Need help with changing NAT Type.

[SladeDJWilson]

Hi,

 

I recently bought a TP-Link Archer C6 router. Previously I had a ISP router which was not that good.

I've connected the ISP one to the new router and it is working fine. Except that the NAT Type is set to Strict. I want to how I can change that to Open. I DMZ'ed my PC from the route's "site" but still I get "You're NAT type is set to Strict" in GTAO. When I looked into to I see lots of info about Port Forwarding and stuff. I don't understand that. For my ISP router I was easily able to change the NAT type. It had a drop-down menu of some sorts but in TP-Link I'm not able to find it. 

 

Can someone please help me ?

 

TLDR: Need help with Changing NAT type in a TP Link Router and Need info about Port Forwarding and stuff.

 

Thank You 

[Skipple]

Think of ports as a bunch of doors in and out of your network. There are thousands of doors that allow different types of network traffic to pass through. For example, when loading a HTTP webpage you communicate with the webserver through door 80 (TCP port 80) and when loading a HTTPS webpage you communicate through door 443 (TCP port 443). 

 

The other piece to remember is the idea of internal vs external IP addresses. Your internet connection to the outside world only has a single IP address, but each device within your network has it's own internal IP address that's only known to other devices within that network. 

 

Lets use that HTTP example from before and pretend you are hosting a website on a computer in your house. An outside user comes knocking on your network and says "Hey! I want to access that webpage! I am sending a request for the information that's port 80!". They only know the external IP address to your house, not the individual computer that's hosting the webpage. So, the router needs to know where to route that request to. (that's where the name comes from!) There is where port-forwarding comes in. There is a table within the router where you can define "If someone comes asking for information on port 80, send them to this computer." Now, the request can be completed!

 

It's good security practice not to allow random requests to fly all over the place, so most ports are closed unless they are initialized by someone inside the network, or specifically noted within the port-forwarding table.

 

When it comes to a video game indicating that your NAT Type is "Strict" this typically means that it can't communicate via the ports it wants to go through. Port-forwarding on your router can be a solution to this. Setting the ports on each router is slightly different, so I can't help you with a step-by-step for your specific hardware, but you should be able to find information out there for your model. 

 

I hope this at least helped you get a better understanding of what you are looking to do. 

[Skiiwee29]

You won't be able to achieve nat open in your setup since your double natting having 2 routers in one network. 

[Skipple]

1 minute ago, Skiiwee29 said:

You won't be able to achieve nat open in your setup since your double natting having 2 routers in one network. 

Imagine, I typed all that out and missed the fact he's double NATed. 

[Skiiwee29]

Just now, Skipple said:

Imagine, I typed all that out and missed the fact he's double NATed. 

Still a great explanation that will ultimately come in handy. 

[SladeDJWilson]

2 hours ago, Skiiwee29 said:

You won't be able to achieve nat open in your setup since your double natting having 2 routers in one network. 

 

2 hours ago, Skipple said:

Imagine, I typed all that out and missed the fact he's double NATed. 

So, I've  got no option ?

[Alex Atkin UK]

6 hours ago, SladeDJWilson said:

So, I've  got no option ?

What type of Internet connection is it?  Does the old router have a bridge mode or could you get a new router that is able to completely replace it?  Were you open NAT before, because if not it could be your ISP is using CG-NAT which changing routers wont fix.

 

The problem is you have connected to the new router to the old one, so the old router is still the primary router doing all the work translating from your public IP address to a private one.  You've just added a second layer of converting from one private LAN to a different private LAN.

 

You could DMZ from the old router to the new one, but still in this configuration having the new router is largely pointless as the old one is still doing all the work.

[Skipple]

13 hours ago, SladeDJWilson said:

So, I've  got no option ?

I mean, sure an option would be to eliminate one of the routers from your chain. Is there a particular reason why you have two? 

[SladeDJWilson]

19 hours ago, Skipple said:

I mean, sure an option would be to eliminate one of the routers from your chain. Is there a particular reason why you have two? 

One is the ISP one. I get my connection from a telecom provider so its the Ppoppe thingy. That router does not have dual band WiFi and it is not that good in terms of computing. That's why I have the TP Link. TP Link has been great. 

[SladeDJWilson]

On 7/3/2023 at 8:38 AM, Skipple said:

Imagine, I typed all that out and missed the fact he's double NATed. 

 

On 7/3/2023 at 5:57 PM, Alex Atkin UK said:

What type of Internet connection is it?  Does the old router have a bridge mode or could you get a new router that is able to completely replace it?  Were you open NAT before, because if not it could be your ISP is using CG-NAT which changing routers wont fix.

 

The problem is you have connected to the new router to the old one, so the old router is still the primary router doing all the work translating from your public IP address to a private one.  You've just added a second layer of converting from one private LAN to a different private LAN.

 

You could DMZ from the old router to the new one, but still in this configuration having the new router is largely pointless as the old one is still doing all the work.

 

On 7/3/2023 at 8:39 AM, Skiiwee29 said:

Still a great explanation that will ultimately come in handy. 

 

Hey Hi all,

 

Thank You for your help. I figured where the problem is. My ISP router was already on NAT 4. I changed it to NAT Type 1 and the entire thing is solved.