Problems configuring Port Forwarding with Westell 7500 gateway

[Lazlo Panaflex]

For some reason, I simply cannot get port forwarding to work on this POS gateway, specifically with the Steam client. Hoping someone can help me out.
These are the settings pulled directly from the Steam forums, in the order they specified. All three entries are configured for 'in', and I have it set to 'host' (not dynamic), but Steam still times out.


[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Service Name [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] Steam1[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Type [/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] Port Forwarding[/FONT]

Entry Protocol Global Port(s) Local Port(s)
1 tcp 27014-27050 27014
2 udp 27000-27030 27000
3 udp 4380 4380

I went to the portforward forums, but their instructions were to set the protocol to "both", and it didn't work either! Does P.F. even work on this thing? It's driving me freakin crazy...

(sorry if this is in the wrong forum)

 

[RichardBrittain]

Tried using an ethernet cable?

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Huh? Please elaborate.

you be trollin, boy

=3

 

[kevnich2]

My suggestion would be to put the modem into bridge mode and get a proper router. Those modem/routers frankly suck in my opinion. Who's your ISP?

 

[RadiclDreamer]

You should not need to port forward to get steam working, it should simply nat for access. The built in firewall may be blocking it, have you turned it off?

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

You should not need to port forward to get steam working, it should simply nat for access. The built in firewall may be blocking it, have you turned it off?

Yeah, if I set security to "Low"...but I was really trying to get it to work on the Medium setting. No wonder Verizon gives these out for free.

It's a lost cause, I'll just buy a real router and set it to bridge mode like kevnich2 mentioned.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Yeah, if I set security to "Low"...but I was really trying to get it to work on the Medium setting. No wonder Verizon gives these out for free.

It's a lost cause, I'll just buy a real router and set it to bridge mode like kevnich2 mentioned.

If the security is blocking it, forwarding the port will do no good. The router knows how to get the data to you, however it is getting blocked by your firewall. Is there a more granular way of setting the security than just low-med etc

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Eh? I'm not using any other firewalls except for the one on the gateway. Basically the medium security setting is the same as "high", but the difference is medium allows port forwarding. I was using the Medium setting & port fwding Steam on my old Westell 327w w/o any issues...go figure.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Eh? I'm not using any other firewalls except for the one on the gateway. Basically the medium security setting is the same as "high", but the difference is medium allows port forwarding. I was using the Medium setting & port fwding Steam on my old Westell 327w w/o any issues...go figure.

Have you checked for updated code? Possibly a bug? Ive never used this particular model so i cant be sure.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Yeah, I think I'll try updating the firmware, see what happens. Thanks for your help, Radicl

 

[kevnich2]

Yeah, I think I'll try updating the firmware, see what happens. Thanks for your help, Radicl

Just going to suggest again, put the modem in bridge mode and get a proper router. I used to do some support for verizon and those modems, in not so plain english, suck. Even with port forwarding enabled, sometimes it didn't work, various issues like that. Just make it a modem and put in a proper router, the $50 you'll spend on the router will be worth it to avoid the t'shooting headaches.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Just going to suggest again, put the modem in bridge mode and get a proper router. I used to do some support for verizon and those modems, in not so plain english, suck. Even with port forwarding enabled, sometimes it didn't work, various issues like that. Just make it a modem and put in a proper router, the $50 you'll spend on the router will be worth it to avoid the t'shooting headaches.

I hear ya bro..this thing is such a POS. What router would you recommend? tks...

 

[kevnich2]

I hear ya bro..this thing is such a POS. What router would you recommend? tks...

While on one hand I can understand ISP's giving those modem/router combos out. Back in the day when they used just modem's, they got tired of all the support calls for the pppoe dialer problems or having to configure router's with PPPOE so they just give out combo units. These are good for the average person that just wants to surf and that's it but when you start using it for more than just web browsing, more advanced tasks are simply too much for these cheapy modem/routers units to handle.

As far as what router, anything really is going to be better than what you have. The router you need depends entirely upon what your internet habits are. If you do alot of torrenting or alot of gaming, I'd recommend going with a bit more beefy router. Also, would wireless G be enough for you or do you need the higher speed of wireless N? Linksys/Netgear/Dlink router's are all fairly good for SOHO use. I don't recommend belkin, however.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

$50 is really the max I'm willing to spend, so wireless G will be good enough for the forseeable future. Thanks again for your input.

