Port Fowarding Issue - EA4500

[mattbeez]

I am running into an issue when using the Single Port Forwarding function.  When I have the 5 ports enabled, the router seems to shut down completely.  The internet becomes unreponsive.  As soon as I uncheck any one of the 5, it starts responding again.  Any idea what I may be doing wrong?  I have performed the same procedure on previous models and never ran into this issue.   

[gv]

Sounds like a firmware bug to me. Call support.

[rskunath]

What are the 5 ports that you are forwarding?

[mattbeez]

For Xbox Live:

53, 80,88,1863,3074

Upon further trial and error, it only seems to stop responding after enabling 53.

[gv · Accepted solution]

Why on earth do you want to forward port 53???

Port 53 is DNS. It is how host names are resolved to IP addresses. It's an essential service for all your devices. You must not forward that port to any device.

Of course, the internet becomes "unresponsive" because if you forward that port to your xbox you break name resolution in your LAN.

Do not forward port 53!

[stlrec]

I ran into the same problem. All Xbox Live sites say to forward port 53 for NAT open. It would lock up everything and through trial and error I disabled the port and it works fine now.

[gv]

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stlrec wrote:

I ran into the same problem. All Xbox Live sites say to forward port 53 for NAT open. It would lock up everything and through trial and error I disabled the port and it works fine now.

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http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-live/connecting/network-ports-used-xbox-live

Well, this is junk. Seems as if they don't understand the difference between ports needed and ports to be forwarded. The xbox may need port 53 to be open (i.e. a firewall does not block traffic from or to the xbox on port 53). But that does not mean it must be forwarded, i.e. the xbox gets unsolicited traffic on port 53 from the internet.

You only forward a port if you have a server running on that port which needs to be accessible from the internet. The xbox is no DNS server. It doesn't need port 53. And I am pretty sure the xbox isn't a web server either, thus it won't need port 80 either.

That's a huge difference but obviously Microsoft doesn't understand that.

[danpadilla]

Ok, I have opened all port except the 53 but, now when turning on xbox the live will not start and when I do the test through the xbox my nat type shows up as strict, or moderate.  Is this just because the EA4500 is new or will there be a fix. I tried chatting it up with the support people but all they did is not listen and as me the same question over and over again.  

[jlbjlb]

What is the make and model of your modem? Try putting your modem in bridge mode if applicable and reconfigure your ea4500.

[ylime1984]

Yes, if you have a DSL internet connection and you have DCHP configuration on the modem, call your ISP and have them set your modem to bridge mode then forward those ports on the router with a static ip address assigned on your xbox.

Another option for you is to do port triggering on the router instead of  port forwarding.