WG1608 - Unable to tracert a certain host, port related?

[user232]

I am trying to play an online game via my connection (WG1608 + em12g, ethernet wire from WG1608>PC, Sprint/Tmobile + confirmed unlimited/unthrottled plan)
I can connect and play the game but occasionally experience some issues that prompted me to begin diagnosis.
The game's support team advised me to run a trace route:

I try running traceroute to "auth.playnet.com" and receive 100% packlet loss (pic related)
When I run a CMD window and input "tracert auth.playnet.com I get the following return:
Note: partially redacted

Code: Select all

Tracing route to auth.playnet.com [198.105.244.104]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  ROOter.lan [192.168.1.1]
  2  xx##.xxx#.CityName1.Level3.net [##.##.###.##]  reports: Destination net unreachable.

Trace complete.

I verified that trace route works for other hosts like google.com, openwrt.com etc.

I read in the game's documentation that ports 27015-27021 need to be open for proper performance.
I'm unsure if the tracert problem could be caused by not having the above ports open.
I searched the forums here and found an old post by BillA* that says port forwarding is likely not possible because most providers use private IP.

Am I correct that it isn't possible to "open" a port?
Could this be the cause of me not being able to complete a tracert?

*viewtopic.php?p=5551#p5551

[albert90]

While I'm not fully sure if this is port-related or not, I did find a fair few reasons why your packet isn't finding the destination. Here's a thread listing a lot of them. Maybe they can shed some light on the situation.

https://superuser.com/questions/690447/ ... ain%20name.

[mtl26637]

Am I correct that it isn't possible to "open" a port?
Could this be the cause of me not being able to complete a tracert?
*viewtopic.php?p=5551#p5551

For the most part this is correct. LTE providers basically use what is essentially a private network. You are not assigned a public ip. Who knows how many hops there are before you reach their endpoint and out to the internet. You won't get any response from any of their internal network. Since these LTE connections are mostly for phones they do not allow you to open ports and route back to your personal network from outside or from internet. The providers do offer business accounts and such which do offer static ip's and port forwarding but not on typical 'phone/tablet' plans. Only option really is use VPN or some type of reverse ssh tunnel or proxy setup but that can get involved and def. adds additional latency which you wouldn't want for gaming.

[albert90]

I suppose that is one of the downsides of gaming through cellular connections instead of broadband. But then again, the good outweighs the bad.

[mtl26637]

I wouldn't recommend opening any ports if you didn't have to anyway. Just that much more of a potential security vulnerability. If its that much of a problem I would dig around and find out just exactly why those ports need to be open for proper operation? Usually the only time a port needs to be open is if you are hosting some type of server for other players and such. I'm not sure why it would need open ports otherwise.

Just as an fyi if not already known, from your side of things your game can open and create connections on about any amount of ports as it wants. Opening up ports and using port forwarding its basically allowing the outside/internet side of things to 'initiate' the connection and allowing access to your private side of things without the request for a connection coming from the inside first.

Does that game allow you to create some type of environment or server for other players or something?

[user232]

Sorry for the delay gentlemen, I just wanted to say I appreciated the information and it's helped me learn a bit more.
It seems that the issue is unrelated to ports as you all suggested. Appears to have been resolved on it's own so I assume it was likely an issue outside of my control.
Still it was very useful learning about ports, I have been meaning to do it for awhile.
Thanks again guys.