What am I missing- Balance 20x port forwarding over cellular WAN interface

Hi, I have some questions for something im trying to figure out that im just not able to implement. I must be missing something…

I have been doing some testing with the cellular WAN interface on my balance 20x and port forwarding. Im trying to figure out if i can do port forwarding over the cellular connection. so far i have not gotten it to work. Do cellular networks even allow port forwarding? I’m currently on AT&T.

I do have multiple port forwarding rules setup under “network>inbound access>port forwarding” and they work just fine over the wired WAN connection (Comcast) but not over cellular WAN with the wired WAN manually disconnected. yes, the port forwarding rules are assigned to the cellular WAN IP address in addition to the wired WAN IP address.

An odd thing I have noticed(well, odd to me that is but maybe i dont understand the reasoning behind it) is that while the balance 20x says it has an 10.244.81.x IP address under “dashboard>cellular WAN”, my computer gets an 107.77.212.x public address when i type in “what is my IP” on google or another search engine. Why does the router have 2 different IP addresses on the cellular WAN interface?

I tried to connect to some ports that are being forwarded on both of the above cellular WAN IP addresses but to no avail. I tried this from my cell phone (AT&T) connected to cellular data (wifi turned off).

Can anyone help me figure this out or tell me what I’m doing wrong?

Hi Travis. The issue is that you are behind carrier grade NAT. (Suggestion: Do a search for this term here on the forum and elsewhere – it’s a common question.) In brief, when you are trying to “get in” via the cel network you are bumping into their firewall. Essentially, CG NAT works the same way NAT works on Peplink routers – it’s just “bigger.”

Two addesses: Exactly right. You are issued a non-routeable address (10.x.x.x) as a customer but in order to communicate via the internet a routeable address is required. So, when you check your external IP you are shown one of AT&T’s routeable addresses.

There are a couple of solutions, Peplink Fusion Hub being one of them. If you want to experiment a bit the Fusion Hub Solo is free – you can get a license if you are willing to use IC2 – required to get it. Another is to pay the carrier for a static IP address.

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Thanks for the reply. i figured it had something to do with double NAT…

Ive already subscribed to IC2 so no issue there. Ill experiment with Fusion Hub solo. thx for the tip.