moderate to open NAT

[rich8483]

I have a ps3 and a ps4 that i am connecting to the internet. As a gamer, having an open NAT is important to me. But when i connect my ps3 to the internet through the router, a handful of games report a moderate NAT (however the connection test in the ps3 reports Type 2 which i thought was fine for a router connection.

If i connect the ps3 directly to the modem, i get type 1 and the games are reporting open NAT. That leads me to believe that the isp is fine and has no trouble on their end nor a firewall of any kind on their end.

If i turn the firewall off in the router, i get no change, still moderate NAT. I have been succesfull with DMZ on the ps3 but i now need to connect the ps3 and the ps4 so cant really DMZ them both, only one address at a time. I need it to work correctly without that.

My question is, do i have router setting problems or even just a bad router?

edit edit. i do remember trying to port forward specific playstation network ports last year and that was also unsuccessful which is why i did DMZ.


edit. its xfinity internet with a couple year old wrt54gl router. some motorolla modem or something.

 

[maddawg138]

[STRIKE]why not just plug one directly into the router and then have the other with DMZ?[/STRIKE]


EDIT: Disregard tired and missed the part where you hooked it up to the modem and had no problems but its with the router

 

[MikeDVB]

It depends on the router as to what kind of NAT you have - some are better than others - notably newer ones are better at NAT than older ones.

I could go into details - but let's just say you should probably update to a newer router. A decent one is only $50 or so.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

 

[wtburnette]

You could try updating the firmware to see if that helps, or use third party firmware like tomato, or dd-wrt. If those suggestions don't work, buy a new router somewhere locally that has a great return policy (or use Amazon.com) and use it to test with. If it works and you're happy, keep the router. If you still have problems and/or don't like the router, return it and get your money back.

 

[hoosierdoc]

Friend of mine has this issue and couldn't change it no matter how many settings he tried or Internet articles he read. Ended up buying a newer router and was fine.

are you having problems joining with friends for online play? That was the issue we were having.

 

[Denny347]

I have this problem but I have an AT&T Uverse 2wire home gateway and it controls my cable and internet. I'm not sure I can replace this.

 

[Thegeek]

It really should be pass-through to your PS, but as stated above, it's probably to do with how your router is applying the NAT. There's multiple ways of doing NAT routing and your router is probably doing it a way that the PS doesn't like.

 

[rich8483]

okay. to add a couple things because of your responses...

1. it reports moderate NAT when wireless or wired. so its not strictly a wireless issue.

2. my actual router is "only" a couple years old but i do realize that the linksys model number is several, maybe ten years old. so if it comes down to it. what router would be recamended for the $50 range.

3. before i go out and buy a new one of course, i would like to update firmware, but when i tried to do that, i got a wee bit confused.

4. what about an ethernet hub after the modem before the router? can it even work like that? i only mention it because i already have a hub and would save me the money of buying a new router if that is where it ends up going.

 

[rich8483]

SUCCESS! for now anyways. Thanks for the reminder wtburnette. I figured out how to update firmware and and seems to have done what I wanted. The installed version was more than a couple releases old. Some of the patch notes that caught my eye were pass through capability issues and upnp issues. It also said something about xss, but i dont know how that applies to game consoles.

Also, the thing i own is a switch, not a hub. I dont know what the difference is but does not matter. I did not even attempt to use it.

 

[wtburnette]

Good to hear, glad that worked for ya!

 

[Cameramonkey]

Not that you need it now, but I recommend the Linksys units below the e2500 or so. IF they are "smart routers" (I think thats the name) that boast apps on the back of the box DONT DO IT!

Cisco developed these with a cloud based approach that requires you to have a cloud account with them to operate the router. No account? You have a brick. And they did this quietly and automatically enrolled the users that already had them up and running before the requirement without their consent. There were reports of furious users who went in to make a change and were told "sorry, cant touch your router settings anymore until you make an account with us online." Cisco/Linksys also refused to allow them to roll back to a previous firmware that wasnt cloud managed.

Buffalo also makes some decent gear.

Though Im not sure what will happen now that Belkin has purchased Linksys from Cisco. Based on my vast experience with them, Belkin electronics werent worth the box they were shipped in. Cheap, Flaky, prone to failure, hard to manage, and counterintuitive. Lets hope that doesnt creep into the Linksys stable of products and they leave them alone as a separate business unit to do their thing.

