Forum Discussion

aroutley's avatar
aroutley
New Contributor II
2 months ago

Port forward on cox Gateway router.

Dear Cox internet support

Last week I signed up for Cox fiber to the home and I was given the following Cox router as my Gateway:-

Modem / Router Details
MAC Address: 10:E1:77:2A:F3:A4
Model Number: TG4482A

Port forwarding worked great for a few days but I had to exchange it when it crapped out.  now I cannot get port forwarding working on this or two other routers. After 4 days this is really pissing me off--I did not expect to spend time setting up something so simple.

questions 

1) does Cox block port forwarding from the internet to my Wi-Fi camera?
2) if not where should I set it up?  the app?  the router webpage ? The cox web page?

The router web page tells me to download the app to set up port forwarding.

please give me detailed instructions step by step.  I have read many posts on this subject but they are years old. Grrrrrrrr.......

Thank you Andrew

  • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
    WiderMouthOpen
    Esteemed Contributor II
    2 months ago

    First, the easiest solution would be to buy your own router. Since you have fiber, the gateway is in router mode with the ONT acting as the modem, so any normal router with a ethernet WAN port and DHCP should work.  If you pay for the gateway, not only will this save you money and fix your problem, but a retail router will almost always beat a Cox gateway by way of features/security/performance. Cox gateway also uses band steering and automatic channel selection that can't be disabled which causes problems with IoT like wifi cameras. Never mind it is missing the VPN and VLAN capability you should use when using IoT remotely. 

    With that said, the port forwarding feature is hit or miss. It isn't really known why it works for some and not others. See post here. It could be a firmware issue, where swapping it out for a different will work. Or it could be a issue with the XB7/8 while you had the XB6 before. Either way, Cox doesn't support port forwarding anymore(probably because servers are against ToS) so if you even want to troubleshoot it with them, you have to pay 10$ for Cox Complete Care.

    • aroutley's avatar
      aroutley
      New Contributor II
      2 months ago

      Thanks for your feedback. I am rapidly reaching the same conclusion, that buying my own router is the only solution.

       I hope you see the rich irony of a company selling a service that (as far as forwarding) doesn't Work, then expects the customer to replace what they themselves are already paying for just to make it work.  What the heck ISP (outside of china/Iran / North Korea / Russia blocks port forwarding?

      I hope someone at Cox reads this post and gives me the official company line.

      • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
        WiderMouthOpen
        Esteemed Contributor II
        2 months ago

        First, they aren't blocking port forwarding, they just don't help you make it work. Some people have no problems port forwarding. Also, most people don't need port forwarding. First because most people don't have special requirements for NAT, and those that do use UPnP which works by default. Also, like I said before, since running a server is against terms of service(ToS) there really isn't a incentive to fix port forwarding since many people use it to run servers. They don't so much care about someone gaming, since that doesn't use up a lot of upload bandwidth, but cameras, web servers(8080) and other things do. 

        Also, many ISP in the US don't work with port forwarding because they use CGNAT. Most cellular providers and some fiber providers and Starlink all use it. There are ways around it, but they are technically complex. 

        Speaking of which, have you considered using a VPN? Openly exposing your cameras to the internet is not safe specially with all the hacks and exploits going on. See here. 

        So yea, if you are technical enough to need port forwarding, you should be using your own router anyway, SPECAILLY with fiber. Consider this a blessing in disguises to get off their junk hardware.