IBB blocking ports?

Jonnie_Onion

I've seen mention on a few threads of IBB possibly blocking ports that affect P2P programs. Could we get a list maybe of affected programs?

Moonbeam

They don't block any ports

Mutant_Fruit

while they dont block any ports, they might have traffic shapers installed, limiting traffic on popular P2P ports. Unfortunately, there's no way around that kind of block.

father_ted9t9

on IBB i can rarely get a level higher than poor on Limewire, and my edonkey speed is very low also. Anyone else have these probs, or know of a way of solving?

gsand

when they installed my router they blocked near all the ports for p2p,bittorent and a host of other programs and have so far refused to give me the password and username to change the ports for the router they sold me...so i guess they are trying to restrict such programs in any way they can.

Mutant_Fruit

tell them you need to open ports on the router, or some such story. They should provide you with a password etc.

If they don't, return it and get your money back (if you paid for it) or just live with it.

eth0_

Originally posted by Mutant_Fruit
tell them you need to open ports on the router, or some such story. They should provide you with a password etc.

If they don't, return it and get your money back (if you paid for it) or just live with it.

You can't get your money back if you signed a contract which states that you accept they prioritise traffic and p2p will get low priority (seems to be the case with every wireless isp)

The Brigadier

You don't sign a contract when you purchase a router.

If has bought the router in full, it is his do with as he will.

Mutant_Fruit

IF they are packet shaping, there's nothing you can do.

IF they are using the router to block off specific ports completely, you are perfectly within rights to gain access to the router and change those ports.

gsand

there are indeed using the router to block the ports-nearly every single port is blocked-i think there was 12 open in the first 60000 when i scanned earlier.ridiculous-im gona try and sort it out finally next week.if ny1 else has got a router off them i think they use the same default user and pass so i would very much appreciate it if u cud pm the details.cheers.

Kevok

Wait that doesn't mean that they blocked the ports. Routers block every port by default and only open them when they detect traffic on your side.

Ring IBB and say you need to open ports for video conversations on MSN Messenger. They should give it to you. Otherwise you could try using the default username and pass that most routers have, IBB may not have changed it. Google for it.

gsand

i will ring them 2moro and report back.

i have tried the default username and password but to no avail.

they once told me that they cudnt give them to me because if they did and i opened ports my warranty wud be invalidated-i just laughed. seems they will do almost nything to prevent users from opening them up

...bear in mind im on breeze plus 8:1 so ud think that since im paying them the extra to shorten my contention ratio on an already so called unlimited service that they would have allowed me to do my own thing from the beginning.

Kevok

Make sure to specify that it's the router that you want to get into and not the Avarion/navini equipment. They will never ever give you that information and whoever you're talking to may have been confused.

Moonbeam

They don't block any ports as I said before,but if you ask for the user name and password chances are they will give it to you if you tell them that you don't mind voiding your warranty with them,Its the same with most isps

neokenzo

Originally posted by Moonbeam
They don't block any ports as I said before,but if you ask for the user name and password chances are they will give it to you if you tell them that you don't mind voiding your warranty with them,Its the same with most isps

How can you void warranty by adjusting the ports or other configuration on your router? Its not like your opening the routher or something like that.

Mutant_Fruit

Maybe the tech support person thought that "opening ports" meant that you opened the case and started soldering on the circuit board, opening and closing ports that way...

statto

Have IBB confirmed that they block or limit P2P traffic? Their web site advertises unrestricted uploads and downloads. This could be seen as false advertising. I certainly would have thought twice about signing up had I know they block certain services (not that I am a prolific user of P2P). Does anyone know that T&C clause they are using to implement this blocking?

uteotw

I don't believe it ! They provided you a router and don't want to give you control over it !

I guess some users might be stupid enough to screw up everything and lock themselves out which would generate some support calls... we all know how much they like to support their customers.

If they don't want to give you access cancel the router option, return the damn thing and buy one. They're not that expensive.

su_dios

I am experiencing the same problem. They seem to be prioritizing bandwidth towards web traffic rather than p2p. I know that they prohibit illegal activities but how do they know that i am downloading copywritten material?And why do they care if eircom, iol and whoever else dont do anything about theirs? I am paying for breeze plus with the lower contention ratio (?)the expensive one anyway, and i dont see the point in this if i cannot get full usage out of the service. Pings are already terrible but this was conpensated for by high dl speeds and unlimited cap. What can be done about this? I believe this is illegal under the sales of goods and supply of services act, under the heading legal ownership and quiet possesion. It states that a consumer has the right to assume he can use the service without interference. This was not stated on the contract and is only a recent development, but most of the time i cannot even connect to p2p networks due to this and when i do, the highest dl speed i can get is 10kbps. Most of my mates who are on eircom or iol are getting around 40kbps. To test this i asked on eof them to dl the same bittorrent file as myself and they got 70kbps and mine didnt even connect. I am really dissapointed with this. Can anyone else explain why this is happening or what can be done?

