Sagem 2704n not listing all devices

[#1]

Thanks Anotherone,  Have you seen the update I posted a few minutes ago?
Good point about 8081 and 8082, I just chose those ports at random.
If I remember correctly, the TG582N listed the servers by name.
I am going on holiday later this week for seven days, so do not want to risk a factory reset on the router  until I get back in case it goes all wrong.  I don't want an 80 mile round trip to the site  to sort out the mess.
Are you on the Plusnet staff by the way?
Geoff

[#2]

Quote from: hill47

Are you on the Plusnet staff by the way?

Anotherone is offline at the moment, but like other members listed in orange on the user/member pages, he is a 'bright spark', but not a member of PlusNet staff, who are shown in blue, although that doesn't necessarily mean they're not bright sparks too! 

[#3]

Thanks for that JayG

[#4]

If I may take this opportunity to reiterate that Forum Moderators are also NOT Plusnet staff but are customers doing voluntary work.

[#5]

Quote from: JayG

...........PlusNet staff, who are shown in blue, although that doesn't necessarily mean they're not bright sparks too!

Plusnet staff also have a large Plusnet logo next to their forum names on the posts. None of us (including moderators) are always "bright"  [coat]
Well hill47, as you have some control at present, that's probably wise not to do a reset at present if you are going to be away. Pick this up when you get back.

[#6]

Hi Anotherone, one last post before the hols.
The remaining port-forwarded connection has now stopped working, so the only access I have now got is via the powered up PC on the network.
The server has disappeared from the list of connected devices on the router home page.
The port forwarding rule is still set-up, but the MAC address listed in the rule has an additional MAC address (don't know what it is) listed in brackets directly under it in the same rule.
When I return I will try doing a factory reset as you suggest.  If that fails then I will write a justification for purchasing a router that works!
Thanks for all your input.
Geoff

[#7]

You can try writing the port forwards hard into the config, like this:

          <PortMapping instance="1">
            <PortMappingEnabled>TRUE</PortMappingEnabled>
            <ExternalPort>12345</ExternalPort>
            <X_BROADCOM_COM_ExternalPortEnd>12345</X_BROADCOM_COM_ExternalPortEnd>
            <InternalPort>12345</InternalPort>
            <X_BROADCOM_COM_InternalPortEnd>12345</X_BROADCOM_COM_InternalPortEnd>
            <PortMappingProtocol>TCP</PortMappingProtocol>
            <InternalClient>192.168.1.253</InternalClient>
            <X_BROADCOM_COM_DeviceName>My Server</X_BROADCOM_COM_DeviceName>
            <X_BROADCOM_COM_MacAddr>aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff</X_BROADCOM_COM_MacAddr>
            <PortMappingDescription>My Protocol</PortMappingDescription>
          </PortMapping>

Maybe this will prevent 2704N from loosing the portmap info?
Dump your config via http://192.168.1.254/dumpcfgdynamic.cmd, remove space before <xml> in the first line and stats at the end, and add necessary lines (I would start from adding <InternalClient> only).
More info in this topic.

Darsh

[#8]

Thanks for that Darsh, I was going to come and ask you to take a look at this, to see if you knew of a quick easy solution.
It's still going to be interesting to discover why hill47 is having so much of a problem setting it up and it working and staying working using conventional methods.

[#9]

Quote from: Anotherone

why hill47 is having so much of a problem setting it up and it working and staying working using conventional methods.

As far as I understand, 2704N uses quite a strange way of setting port forwarding. It only "sees" devices that are active in ARP, in other words, that are sending some packets to the router or through the router. If the device is completely silent on the network, its ARP entry eventually expires, 2704N "forgets" about it - and, probably, the port forward related to it. Like other devices, 2704N enters the port forward destination details into the config, but hill47's 2704N, by the looks of it, also removes them from there.
When dumping the config from my router using dumpmdm, I've noticed two lines on each port forward:

            <X_BROADCOM_COM_ExpiryTime>0</X_BROADCOM_COM_ExpiryTime>
            <PortMappingLeaseDuration>0</PortMappingLeaseDuration>

"0" usually means "never" (for expiration) or "forever" (for duration). I wonder what values does hill47 have there.
Can't really re-create the hill47's setup, as my only port forward destination is never silent.
The simplest fix would be to set these power switches to use DHCP to get a reserved IP address, if they are configurable for DHCP, and set the DHCP lease time to something not very high, like an hour or so. This way, the power switches will send DHCP requests from time to time, thus refreshing themselves in the router's ARP.

Darsh

[#10]

I am getting the impression that the 2704n is not capable of doing what I want, but thanks to everyone for the interest shown in my problem.
I don't understand why there is no published user information for the device. I had assumed it is or was a standard Sagem product at some point, with perhaps Plusnet's own firmware.
Geoff

[#11]

I agree, it's a shame Plusnet is supplying such a locked down device, and without any docs. But it could be worse - I've heard that Sky is not even supplying users with PPP credentials 🙂
We've managed to hack this device more or less successfully. Unfortunately, some things just cannot be done, like enabling SNMP on this box, or making it to reply with some other DNS server in the DHCP offer apart from itself. But otherwise - it's a nice little box doing most of the things we need.
As to the manual - you can find it here. But it is for the Sagemcom original firmware, so some pages are different, and some pages described there are not accessible on the Plusnet's 2704N due to the locked down firmware - but you can unlock them by installing the amended Matty123123's firmware.

Darsh

[#12]

Thanks Darsh,
                            for basically connecting to the net the 2704n is fine, it appears to be quicker at returning web pages than the TG582N.
I think you are telling me that the device won't do want I want even with the Matty 123123 firmware?
It seems odd to me that my servers disappear as connected items when they are not actively doing anything.  The TG582N worked fine for me.
Geoff

[#13]

Thomson routers are doing port forwarding properly. Sagemcom's perception of port forwarding is a bit weird. But it can still be worked around.
I don't know whether destination device's silence is the reason for loosing port forwarding rules, this is just my assumption. But if this is the case - yes, Matty123123's custom firmware won't help. However, re-configuring your power switches to use DHCP with lowest possible lease time should provide a workaround for this issue.
To be sure - could you please do http://192.168.1.254/dumpcfgdynamic.cmd and post here the contents of two <PortMapping> for your power switches? I'm just curious if it would contain non-zero values in the above mentioned expiration tags.

Darsh

[#14]

Thanks for your suggestion Darsh.
However, I am going on holiday tomorrow and have switched off the remote PC so will not be able to communicate with the router until I get back.
Regards
Geoff

[#15]

Only the stuff that uses Netbios will  show up with a Hostname in my router, and as already mentioned, as long as it is active the item will stay in the MAC list.
To get around the problem I'm using a simple bash script to ping the router, not sure if this is of any help for your switches or not in your case, but it's a thought.

keepalive.sh
#!/bin/bash
ping -i 30 -n 192.168.1.254
chmod +x keepalive.sh
./keepalive.sh &