Why isn't port forwarding working for me?

[Mr_Bean]

I'm trying to host a skyfactory 4 server and the server itself is working and i can join via my local ip but as soon as i try to join using my external ip to verify it's working for other people it wont connect. I've gotten a vanilla server to work once, but i really do mean once, the following day it wouldn't connect anymore. I am using two routers one being fed by the other and i do have them configured correctly because i remember the day i configured them was the day i got the server to work but now I'm connected to the first router so i dont think that's a problem but maybe I'm wrong. I do use a vpn but I've tried it both on and off. my mother does have a circle (i cant remember if it was installed when i got the server to work but it certainly wasn't the day after i got it to work) but i used a command in command prompt to bypass it (The command i used to bypass it in case that's the problem: netsh -c interface ipv4 add neighbors "Ethernet 3" "192.168.1.1" "10-0d-7f-9b-d1-d3" store=persistent ) . I can undo the command and temporarily disable the circle if the circle is the problem. I've tried using utorrent to port forward because i saw some where that that might work (it didn't). I've done port forwarding on the router too which was what i think i was using when i got it to work. I've given java all the permissions in windows defender firewall. When using an online port checker any port I've tried to open shows as closed, however port 22, 53, 80, 110, 443 show as open and i did try piggy backing off of them by changing the port the server used, unsurprisingly, it didn't work. i think that's basically everything thing I've tried, If you have questions feel free to ask.