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Question help me with port forwarding problem

QueBert

Lifer
It's been a long time since I've messed with a routers settings. I'm trying to do what I thought would be simple, set up port forwarding so I can set up an Alexa skill to work with my Kodi.

I opened up port 8080 in my router, but couldn't access it. If I put my local IP:8080 I can access it fine, when I put my external IP it never connects. I ran an online port checker and it said it was unreachable. I went around my router settings and enabled DMZ, once I turned that on when I did the port checker it said port was open. GREAT. But when I tried my external ip:8080 it times out. going back to my internal IP it connected fine again. I edited my hosts file and added my local ip with the external ip afterwards, I somewhat remember this working for me long ago. I Googled and found it might work it might not.

The only thing I could come up with was it had something to do with a firewall setting, so I totally shut my firewall off. Still not able to connect with my external IP.

I would love some help here, I don't know what to try next.
 
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are you forwarding the port to the correct IP internally?

for example:

Internal IP of device: 192.168.1.99
External IP: 72.10.99.99

You have to make sure that the port is directing to the 192 address, otherwise it won't know where to look for the port. Not sure if thats the issue, but thats what I would check first.

Also make sure you assign a static IP to the device so its not changing internally.
 
If you are trying to port-forward, and open a port on your router externally, even if that is successful, you may not be able to use the external address to access the network resource, unless your router also supports "local loopback". If it does not, or you are dual-NATting, you won't be able to do so. Even if other people on the internet can access your network resource remotely.

IOW, to really test this, you need a secondary internet connection. (Use your cell, set up Wifi hotspot, use laptop to connect to cell, test that way?)
 
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