Destiny 2 "Strict NAT" (Technicolor TG582N) on PC

[#1]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can help with this one - Ive searched these forums and the wider internet to the point of exasperation!

In short, when starting up the game "Destiny 2", you are presented with a warning about a Strict NAT.

Now there are endless instructions regarding the various ports to forward, etc etc, but even with these implemented I cant get any joy.

From memory,  the two ports recommended to forward (for PC) are UDP 3097 and 3074.

I have implemented this, and it makes no difference.

Ive tried with simple UPnP with no port forwarding - no joy.

Ive tried switching off UPnP (and also the additional security) with only port forwarding: No joy.

Ive tried enabling "Game Mode" on the router. No joy.

Ive also checked the port bindings on the router (via Telnet) to check 3074/3097 are not bound - they arent.

Basically, whatever combination Ive tried, I still get the Strict NAT warning - and I'm running out of ideas.

The only thing I have noticed, is that in Game (Under settings, accessibility) it lists the internal router port as 3074, but the "UPnP External router port" is in the 50,000 range and appears to be random - so I wondered if this might be the issue? I.e. I need to map the 3074 internal to the external port (in port forwarding), but given the fact that this seems to be random, I'm not sure how I can do this (I may try tonight by setting a range on UPD 50000-60000 just to see what happens!)

So - is anyone else using a Technicolor TG582N with Destiny 2: Do you have the same issue and have you found a workaround? Or of course, any guidance from Plusnet also gratefully accepted.

It does seem slightly bizarre that I have to mess about with port forwarding to get a game working, in this day and age - everything else works out of the box(!) but there we are!

Any help / ideas gratefully received.

[#2]

I'm guessing you are using and XBox One as "Strict NAT" is a term used by Microsoft as far as I am aware.

A stict NAT is one that will only allow inbound connections from the ip address that it opened the port to connect to.

An open NAT will receive inbound connections from any device on the internet.

It matters for gaming as some games rely on peer to peer connections to find other players. 

The random port number mapping is normal, its the way a NAT works by assigning a group of ports to an given IP address on the internal network.

There is a good article about this on Server Fault : https://serverfault.com/questions/208522/what-is-strict-moderate-and-open-nat

In theory UPnP should take care of this for you.

Here are some NAT  troubleshooting articles on Xbox support which may be of some help: 

https://support.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-one/networking/nat-error-solution

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/network-wifi/how-change-your-nat-type-on-xbox-one-3657187/

There is also a suggesstion here that forwarding UDP Ports : 5060, 5061 & 3074 may help.

[#3]

Thanks for coming back to me Mike, I really appreciate it.

No, unfortunately this is on PC (Windows 10) - if I had a console I'd probably just sling it in the DMZ and be done with it!

Thanks for the link re: NAT - I had assumed something along these lines which is why I tested with the ports forwarded but UPnP turned off (I assumed that the random external Port was something to do with UPnP). I confess though, my knowledge in this area is pretty sketchy and it was more of a case of going through and testing different combinations - although ultimately none made any difference!

Thanks for the port suggestions - to be honest everything Ive read re: PC really only mentions the two UDP ports I listed, but its worth a go - although I suspect the issue isn't with the port forwarding, but as you highlighted, the fact that the router is looking for a particular IP source.

Anyway, I'll give it a go and read up on NAT as per the article, it may stir the grey matter to some other ideas!

Thanks again for taking the time to reply,

PappaD

[#4]

Also consider that Win 10 has a firewall, though I don't know how to use Win 10, I guess there is a way to check whether the game is restricted in any way.

[#5]

Worth looking at this but you probably have already;

https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/231008613

Technicolor routers have a lot of issues with games, I replaced mine a couple years ago for a W9970. You could possibly think about doing that, I've seen then going for £5 or so on eBay (I bought another one this week for about £3.50 + £4 postage) because I wanted a ver. 2.0 model as the one I got from Amazon is a ver. 1.0 (there are some minor improvements and it's not a bad idea to have a spare).

[#6]

Hey, thanks for the steer...

Yes, it has occurred to me that changing my router may be the only "final fix! - although it seems its because the Technicolor is "too secure" which isn't such a bad thing! I certainly don't want to open up all my ports just for Destiny 2

That said Ive had the router for a few years now, so an upgrade may have other benefits as well.

I have checked the bindings on the router using Telnet and I dont have any of the "troublesome" ones in place (as per the Cabbage error), but thanks for the link, much appreciated!

Seems there are a few issues with the games networking, I'm getting a Buffalo error now, so that's the next thing to read up on

Cheers everyone for all your replies!

PappaD

[#7]

Well folks,

I've decided to bite the bullet and have a shiny new TP-Link AC2800 sitting on my desk, which I intend to swap out with the Openreach/Technicolor combo this evening.

The technicolor is somewhat long in the tooth and has a few limitations / issues anyway, so I figured its about time I upgraded and if it fixes these other issues in the process, that's just a bonus

I'll update this post in a few days to say whether or not this addressed the Destiny 2 issues, in case anyone else still on the old Technicolor has the same issue.

Thanks again to everyone for their help to date

PappaD.

[#8]

OK, so...

Archer VR2800 installed an running - Strict NAT issue is immediately gone. Game seems to be initialising more quickly as well.

I'll update again in a few days re: "Buffalo" issues and whether I'm still getting them or not!

Just in passing, in case anyone is looking to upgrade their old technicolor; the VR2800 is dead easy to set up with a great GUI. Really straightforward with lots of good security and features, so I'm really pleased so far...Nice to go from 2 boxes to one as well. Time will tell performance wise...

OK, cheers - PappaD out!