Plusnet Routers and Port Forwarding

[#1]

Thanks again.

Is 143 a typo as you said my parents were on 146? If not then obviously neither 143 or 146 works with a VPN.

Yes I am on 51.9.x.x now 🙂

Which server do you suggest I traceroute to please? I've just tried one to www.plus.net using the VPN and also using my own PC but neither seemed to work very well (time outs).

Thanks

Steven

[#2]

Is 143 a typo as you said my parents were on 146? If not then obviously neither 143 or 146 works with a VPN.

Nope, your own line was on a 143. range until recently. Can you remember if you've been able to use the VPN on your connection between these dates?

13:24 14/Jul/2018

08:15 18/Jul/2018

Which server do you suggest I traceroute to please? I've just tried one to www.plus.net using the VPN and also using my own PC but neither seemed to work very well (time outs).

I think we rate limit ICMP so we'd reject a lot of pings to our site.

Could you traceroute the server you're trying to connect to through the VPN?

[#3]

Sorry I don't know how to quote parts of your post 🙂

I only use the VPN when I'm working from home and that's normally only one day a week so I hadn't used it between the 7th and today.

I'm sorry but the server I'm connecting to is rather invisible to us, I just use the VPN software installed on my laptop. However when I successfully logged in this morning I noticed the IP address it mentioned started with 194.75 - would the full version of that be the server I need to run a traceroute to?

Thanks

Steven

[#4]

Ah sorry about the delay with replying to you Steven.

Sounds like that IP address you’re seeing is the server you’re trying to reach through the VPN, could you traceroute that?

[#5]

Hi Anoush, thanks for the reply.

Sorry about the delayed response, I was in the office on Monday and Tuesday but I'm WFH today. Here's a traceroute from my PC (i.e. not connected via VPN):

Tracing route to fd.cfs.co.uk [194.75.171.253]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    20 ms     6 ms     4 ms  dsldevice.lan [192.168.1.254]
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  4    19 ms    16 ms    15 ms  be3-3100.pcn-ir01.plus.net [195.166.143.128]
  5    18 ms    13 ms    17 ms  195.99.125.136
  6    14 ms    34 ms    18 ms  195.99.127.60
  7    21 ms    18 ms    27 ms  acc1-xe7-1-0.mr.21cn-ipp.bt.net [109.159.250.18]
  8    22 ms    22 ms    20 ms  217.32.170.147
  9    25 ms    28 ms    23 ms  213.120.232.221
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 11    25 ms    27 ms    22 ms  fd.cfs.co.uk [194.75.171.253]

Trace complete.

I'll do the same from my parents' laptop tonight and post that, I assume there will be differences!

Thanks

Steven

[#6]

Hi,

Well it seems to take a different route but still gets there?!?

Tracing route to fd.cfs.co.uk [194.75.171.253]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     6 ms    23 ms     2 ms  dsldevice.lan [192.168.1.254]
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  4    53 ms    79 ms    83 ms  be3-3100.pcn-ir01.plus.net [195.166.143.128]
  5    26 ms    36 ms    40 ms  core1-BE1.colindale.ukcore.bt.net [195.99.125.132]
  6    31 ms    68 ms    47 ms  195.99.127.16
  7    43 ms    29 ms    29 ms  acc1-xe7-0-0.mr.21cn-ipp.bt.net [109.159.250.149]
  8    41 ms    48 ms    53 ms  217.32.170.149
  9    76 ms    35 ms    35 ms  213.120.232.221
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 11    33 ms    48 ms    32 ms  fd.cfs.co.uk [194.75.171.253]

Trace complete.

Thanks

Steven

[#7]

Hi Steven.

Sorry about the delayed response

No worries at all, it took me longer to respond before. 

Yeah it does look like it takes a slightly different route.

I take it when you were on your PC you were using your own connection, and on your parents laptop you were using theirs? And you were unable to connect successfully through the VPN at theirs but could when you were at yours?

Just trying to get it straight in my head.

[#8]

Hi Anoush,

The answer to your first question is yes.

As for your second, I could connect using my work laptop at my house but what I didn't do was lug it round to my parents' house to try again at theirs! I can do that tonight, just try and connect without actually doing any work 🙂

In the meantime are you able to check please if the IP address they're currently using has changed since the last time I tried to connect on the 7th July? If not then no worries, I'll just see what happens tonight. I don't think I've rebooted their router since then and I doubt they would have either!

Thanks

Steven

[#9]

As for your second, I could connect using my work laptop at my house but what I didn't do was lug it round to my parents' house to try again at theirs! I can do that tonight, just try and connect without actually doing any work 🙂

Let us know how things go tonight.

In the meantime are you able to check please if the IP address they're currently using has changed since the last time I tried to connect on the 7th July? If not then no worries, I'll just see what happens tonight. I don't think I've rebooted their router since then and I doubt they would have either!

Whilst I saw this post I didn't get round to responding/looking into their account today, though you should be able to check their IP address yourself by going to www.whatismyip.com whilst using their connection.

[#10]

Hi,

I've just tried again and it won't connect to the VPN.

Their IP address is in the range 143.159.x.x

I think you said mine was 51.x.x.x or similar?

Thanks

Steven

[#11]

The traceroute from my work laptop is identical to the one I posted last night from my parents laptop (to be expected I suppose!).

[#12]

Hmm, trying something, could you add a static IP onto their account Here then reboot the router letting us know if you're able to connect then? I'll be happy to refund the one of £5 charge we'd add to the next invoice.

[#13]

Thanks, I can try that if the change would be immediate and like you said you're happy to refund the £5? 🙂

[#14]

Hi,

I've done as you suggested and it's working now - thanks!

Steven

[#15]

Great success!
Looks like it’s due to the IP range connecting to co op bank.
(Have fun working tonight :D)