gsand

well basically i got pissed off with their ridiculous messing over a router they simply refused to anything with so i contacted the manufacturer who said they would reset it and open everything up so that i could then customise-so i have to wait till that returns in the post from the uk

in the meantime i have directly linked the one system to the connection and to be honest speeds have been pretty much maxed ableit a little bit slower in bad bad weather. this includes tests across p2p,bittorent http etc. it does go completely down for about 10 seconds every now and again and the auto kicks back in.

neokenzo

Its kinda hard to do anything because they already stated that they will prioratise their bandwith. You knew that when you signed up with them.

gsand

we are on an 8:1 connection-how much prioritising can they possibly do? surely cant be that much necessary.

deadlock

*cough*

The Clown Man

I don't know if port blocking is your problem.

I know Digiweb have had similar complaints from other posters here and they instist that there has never been any prioritisation on their service.

I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that they do not assign temporary IP's (at least in Digiwebs case - dunno about IBB) but instead route all traffic through one external ip. I doubt that P2P could work to full standard when you are using the same external facing IP as 100 other people. Although I wouldn't know the technical specifics of the setup I would suspect that this plays a role in almost disabling P2P traffic.

The only thing I ever use P2P for is dcc'ing files to other people. It used to be extremely useful when trying to send files over the web with my old ISDN line and it is very frustrating working without it but I can't get it to work at all with Digiweb. I have enquired and written to them about it but no joy.

I wonder can anyone clear it up for me?

su_dios

Its kinda hard to do anything because they already stated that they will prioratise their bandwith. You knew that when you signed up with them.

I dont use much bandwidth at all and i am on the 8:1 contention which as far as im concerned doesnt make any difference. Also the above may be true but that does not explain why when i signed up about 2months ago that i was gettin high dl speeds and now im not unless it has been changed w/out informing me

Mutant_Fruit

It always helps if you use non-standard ports for your apps if you think you are being throttled. More often than not a specific port is throttled, so if you change the port that your app uses, then you avoid the throttling.

Its worth a shot, but i know i have no problems with IBB and speeds.

gsand

'quote:

Gotta love misrepresentation of the facts. IBB never refused to give you your username/password Gsands. My recollection is that before you ever asked us for it, you had already attempted the factory reset on the router (thus voiding any obligation that IBB had to supporting it - this is what you were told at the time, not that you had invalidated the warranty). We can't give you a username/password combination if we don't know what it is, can we?

Also, as far as configuration goes, when we send out a router, we've put the WAN IP on it and the LAN IP and a username/password combo. Nothing else. No ports are blocked, unless they're blocked by default. When you were scanning, what exactly where you scanning? The outside address of the router itself?' endquote


i rang on multiple occassions and emailed a load of times as well asking for my username/password and what did i get back? no returned calls and no return email. and that was before i went near the factory reset which was a last resort as i was getting no use whatsoever out of customer service-if u check your records you would see that as well. in addition all my ports were blocked to start with otherwise i wouldnt have been looking to open them...obviously. also- ive explained that even now that u claim it is factory reset it is not accepting factory reset password and username and no i didnt break it when i reset-i followed the instructions in the manual i downloaded of the net which i was never given with my purchase of the router. so this leaves me to think that the password u set may still be the password in use-but could i get it out of customer service-no. i also find it strange that u have found time to post here but i havnt been able to get an email reply for a long long time. when scanning the router for open ports i was scanning the actually router address 192.168 etc, and i tried using a lot of web applications which told me the ports were closed.

and now just to add to it ive been doing speed tests through independant sites since this morning and im getting no more than 56k speeds-less on most occassions which is strange when i was maxing previously on the occassion that i had naything to download-im aware that when all 8 users are utilising at the same time taking up bandwidth that it could go this low but i find it hard to believe that has been the case all day-i am not using the router anymore and will be sending it back to the manufacturer whom im hope will shed some light on the situation. i have since last week been directly connecting to the wan cable into the one pc. the network card is working perfectly as far as i can tell. u should note that i havnt posted here since one of the customer service girls actually shockingly did call me back last week and explained that she had no idea what was wrong with the router but that she cudnt help me.i suggest that you email me instead making points publicly here accusing me of misrepresentation.

grego17@hotmail.com

Regards.

gsand

speed appears to have gone up a bit now-up to 15k a sec or so across a range of tested http downloads-hardly 8:1 512k tho is it?and lets not have the minimum agreement statement-its been maxing before recently-also there are intermittant gaps where the connection fails a few times an hour.

