NAT (Forwarding) in T-Mobile Gateway

I can't use noip with t-mobile because it doesn't support it, but if it was just bridging I could.

I'm not willing to wait around for another device when the speeds I get right now are just fine and the device I have is capable of the functions I need.

inteller wrote:

The Nokia 5G 3.1 is the newer device.  That's why I was very specific in the model I was discussing.

 

I don't want hackery 3rd party services, I need this functionality in the hardware.  Noip and dyndns solve this anyways, my current router supports this natively.

The Nokia 5G is the latest released modem.  But T-Mobile is releasing a newer 5G modem (which I was referring to) which is not made by Nokia and will also support the higher higher frequency 5G frequencies which the current Nokia modem doesn't support.

ZeroTier isn't a hack, it's method to create a secure link between devices, even through secured networks like T-Mobile.  You can't use NOIP or DynDNS with T-Mobile.  It's not that the IP address changes, it's that the connection is like a VPN connection, so even with the IP address you can't route to your in-home modem.  There could be thousands of people using the same IP address.

You're thinking it's just a port forwarding issue, when that's not really the problem.  The reason T-Mobile disabled port forwarding and bridged mode is because it won't work on their network.

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The Nokia 5G 3.1 is the newer device.  That's why I was very specific in the model I was discussing.

I don't want hackery 3rd party services, I need this functionality in the hardware.  Noip and dyndns solve this anyways, my current router supports this natively.

inteller wrote:

I'm fairly confident that this device (Nokia) is able to handle all of these things.  I think what has happened here is T-Mobile threw a very locked down firmware on the device to make setup easy.

 

The following things need to happen.

Provide settings to place the gateway in bridge mode.  This will allow customers to keep their existing setups and NAT fine.

Provide settings to turn off the wifi in the gateway COMPLETELY.  Turning off broadcast and reducing power to minimal is not sufficient.

Make all of these settings accessible only through the web admin page.  The average consumer doesn't need this stuff, but the power user who is smart enough to know how to login to the admin web page should be able to modify these settings.

 

Ultimately, I just want “a dumb modem” just like I get with the cable co.  I don’t want or need T-Mobile helping me by dumbing down the device.

But, since they really need a new modem anyway that supports the higher frequencies, it's probably easier to replace the current units with new units that support the higher frequencies as well as adds the lacking features.

Also, it's more than just port forwarding and bridged mode. Even with this, you still can't access your home remotely as there's not an ip address assigned to the device. This is why a solution like ZeroTier is needed. It doesn't have anything to do with port forwarding or bridged mode, it's that there isn't even an IP address assigned that you can point to. It's like being behind a VPN, which is what ZeroTier allows you to get around. 

I'm fairly confident that this device (Nokia) is able to handle all of these things.  I think what has happened here is T-Mobile threw a very locked down firmware on the device to make setup easy.

The following things need to happen.

Provide settings to place the gateway in bridge mode.  This will allow customers to keep their existing setups and NAT fine.

Provide settings to turn off the wifi in the gateway COMPLETELY.  Turning off broadcast and reducing power to minimal is not sufficient.

Make all of these settings accessible only through the web admin page.  The average consumer doesn't need this stuff, but the power user who is smart enough to know how to login to the admin web page should be able to modify these settings.

Ultimately, I just want “a dumb modem” just like I get with the cable co.  I don’t want or need T-Mobile helping me by dumbing down the device.

Kevin71246 wrote:

I spoke with TMobile Home Internet technical support over the past week. They are working on the port forwarding feature within their 5g modem/router, but it's not available or ready yet. 

2 different techs said they have a workaround, however (& it doesn't require 3rd party services).

I haven't tested it yet, but what you need to do is, & many of us have this setup already, connect via Ethernet (wire) the garbage can LAN port <-> YOUR own router.  Then configure port forwarding on YOUR router. That's it. (Your router needs to support ipv6! Not sure if we need to allow ipv6 passthrough for this.)

Now, I was educated a long time ago on IPv4 & they barely touched on IPv6, so I don't know a lot about it, but this would never work this way with IPv6. Ipv6, however can allow passthrough so public "internet" can pass through a router, which is why I'm "buying" this theory.  Ie, you can go through T-Mobiles garbage can, and then your router, and you device (call it a PC) could have a public IPv6 IP, which is why port forwarding could work this way.

