NAT loopback no longer works

[stefer009]

Ever since I've had Ignite, NAT loopback has been working surprisingly fine.  Then all of a sudden, nothing!

Anyone else has started having problems recently?  Only using the CGM4140 , no bridge mode, nothing.  It worked flawlessly.

HW Version:2.2

Vendor:Technicolor

BOOT Version:S1TC-3.49.18.14

Core Version:1.0

Model:CGM4140COM

Product Type:XB6

Flash Part:8192 MB

Download Version:Prod_21.1_d31 & Prod_21.1

[RogersCorey]

Greetings @stefer009!

NAT Loopback is not something that we officially support. Is there something specific you're trying to achieve using Nat Loopback? Perhaps our Community can find you another workaround to the same goal.

Regards,

RogersCorey

[stefer009]

Well, there's a couple of self hosted services (only accessed by me), that I sometimes access from my phone and/or tablet when I'm not home.  All through a reverse proxy (self hosted) to add ssl.  I've got a domain that points to my home.  Remotely, all is fine and dandy.  At home, it worked before the last couple of days.  Yes, I know, I could just access it directly to the LAN private IP of the machine, BUT since the service is configured to expect SSL, it has to go through the reverse proxy, which is expecting... being called from a subdomain.mydomain.com  ... On my PC, i just edited the host file in Windows, so that fixed it... but on my cell and tablet... that's another story.  SO I tried hosting pihole in a docker image, and change the DNS of my phone and tablet to my pihole instance, having set up a local host in pihole for my domain, to point to the machine it's suppose to go to, but for some reason, my cellphone accesses pihole for everything BUT my domain.  And i shut off my cellphone to clear the DNS cache, waited, rebooted, but still, doesn't check with pihole for the DNS...

So yeah...  I might be asking too much for this setup... i eventually want to set my modem to bridge mode and get a router that supports NAT loopback anyway.  It's just odd that it randomly stopped, since it's been working for almost 2 years.

[octal]

Googled "rogers ignite nat loopback" and ended up here. Ours stopped working a few days ago as well. Similar use case. Fortunately we're dual-fed, so I switched my DNS entries to hit our DSL instead of our cable.

[stefer009]

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@octal wrote:

Googled "rogers ignite nat loopback" and ended up here. Ours stopped working a few days ago as well. Similar use case. Fortunately we're dual-fed, so I switched my DNS entries to hit our DSL instead of our cable.

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So it's not just me!

[tsm]

Same here. Loopback with xby had been fine since 5 years. Suddenly lost it 2vdays ago. Called tech support. No help. Won't change modem or upgrade to xb7 unless technician visits.

[Gdkitty]

I'll have to test when I get home..

I have a minecraft server set up for my son on my desktop.
I can (or at least COULD as of a few days ago) access it, by putting in the EXTERNAL IP on my laptop or through other devices which can play it (phone, etc) while in the house.  
Only device it has never worked on, is trying it on the device (desktop) itself. 

[tsm]

Its a shame that the Rogers loopback feature is now lost. Bell HomeHub 3000 also did not have a loopback/NAT hairpin capability.

Possible workarounds include( adding to other post solutions.)

1.  Internal IP address direct connection to servers( 192.168.x.x).  This will work for fixed devices like desktops but not for phones and laptops that are moved in and out of the home networks. May have some issues with ssl certificates.

2. Dual WAN as proposed by others with selective routing.

3. bridged mode with a router that supports hairpin NATS.  Most commercial routers I believe have this capability.

4. Use a VPN for devices within the home network.  ie Nord or Express VPN on the device.  This should work for phones and laptops. 

[m3e]

I've had this setup working flawlessly for about 3 years.

NAS on local network hosting websites. All websites were accessible from inside the local network and externally using the fully qualified domain name.

As of last week, where nothing has changed locally, those sites are no longer accessible from inside the local network. All is still fine externally though.

If I use the local IP of the NAS, I am able to access the websites but not with the FQDN from the local network.

I've looked at the port forwarding on the gateway and all is setup fine there, nothing changed.

Something has changed somewhere, but what and where I can't put my finger on.

I've seen a few posts here about similar issues but those were more focused on initial setup and not related to a configuration that was working and then isn't.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[m3e]

I believe I am having the same issue.

Websites hosted on local NAS. They can still be accessed externally but not within the local network using the FQDN, but it works with the local IP which is not a solution for the sites hosted.

