HG659 loses port forwarding settings

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johnvick

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#188999 13-Dec-2015 07:35

I have a Vodafone HG659 latest firmware and I port forward so I can access devices when away from home, NAS and Raspberry Pi's etc.

The router however forgets these port forwarding settings - they used to last for weeks but now it can be less than a day.

Thanks to this forum I have found a way around this problem with Teamviewer - by remotely controlling my home Windows PC and redoing the port forwarding.

But I am wondering if a better solution exists?

John

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#1449548 13-Dec-2015 08:53

Use an outbound OpenVPN client on Raspberry Pi to connect to OpenVPN server running on VPS in cloud.

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dylanp

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#1449999 14-Dec-2015 08:58

Please confirm absolutely that your firmware version ends in "19", details here http://help.vodafone.co.nz/app/answers/detail/a_id/24400/

If that's all good suggest factory resetting modem, configuring from scratch, then backing up that configuration. http://help.vodafone.co.nz/app/answers/detail/a_id/24402 That will at least make it easier to restore.

johnvick

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#1450108 14-Dec-2015 13:14

Yes I have the latest firmware. I'll try the reset as you suggest, thanks.

Coil

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#1450110 14-Dec-2015 13:19

I never have this problem on my Version 14 i think it is.

westy_nz

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#1500753 28-Feb-2016 14:17

Hi there,

I have been diagnosing the same problem for a friend of mine. Did the factory reset clear this problem up for you??

Rgds

Chris

johnvick

18 posts

Geek

#1500781 28-Feb-2016 15:02

No it didn't, but I have drawn some conclusions about how it works. If I port forward to a device that is on 24/7 (Raspberry Pi for example) it remembers the forwarding. If I forward to a QNAP NAS (on 16 hours a day) it eventually forgets the forwarding (to that device only) possibly as it can't find the device when it is powered down. I don't know if other routers work this way or not but my old Netgear used to remember the forwarding rules regardless.

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dylanp

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#1501496 29-Feb-2016 13:59

How many devices do you have on the network, and how many devices do you have forwarding set up for?

johnvick

18 posts

Geek

#1501498 29-Feb-2016 14:10

Too many to count really - family of four with laptops, two desktops, four tablets, four smartphones, several Raspberry Pi's, two QNAP NAS, X-box, smart TV, Blu-Ray player, TV recorder. 30-40 devices maybe.

I now port forward only to the devices that are on 24/7 - a Raspberry Pi and a Banana Pi. This seems to work fine and rebooting the router does not lose the forwarding. I've given up port forwarding to the QNAP, don't really need it anyway.

John

westy_nz

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#1502044 1-Mar-2016 11:35

Hi John, thanks for the reply.

FYI (for any Vodafone people here), my friends port forwarding rules also failed after about 12-16 hours.

It is for accessing security cameras remotely, so it's a bit of an issue for them. I believe Vodafone don't support any support calls regarding port forwarding (I might be wrong), but I've advised them to give them a call anyway.

Seems odd that an obvious flaw in this router is still apparent. Otherwise they are up for the cost of a more reliable alternative router.

Rgds

Chris

dylanp

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#1502282 1-Mar-2016 17:35

There are limits to the number of devices that can be active on the HG659 while maintaining port forwarding rules for devices that are not at that active.

Spark do a good job of describing what I mean.

https://www.spark.co.nz/help/internet-data/equipment/huawei/hg659-gateway/port-forwarding-on-the-huawei-hg659-hg659b/

"Note: You can set forwarding rules on the HG659/HG659b so that users can easily access server resources provided by your computer (such as personal web sites and FTP servers) from the Internet. Rules can be applied by MAC address only and to a maximum of 32 devices. When the total number of connected devices < 32, all LAN devices will be saved in the list, online devices are shown as green, offline devices are shown as grey. When the total number of connected devices > 32, the modem will prioritize to display online devices only, and will kick offline devices out (to enable new online devices to be added as required). When a device is 'kicked out', the port forwarding rules are removed also."

johnvick

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#1502360 1-Mar-2016 19:12

Although I have up to 40 internet connected devices at home I'd doubt there has ever been more than 20 connected and active at any one time but I'll keep an eye on this.

One thing I did not mention earlier that may be relevant is that all the devices I port forward to are wired connections.

A workaround to this problem is to set up a port range forwarding connection to a Raspberry Pi and leave the Pi on 24/7.

Then let the Pi do the port forwarding with Socat. Plenty of on-line tutorials on how to set this up.

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jdanner

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#1528281 8-Apr-2016 11:30

Ugh,

We've been having this issue too with a Vodafone supplied HG659. However this was supplied to be deployed in a business environment (why?) which routinely has 40-60 devices connected. The router doesn't manage DHCP or anything, but we do use it for port forwarding to the server and it loses the port forwarding rules with frustrating regularity.

Also, the router doesn't support backing up/restoring settings (which is even more annoying).

johnvick

18 posts

Geek

#1528307 8-Apr-2016 11:44

You can save settings but you must be logged in as Admin (note capital A) to do so.

You'll find the Admin default password in the forum - I have changed mine and can't remember it.

Port forwarding settings only stick if the device you are forwarding to is on 24/7.

Jase2985

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#1528337 8-Apr-2016 12:22

try this: Login to the HG659. Use the username Admin and password VF-NZhg659.

jdanner

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#1528378 8-Apr-2016 12:37

Thanks folks.

Yep, using that Admin login allowed me to backup my settings. Now I'm trying to decide whether to upgrade the firmware... Its using version 13 & the current version is 20 (which I'm hoping might solve some of these issues). But the customer site is halfway down the country from me.

Not too keen on the idea of updating the firmware and then having the whole site's internet go down...