Anyone have time to test & report back? Or comments?

I previously had a dynamic public IP (ipv4) that I made work with my domain name via ZoneEdit that allowed my PC to update ZoneEdit with public Ip changes since it was dynamic. With this NEW setup, I'm not exactly sure how that would work, or if my DNS service will play nicely or even support ipv6 or if ZoneEdit will either. And I have numerous services that I need to "hit" MY router & forward internally, such as a VPN, RDP, FTP, website, etc - not sure if all that will play nicely - or if all the services, like VPN client, can point to a domain->ipv6 ip & work. Like will the VPN client config & SW accept this new format?

Anyways, lot of testing & messing around needed!  Please report back with any updates!

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This doesn't work because the ports can't route from the T-Mobile gateway to the router. Also, the way T-Mobile's network is setup, it's basically a no-go.

I did get some things to work using the ZeroTier software. But, it needs both the ZeroTier server software running on the local device you want to access and the ZeroTier client software running from the device you want to connect from. This works from my phone (running the ZeroTier client) to my NAS (running a ZeroTier server on a Docker container).

It's a clunky "solution" that only solves some problems. Really, the T-Mobile internet modem needs to add a few features (DNZ as minimum, but port forwarding and assigning an IP address).

I hear there's a new T-Mobile internet modem coming soon that will not only add these features, but also support the higher 5G frequencies for higher speeds. This is great for me as I have a T-Mobile millimeter wave tower on the boulevard right across the street from my house (formally a Sprint tower). But, no word yet on when this will be released. 

T-Mobile Home Internet uses CG-Nat - which means end users share IP addresses. Unless they move away from that (which they will not since it would require completely new infrastructure) you will not be able to do port forwarding. There simply is no way to identify YOUR unique address since you do not have one - it is shared. 

However, there is a solution which does work - I am using it. Paketriot https://packetriot.com/ allows tunnels to be created which will have a unique endpoint which will then allow you to hit a port in YOUR internal network. There are other providers like Packetriot. I like Packetriot because it has the option to create a Windoze Service for all your tunnels. Nice when the machine reboots because you can have the service autostart. Most of the providers offer a free tunnel so you can try it out.

They should not call this Home Internet it is really a home hotspot.

They need to fix their screwy xlat464/cgnat style network first.

As long as they continue to filter that unsolicited inbound traffic at the higher network layers, won't matter what options are available/configured on our local modems/routers.  It is actually getting nixed at the outer edges of the networks, so it never makes it to the modem, much less the router.

I spoke with TMobile Home Internet technical support over the past week. They are working on the port forwarding feature within their 5g modem/router, but it's not available or ready yet. 

2 different techs said they have a workaround, however (& it doesn't require 3rd party services).

I haven't tested it yet, but what you need to do is, & many of us have this setup already, connect via Ethernet (wire) the garbage can LAN port <-> YOUR own router.  Then configure port forwarding on YOUR router. That's it. (Your router needs to support ipv6! Not sure if we need to allow ipv6 passthrough for this.)

Now, I was educated a long time ago on IPv4 & they barely touched on IPv6, so I don't know a lot about it, but this would never work this way with IPv6. Ipv6, however can allow passthrough so public "internet" can pass through a router, which is why I'm "buying" this theory.  Ie, you can go through T-Mobiles garbage can, and then your router, and you device (call it a PC) could have a public IPv6 IP, which is why port forwarding could work this way.

Anyone have time to test & report back? Or comments?

I previously had a dynamic public IP (ipv4) that I made work with my domain name via ZoneEdit that allowed my PC to update ZoneEdit with public Ip changes since it was dynamic. With this NEW setup, I'm not exactly sure how that would work, or if my DNS service will play nicely or even support ipv6 or if ZoneEdit will either. And I have numerous services that I need to "hit" MY router & forward internally, such as a VPN, RDP, FTP, website, etc - not sure if all that will play nicely - or if all the services, like VPN client, can point to a domain->ipv6 ip & work. Like will the VPN client config & SW accept this new format?

Anyways, lot of testing & messing around needed!  Please report back with any updates!

​​​​