deadlock

*ahem*

Mutant_Fruit

8-1 contention guarantees a minimum of 8kb/sec on a 512kbps connection. (512/8=64kbps=8kb/sec). A speed of 15kb/sec is like 4-1 contention.

gsand

seems to be damaged?

yeah i had guessed that but considering the second i took it out of the box i put it on a shelf where it hasnt been touched except to power down recently and to follow factory reset exactly. that would suggest that it was damaged when i received it. but luckily for ibb of course the 'factory reset-which hasnt worked' means there is no support -i have relayed my problem to a dlink rep on the dlink support forum who has said this as well. so i get supplied a faulty router, which has not been physically damaged or firmware altered by myself but my isp who sold it to me wont take it back-'interesting' is all i can say to this one

mutant-the speed was 4k or lower all day-just went up to 15k,its never gone this low before though-has generally always maxed out-

Mutant_Fruit

If you havn't made physical changes to your router, i don't think IBB have a legal leg to stand on. I couldn't be certain about this, but if its malfunctioning, and you followed instructions as per instruction manual, and it didn't help, you are entitled to a replacement if it is within warrenty period. I would presume that the router would have at least 1 year warrenty with IBB, and if it doesn't, you should still be able to get a replacement, but it should be IBB that do this on your behalf.

gsand

they just keep saying since i used factory reset which hasnt worked so i dont even know if i did factory reset that my support guarantee has expired. i dont see how a factory reset can damge the router as its a manually supported technique.i think it mustve been faulty when i first received it recently enough. IBB just told me to talk to manufacturer and they wont do anything. manufacturer and dlink rep told me i have to post it to the uk and it may take a while to get back which is why i havnt posted it off yet-i was told that i had to do that 3 days ago. its all seems a bit strange to me.

deadlock

*belch*

gsand

but in my case-all the router ports were closed to start with-what was i expected to do when engineers left my house without telling me my username/password and all my ports blocked. basically all i could do was surf http pages with all my ports blocked. and thats not what im paying for an 8:1 connection for.i made numerous phone calls and emails asking but wasnt replied to so factory reset was the obvious alternative and as u have already there must be something faulty as the reset is not working.

deadlock

The criteria by which you determined that your ports were blocked was flawed, as I explained earlier.

gsand

was flawed? i couldnt use any web application which requires any normal port u can name-some even specified they could not find an open port to use-thats proof enough. i simply went to an online port/tcp scan and did a scan from a few different sites-it auto received my ip-all reported that near all ports were closed-i think 1 was open out of the first 60000. all my ports are open now as i can use the apps i cudnt before due to the fact i am not on the router anymore and using a direct connection. im not making it up-the ports were blocked-its of no benefit for me to say they were and are blocked if they wernt-for if they wernt blocked i wudnt be trying to get into the control panel and hence wudnt need my username/password at all and could use the router as normal.

spongebob

Dunno who Deadlock is but I say now unto IBB , BRING BACK CHAZ !

The rights and wrongs of this issue have been lost in the mists of time. I doubt that IBB can post an email in here proving they mailed gsand the username/password combo . As long as gsand has this gizmo, IBB can never prove their service works as stated.

I suggest that IBB, as a goodwill gesture, take the damn thing back and issue gsand with another one of the same model. A quick PM will suffice to set that up.

I also suggest that gsand confirm receipt of same in here in the same spirit of goodwill. Not by PM but publically.

As IBB are planning a series of rollouts beyond the Dublin area I am sure that they do not want to frighten us culchies with the implication that their customer service is other than Professional and Understanding . I am equally convinced that gsand is a fair minded guy who will confirm whether he simply got a dodge router (easy when they are made so cheaply nowadays ) and was unlucky . This happens.

Finally, bring back Chaz, Chaz had that customer service 'je ne sais quoi' that works in an environment like Boards . There is no point in a degenerative yes you did / no you didn't Panto Queen spat.

M

eth0_

Originally posted by deadlock
interfering with the router invalidated any support that IBB were obliged to provide. This is all standard stuff and is not unique to IBB, or even to the telco industry.

And what on earth else was he supposed to do when IBB wouldn't answer his support emails or return his calls?

Ripwave

Originally posted by gsand
when scanning the router for open ports i was scanning the actually router address 192.168 etc, and i tried using a lot of web applications which told me the ports were closed.

Plonk!

Sorry, but until you can figure out why that "test" failed, then you're wasting your own time, and everyone elses with your rantings.

