I use these units at scale so this is not a a misconfiguration problem. We follow simple port forward procedure to set them up, and normally they work fine, however every now and then the port forwards will just not work on a unit, no matter how many factory resets/firmware updates are performed. We can have many of these units connected as repeaters to the same building WiFi network. What could possible be happening?
The router has outbound connectivity, but the port forwards just refuse to work when trying to connect from the upstream network.
I repeat: We configure multiple units every day and they work fine. What could be causing a particular unit configured the same way not to work? Could this be a hardware issue? What would the recommended steps be to debug or fix this?
After taking the router out of its box and powering it up, we change the default SSID (for example, from GL-AR300M-000 to Router7) and LAN IP address so it is on the 10.66.171.x range, then set up a couple port forwards, for example 8080, to point to an internal address, (for example 10.66.171.20). We also scan and connect it to our building WiFi network (let’s call it BuildingNetwork), which will assign the router an IP address on the 192.168.1.x range, for example 192.168.1.89.
Because the computer on 10.66.171.20 has a web server on port 8080, I can access that content if I connect directly to the router by connecting to SSID Router7 and go to http://10.66.171.20:8080.
Normally, If I connect to BuildingNetwork, I can access the same content if I go to http://192.168.1.89:8080, because the port forwards are in place. But on this particular unit they just don’t work, they time out. Most ironically, however, I can access the content by connecting to Router7 directly and opening http://192.168.1.89:8080. Also, the computer on 10.66.171.20 HAS internet connection, so it IS successfully connected. But the port forwards don’t work as they usually do.
If the router use the same firmware as other units, this must work. If it does not work, seems there are something wrong. Can you change 8080 to other ports and try?
Further investigation shows that the problem is not with the port forwards, but with the router functionality instead. I replaced the unit and I’m still seeing the same behavior. Moreover, I tested with replacing the “BuildingNetwork” with a different AR300. I can connect my “destination” AR300 to a different “intermediate” AR300 and in the Admin Panel of the “Intermediate” I see the “destination” among the clients in the 2.4G Wireless section. But I cannot ping the “destination” directly from a different client connected to the “intermediate”, and it does not show up on port scans. But if I ssh into “intermediate”, then I am able to ping “destination”.