This changed sometime last week.

[rsandercott]

I ran into the same issue this week.  I blew a day thinking it was a problem with my server only to finally figure out it was the loop back that stopped working.  I have an SSL certificate so using the local IP# doesn't work as the security certificate fails.  I have to connect through my phone data to access my domain properly.   Rogers shouldn't just make changes like this when it can impact their customers and when it does they should support us.   Suggesting we implement workarounds for a function they took away isn't good customer service.

Robert

[m3e]

Total agreement here. Using hosts file on desktop is okay but that doesn't work for mobile devices and you mentioned the SSL cert issue using local IP. Workarounds are not a solution.

[kevinhughes27]

I'm in the exact same situation (and same setup). I spent a lot of time double checking all my setup before realizing this was an upstream rogers change I can't control. very frustrating

[DGallant]

Same problem! I have a Foundry server setup and it can be accessed from outside my network, but not internally. Was working perfectly until about May 20.

Has anyone come up with a solution?

[stefer009]

Original poster here. 

On my PC i edited the hosts file (windows) to point to my server internally for my domain.

On my cellphone and tablet it's harder, can't set the DNS on my phone, don't know why, it won't change and keep the one provided by the router.  And since you can't change the DNS servers on the Rogers router....

So i ordered a new router, will set it up once it arrives, put the Rogers modem/router in bridge mode, and set the DNS to a pi-hole instance that i setup last night.  IF the router i ordered doesn't support NAT loopback (im pretty sure it does), at least i can set the DNS in pi-hole to point to my server so it'll fix the issue for all my devices.

Yep, not a fun or cheap solution 😞

[stefer009]

Just May 20th ? Those modem updates must be staggered because  for me it's been almost 2 months.

[m3e]

A bit of an update on my similar situation.

I ran into an different issue with the modem and Rogers replaced/upgraded my modem and it did fix my separate issue and also resolved the problem with the loopback so I was super happy about that...

Until about a week ago where the loopback stopped working. Got back with Rogers support and of course they deny everything and keep pointing at my setup as the problem. WRONG!!!!

As the OP I have modified hosts files on local PCs which work fine when accessing the sites locally but not really useful when remote, so it is a constant pain to have to update the hosts file.

On mobile I switch back between wifi and data so another workaround.

Why can't Rogers fix this or allow this as they have been for ages?

WHY?!?!?

[octal]

Something I also tried: running an "Unbound DNS" server on my internal network. Figured if I could control the DNS entries for all devices via manual control, I would be ahead of the curve. That didn't work as I found I could only set the DHCP DNS entries on one of my routers (remember, I have DSL and Rogers Ignite) to external IPs and not internal IPs.

For fun I fired up a tiny AWS EC2 instance running Unbound DNS which quickly became overwhelmed by hackers probing it. I tried to close the inbound IP range on the instance to only allow my IP in, but I have dynamic IPs that kept changing.

Maybe this could work for you if you're not dual-homed.

[mpareja]

Hi @RogersCorey,

It's been a while since this thread was created and we still have don't have NAT Loopback working again on the Ignite modems.

We went through similar issues with the Hitron. I was enrolled in the Firmware testing program when the problem was corrected for 7.1.1.35 (January 5, 2021) - see the release notes in https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Internet/FEEDBACK-Rogers-Rocket-Wi-Fi-Modem-Firmware-Trial/m-p....

Can you please raise this issue again so we can get a firmware update with the fix? I'd be happy to be enrolled in early firmware testing again.

[m3e]

Yep, still an issue and Rogers is washing its hands and keep pushing the problem on the consumer. I pretty much gave up on their support or them fixing this, they don't care AT ALL. Here's a tip, I finally got them to replace my modem/router a while back and guess what, that resolved the issue, for about 3 days... So unless Rogers is pushing firmware update to the modem without telling anybody, I'm not sure this is firmware related. I'm not a big fan of Rogers clearly but at this point for me, they are the lesser of all evil and this will more than likely never get fixed. Unless we all spend more money and upgrade our services, which is probably what they want anyways.

[mpareja]

Hi @m3e - I suppose I'm a wee bit more hopefully since they _did_ resolve this issue for another cable modem once in the past.

Regarding your new modem - I wonder if the one you received still had the older firmware on it and it (as expected) eventually received the new firmware version that broke NAT loopback once you plugged it in.