Any way to port forward on a Hathway modem + TP Link router setup?

M

muthumoon2957

Messages
36
Location
Delhi
ISP
Hathway Broadband
Hathway has given us a ZTE F602W modem-router hybrid and a TP-Link Archer C5 v4 router as part of our plan. ZTE F602W seems to recieve green fibre connection, and is connected to WAN port of TP Link router via yellow LAN cable. Seems like a PPPoE set up to me.

The ZTE Modem has the ability to broadcast an SSID though it is disabled by default. So all user's devices connect to the TP Link router's SSIDs. Upon connecting to the TP Link SSID some users want to be able to port forward for minecraft/games server, https server, etc.

TP Link default gateway is 192.168.0.1. Going to that page and clicking Advanced > Status shows that the router's WAN IP Address is 192.168.1.2, and it's own default gateway is 192.168.1.1.
image.png


However. wget -q -O- http://ipecho.net/plain says the public IP is in the form 60.239.xxx.xxx. At first I thought this was due to CGNAT.

But then, upon logging into my Hathway ZTE Modem's web console at 192.168.1.1, it says that it's own public IP is 60.239.xxx.xxx, i.e the public IP.


I thought that this means I am not under CGNAT, and port forwarding should work. However I've tried to the best of my ability to set up port forwarding rules on both the ZTE and TP Link modem and router respectively, but no luck. When I test canyouseeme.org on a port I've not opened on my public IP, it says Connection Refused. However, when I try to access a port I did try to forward, i.e 25565, it says Connection timed out. This leads me to believe I'm on the right path but still no luck.

Further, trying to access 192.168.1.2, seen in the TP Link status page just puts me back on the TP Link admin login page.

Running the following command also makes me feel that I'm not on CGNAT, as I'm only connecting to the local router and then to the public IP apparently.
Code: 
$ tracert 60.239.xxx.xxx

Tracing route to 60.239.xxx.xxx over a maximum of 30 hops

  1     1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  ARCHER_C5 [192.168.0.1]
  2     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  60.239.xxx.xxx

Trace complete.

There is an option to disable NAT for IPv4 on the modem but trying that option seems to disable internet connection entirely.

I am out of ideas. Is this a double NAT? A CGNAT? is it solvable at all? I'd appreciate your help guys thanks.
 
I figured it out.

Unencumbered port forward succesfully achieved on dynamic Hathway IPv4
with no need for
  • PPPoE password (this was Hathway@123 for me, for anyone interested anyway)
  • Bridge Mode (I tried this method Reddit - Dive into anything, but it didn't work for me. It just seemed to down the network with port forward not working anyway)
  • AP Mode
  • Custom Firmware
Tldr: the steps
  1. In zte modem config page, go to Application > DMZ Host.
  2. Click Enable checkbox on, in the IPv4 section set the WAN Connection to your connection (was omci_ipv4_pppoe_1 for me)
  3. In DMZ Host IP Address, fill in your router's local IP address as seen from the Modem's pov* (was 192.168.1.2 for me)
  4. Click submit, then power off and power on both your modem and router (might not be necessary? idk)
  5. Go to your TP-Link router's admin page, then go to NAT Forwarding > UPnP (or Virtual Servers, for manual port forwarding)
  6. Port forwarding rules can now be set and configured here as normal. From step 4 onwards, you won't need to mess with your ZTE modem at all if you wanna configure port forwarding. Just deal with the router that is all.
My Setup Explanation
It may vary for people. But this is how it was for me.
Modem Model: ZTE F602W
Router Model: TP-Link Archer C5 v4 (has OpenWRT stable and snapshot builds, if anyone wanna mess around with that ;))
Everything done on the devices' default firmwares.

Hathway FTTH Cable goes into the ZTE Modem (192.168.1.1). Then a yellow WAN cable is connected from the ZTE to the TP-Link router (192.168.1.2).

For me the TP-Link router has two ip addresses, which confused me for months. But finally I understood it. Ultimately 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.1.2 refer to the same physical device, so you can visit both those IPs on the web browser and reach the exact same config page.

Basically the modem assigns IP address 192.168.1.2 to the TP-Link router, as part of the Modem's own subnet (192.168.1.xxx). So thus the modem sees the router with that ip address. Then, the router creates the Router's own subnet (192.168.0.xxx). In this subnet, the router will have IP address 192.168.0.1 and all your home devices like tv, pc etc would be assigned addresses like 192.168.0.113.

The trick is we make the modem forward ALL traffic directly to the router, and thus the router gets the powers to handle port forwarding and traffic rules. We do this via the DMZ method, which makes the modem act like a transparent bridge.
 
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