(Here's a hint - 192.168 addresses are "private" addresses - nobody on the internet can access a service on your 192.168 subnet, which is just as well, because there are millions of people the world over using the same 192.168 subnets for their own private LANs).

neokenzo

Am I wrong in saying that when a factory reset/hard reset is done on a modem/router, the login and password is set at default? Surely Dlink would have the factory login and password. I dont use Dlink but when I do a factory reset on my router then the login and password reverts back to admin and password respectively. Maybe you can try that.

Chaz

I was called?

Um

I dont work in the Support area, nor in Dublin, so I am not sure about policies etc. As far I understand, and its only my opinion and what i reckon, is that the DLinks are passworded as you have asked for it to be admined and supported by IBB. I might be wrong, as I said - Im guessing.

I left supporting boards last time as I was being shot down as the messenger only trying to keep info flowing. As always, I am willing to help, but due to the fact that I am now in Cork and not too involved wiht support, I only have bits of info re this.

And BTW. Most mail from IBB will have a privacy/confidential clause which means that its for you, not the world. Please respect that before you post mail on a public forum.

gsand

@ neokenzo :i have tried the default username/password for dlink 604s but hey dont work

@ripwave: i have not only scanned 192 but also my individual ip from ibb-62.... etc which any useful online port scanner does so need to assume ive done useless scans when infact the scans hardly matter when the fact is that the ports are blatantly closed and have been since day1. im not just saying they are closed for no reason-its because when i use the router nothing works. my 'rantings' were only posted when incorrect information about the issue was posted here by an ibb rep instead of to my private email which seems to be a foreign idea to ibb at the moment.

@chaz:i did not post anything from an email i received from ibb as infact i have only recieved 1 email to date not concerning this and i did not bring the issue to public attention as of contacting the manufacturer due to no help from ibb if u read back u will see that from dates posted. the ibb rep infact posted specific info from the problem here first before i mentioed any problems past initial questions to the boards members.

koneko

Was reading this topic with interest, then I just noticed deadlock deleted all his posts?

eth0_

Originally posted by koneko
Was reading this topic with interest, then I just noticed deadlock deleted all his posts?

Must have had his wrists slapped by a boss in IBB for his posts...

spongebob

Originally posted by Chaz
I was called?

The voice of sanity !

Could you PM gsand and put the poor fella (and yeer image) out of their respective miseries , that deadlock was only winding the poor fella up and getting yiz a bad name.

I see that deadlock may have felt a bit guilty about the error of his ways , especially the error of telling the customer THEY WERE WRONG when a polite PM could have sorted the issue long ago.

I trust that gsand will confirm when the issue has been resolved to his satisfaction as well.

M

Chaz

Gsand - PM me whats going on - and ill see if i can get any answers for you.

su_dios

Mutant_Fruit could you explain your post a bit more, I dont know that much about ports. If you are using any p2p programs could you tell me what ports you are using? Or if you needed to change ports?

su_dios

just as a matter of interest, gsands what basestation are you connected to?I'm botanic

Mutant_Fruit

Think of a port as a doorway. Each doorway can only be used by one program at a time. Firewalls and routers work by letting only certain doorways be accessed, and by default they block every port (doorway) that is available except the common ones such port 80 for browsing, and 21 for FTP, and the e-mail ones.

As i said already, each program uses a port to access the internet, and each program defaults to a different one. Bittorrent might default to 6000, Counterstrike mihgt use 7000 and Kazza might use 8000. Therefore if you want to use these programs on the internet, you have to open the ports they use (read the router manual for specifics on how to do this).

ISP's can sometimes take advantage of the fact each program defaults to a certain port by limiting traffic on that port. E.g. if an ISP wants to limit kazaa traffic, a basic way to do it would be to limit all traffic on port 8000. However this can be circumnavigated by just setting Kazaa's default port to anything other than 8000, e.g. 8001.

Depending on your router (i.e. if your router has NAT), you may also have to forward the ports to your computers internal IP address (192.168....).

Traffic shapers look for specific kinds of internet activity, and advanced ones can easily recognize P2P type traffic. If IBB ran a packetshaper, no matter what port you specify in your P2P program, you will end up with really slow speeds.

Slow speeds are also a result of routers being unable to forward incoming connections to your computer. With bittorrent, you get faster speeds if you can accept incoming connections as well as making outgoing ones. Therefore if your router isn't set up correctly to allow Bittorrent take incoming connections, you will experience slower speeds

(My knowledge about packet shapers is a bit flakey, so i may be wrong with what i said above, if so, just correct me, don't flame me)

Hopefully that's clearer now.

EDIT: I'm on the tallaght tower, and have no speed problems.

griffdaddy

whereabouts is the tallaght tower mutant? i thought that would never be up and running so i went with iol. can tallaght do ripwave?