbers of the devices involved

[Bruh-Man]

Ahh.. I think I found the problem. I went to my Arris TG852 VOIP/Router/Modem and told it to only "pass through" traffic without routing it (do not NAT) to my Net Gear R6300. When I did that, the port forwarding worked correctly. I can now access both my Ceton Companion from the internet.

Thanks for all of the Help.