 

[sepe]

I had strict NAT on xbox live even with following all the guides/tips/etc to have open NAT. When I hooked up my new router, I just the xbox to automatically assign an IP. Problem solved.

 

[Lunati]

Enable port forwarding on your router and open the ports the PS4 uses. Bam. Solved.

 

[MikeDVB]

I have this problem but I have an AT&T Uverse 2wire home gateway and it controls my cable and internet. I'm not sure I can replace this.

With their gateway you're extremely limited but you can attach a router to that which will be able to properly do NAT. If I did that I'd turn off wireless on the AT&T Gateway and only use the additional router.

Enable port forwarding on your router and open the ports the PS4 uses. Bam. Solved.

Sure... If you know what ports and you assign a static IP to your console or you configure DHCP on the router to always give it the same IP. A bit more technically involved to do this than most are capable of doing.

UPnP is great for consumers when it works right .

 

[jkaetz]

I have this problem but I have an AT&T Uverse 2wire home gateway and it controls my cable and internet. I'm not sure I can replace this.

It can be done. I have Uverse and have completely bypassed their POS router. There are two ways to do it, I plugged an ethernet cable directly into the service port of the gateway mounted outside and ran that to my router. You can also simply connect your router to the one that AT&T provided with an ethernet cable. The next step is to go into the config and turn off all wifi functions of the uverse piece. Finally, you have to assign the public address to your router and not the one that AT&T provides. After that is done connect all your equipment to your new router and you should be good to go. I'm at work and don't remember exactly where all the settings are but if you want to try this just let me know and I'll be more precise.

 

[Denny347]

With their gateway you're extremely limited but you can attach a router to that which will be able to properly do NAT. If I did that I'd turn off wireless on the AT&T Gateway and only use the additional router.

It can be done. I have Uverse and have completely bypassed their POS router. There are two ways to do it, I plugged an ethernet cable directly into the service port of the gateway mounted outside and ran that to my router. You can also simply connect your router to the one that AT&T provided with an ethernet cable. The next step is to go into the config and turn off all wifi functions of the uverse piece. Finally, you have to assign the public address to your router and not the one that AT&T provides. After that is done connect all your equipment to your new router and you should be good to go. I'm at work and don't remember exactly where all the settings are but if you want to try this just let me know and I'll be more precise.

Last year I got so pissed off at the 2-wire's wireless signal that I attached a Netgear WNDR 3400v2 to it for the WiFi. So all the Wifi in the house runs off the Netgear. The Netgear is just plugged into the 2-Wire, I don't think I did anything more than that. Do you think plugging the ethernet going from the X-box into the Netgear would be better. For the record, the 2-Wire has the coax cable from the cable box outside running into it and that is how I am connected to the internet.

 

[jkaetz]

Last year I got so pissed off at the 2-wire's wireless signal that I attached a Netgear WNDR 3400v2 to it for the WiFi. So all the Wifi in the house runs off the Netgear. The Netgear is just plugged into the 2-Wire, I don't think I did anything more than that. Do you think plugging the ethernet going from the X-box into the Netgear would be better. For the record, the 2-Wire has the coax cable from the cable box outside running into it and that is how I am connected to the internet.

I would guess at this point you just need to connect everything to your netgear unit and then assign the public IP address to it. That should effectively bypass the 2-Wire unit. When I get home I'll double check on where that setting is.

 

[Denny347]

I would guess at this point you just need to connect everything to your netgear unit and then assign the public IP address to it. That should effectively bypass the 2-Wire unit. When I get home I'll double check on where that setting is.

OK, it's a good unit but I did not know how that would affect my Uverse TV if I used it in place of the 2-Wire.

 

[jkaetz]

OK, it's a good unit but I did not know how that would affect my Uverse TV if I used it in place of the 2-Wire.

Since you wouldn't be removing the 2-Wire unit things should be no problem. Just move your x-box and other things that are yours to the netgear unit.

If your settings are the same as mine, login to your uverse router settings, go to the Settings tab, then the LAN tab, and find the IP Address Allocation section. You'll probably have a few things listed in there but the public address should be assigned to the 2-Wire device. You want to change that device to a private address and assign the public address to your netgear router. It should look something like the picture attached. Since I don't have the 2-Wire device connected, it doesn't even show on my settings but you can see that the Address assignment is set on my WRT320. Take a screenshot or write down the existing settings then you can change back if something doesn't work the way you wanted.