LP

 

[Jawadali]

I just got a Westell 7500 from Verizon too (to replace a 7-year old modem that was giving me problems), and my brother is reporting similar issues with Steam and other online games.

Did you ever sort this out, or ever figure out how to put the router into bridge mode? I have a D-link wired router that I was using with the old modem, but since the 7500 has a router integrated, I took the D-link out of the loop.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Jawa, here ya go:

http://www22.verizon.com/residentialhelp/highspeed/networking/setup/versalink7500/123709.htm

Verizon intentionally bricked lots of advanced features on this POS.

 

[Jawadali]

Jawa, here ya go:

http://www22.verizon.com/residentialhelp/highspeed/networking/setup/versalink7500/123709.htm

Verizon intentionally bricked lots of advanced features on this POS.

Thanks for the reply. I currently have the 7500's firewall on "Low", which has solved most of the issues, but I will play with this later this week and probably go back to the D-Link DI-604 router.

 

[RebateMonger]

Are there specific Steam games you are having problems with? I run Steam and several multi-player games, all behind a rather sophisticated firewall//router (MS ISA Server 2004) and I have NO ports forwarded for any Steam games. As mentioned earlier, it's more likely the problem is with the firewall in the router, rather than port forwarding.

I see the Steam Support page that mentions those ports,
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8571-GLVN-8711
but it can't be for Port Forwarding. Those are more likely for Inbound firewall settings. If Port Forwarding was required, then only one PC in a household could play Steam Games, and that's definitely not true.

Note the first sentence: "Which ports do I need to open on my router or firewall for Steam?" It says, "open", and not "forward".

 

[Jawadali]

Are there specific Steam games you are having problems with? I run Steam and several multi-player games, all behind a rather sophisticated firewall//router (MS ISA Server 2004) and I have NO ports forwarded for any Steam games. As mentioned earlier, it's more likely the problem is with the firewall in the router, rather than port forwarding.

I see the Steam Support page that mentions those ports,
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8571-GLVN-8711
but it can't be for Port Forwarding. Those are more likely for Inbound firewall settings. If Port Forwarding was required, then only one PC in a household could play Steam Games, and that's definitely not true.

Note the first sentence: "Which ports do I need to open on my router or firewall for Steam?" It says, "open", and not "forward".

I don't know about Lazlo Panaflex, but I think Steam (and Games for Windows Live) both just weren't connecting unless the Westell 7500 router's firewall was set to "Low" or "Off".

 

[ASTOCADDIDS]

i found the other port forwarding section on my router still had no luck there. but after further searching i found that i had to upgrade the firmware in order for upnp to be enabled. after installing the new firmware my problems were fixed. thnx for the help. i can always rely on vnunet

 

[RebateMonger]

I don't know about Lazlo Panaflex, but I think Steam (and Games for Windows Live) both just weren't connecting unless the Westell 7500 router's firewall was set to "Low" or "Off".

Yeah, if I want anything but web requests to work work on a modem/router like that, I usually find that the built-in firewall must be set to "Low" or "Off". Firewalls on a router aren't absolutely required if you are using NAT on the router and have a software firewall on the client PCs.

According to the Westell 7500 manual though, the built-in firewall is highly configurable if you know what you are looking for.

As noted above, UPnP might work, too. I don't know much about it. It used to be that everybody recommended turning router UPnP off for best security, but that idea seems to be changing.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Are there specific Steam games you are having problems with? I run Steam and several multi-player games, all behind a rather sophisticated firewall//router (MS ISA Server 2004) and I have NO ports forwarded for any Steam games. As mentioned earlier, it's more likely the problem is with the firewall in the router, rather than port forwarding.

I see the Steam Support page that mentions those ports,
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8571-GLVN-8711
but it can't be for Port Forwarding. Those are more likely for Inbound firewall settings. If Port Forwarding was required, then only one PC in a household could play Steam Games, and that's definitely not true.

Note the first sentence: "Which ports do I need to open on my router or firewall for Steam?" It says, "open", and not "forward".

Sorry for the uber late response, but I ditched Verizon (went w/ Cavalier) and am buying a WRT54GL