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Vodafone - no public routable IP - NAT issue

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  • 03-03-2021 9:50pm
    #1
    mikec12
    Registered Users Posts: 4 ✭


    Hi

    I am trying make some IP cameras accessible from the internet through a Vodafone Broadband router, the Huawei B818-263. I've gone through all the basic settings that include DDNS, Local Static IP on DVR, Virtual Server (aka Port forwarding afaik), DMZ the XVR etc. To the best of my knowledge there is nothing wrong with these settings but I still cannot access the cameras from outside the my local network.

    The reason I'm fairly certain is because Vodafone does not give me a dynamic Public IP address. I have confirmed this by comparing the router "WAN" IP to the IP reported by whatsmyip.com. The "WAN" ip reports an address in the range of 10.68.xxx.xxx while whatsmyip reports an address in the range 213.233.xxx.xxx

    Currently my DDNS (noip) reports the 10.68.xxx.xxx, which is reasonable because that is what the router gets from Vodafone, thats another issue i would need to sort. But even if I type into the URL bar 213.233.xxx.xxx:80 OR 213.233.xxx.xxx:8080 OR 213.233.xxx.xxx:37777 I get no response or view the cameras. In fact I can't even ping the 213.233.xxx.xxx IP.

    I've spoken to Vodafone and I think the tech help understand basically what I need, but invariably I end up without a solution from Vodafone.

    I recall from a long time ago that I had a similar issue with Three and iirc i was able to change the Three APN that the router connected too. I've tried changing the Vodafone APN from hs.vodafone.ie to live.vodafone.com but for some reason it won't connect to that APN. My mobile uses live.vodafone.com it can connect and it gets an IP address that appears to be a public routeable IP.

    I know a lot of companies offering IP cameras with GMS mobile routers so it must be possible for me to get this working.

    Looking for suggestions here?


Comments

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    #2
    mikec12
    Registered Users Posts: 4 ✭mikec12


    So I got a message from boards as a reply to my original post (frm: noDrama), but i cannot see it here in the thread so difficult to reply directly too it?


  • Options
    #3
    ED E
    Registered Users Posts: 36,167 ✭✭✭✭ED E


    Per EditorSean both APNs are NAT'd. That being accurate you'll need to pay for a VPN that can give you an IP to use and have a router able to use it (not sure a VF B818 will).


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    #4
    mikec12
    Registered Users Posts: 4 ✭mikec12


    Thanks for replies!

    So the default APN is hs.vodafone.ie, this is where the issue appears.

    I have tried live.vodafone.com, but the router can't seem to connect to this APN so I can only assume right now that it would have the same issue. live.vodafone.com is used by my own mobile and my mobile does end up with a different IP address range, so maybe the infrastructure behind hs.vodafone.ie and live.vodafone.com are different.

    From my research on this the following things have been suggested
    1. Move to 3Ireland for some people this resolved the issue. As far as i know Three has good coverage where I am, so I am not stuck with Vodafone. Just not entirely confident Three doesn't have the same problem, will probably just give a try now at this stage!

    2. VPN/L2TP setup as suggested here now also. Little confused how VPN will resolve this, if the issue is the lack of a private public IP (non-shared IP) then won't VPN have the same issue? I am currently reading up on this. I can confirm that the B818 supports VPN.

    3. Contact Vodafone Reps and ask for a Public routable address. Tried this twice but not getting anywhere with it, in fact I can't even get them to confirm the what/why or how of the issue. I've noted in other threads on Vodafone they appear oddly disingenuous about this when customer reports the same issue (for cameras gaming etc) suggesting they have spoken to technical and are working on it. This is not a new issue or big mystery, it can be easily explained what the limitations are for the customer. By now there should be a boilerplate template response to this. There are so many companies installing GSM equipped IP Cameras that I can't believe its not well know (or perhaps they all default to using 3Ireland!!)
    All i want to know from Vodafone is:
    a. Is my assessment of the issue correct.. yes/no
    b. What can you do to help me out... nothing/here are some steps


    4. Use IPV6.. well that is dependant on Vodafone I would guess and so far it looks like the B818 does not get an IPV6 address from Vodafone after connecting to the APN so that is a no go.


  • Options
    #5
    mikec12
    Registered Users Posts: 4 ✭mikec12


    So as it turns out I didn't need any settings on the router!

    The DVR (and IP cameras in general) has a P2P feature. I simply needed to make sure this was reporting online (connected to some remote server configured by the manufacturer of the DVR) via the DVR GUI, than take the serial number and add this to the settings for the DVR in the phone app (with user and password). The DVR/cameras were now accessible from the internet. I didn't need any private dynamic IP address, port forwarding, open ports or VPN in the end!

    Thanks for the replies! There maybe something in the thread that will helps others!


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