A friend has a DVR that worked until the local area had a new system installed, using UBNT equipment, although I haven't received the info about which pieces are involved. The dish on the house and the POE device work for the computer and other devices connected through his router, but port forwarding didn't work even though the Digital Watchdog DDNS search was successful. I spoke with the guy whose company is installing the system and when I asked if the router needs to be in bridge mode with NAT turned off, he said that's not necessary. The old dish from the previous provider is still in place and port forwarding works- I was able to log into the DVR without problems.

I know I'll need specifics WRT the equipment, but I have never heard that the routing would be done at the head end for the system in a fiber network, broadband or DSL. I would think that if this was the way the system is set up, all that would be needed at the user's end is a switch, with only one router and if that were the case, every user would need to have access to the settings if they want port forwarding, VPN, firewall setup, etc.

Am I wrong in my thinking?

I'm a little confused. Are you saying that the local network was swapped out and the satellite provider has changed? Do you now have two Internet providers feeding this local network?

Unless this is some sort of enterprise level network, there will be a local router for your friend. This could be a separate box or part of a Gateway.

No, only one network is used at any time.

Another thing I asked the installer is whether the new system has a modem that's separate and was told it doesn't. AFAIK, a raw feed to a computer doesn't work because it needs to be demodulated, hence the name 'modem'. The computer connects to the internet without using a router or switch, which tells me the feed from the dish has a modem, somewhere. The device connected directly to the dish sounds like it's just a POE adapter- it's about the size of a cigarette pack, has a power supply port, a POE out and a LAN port and is connected to the same ethernet cable as the old dish/whatever else came with it.

The questions I have involve "What is between the POE adapter and the end of the ethernet cable in the room where the DVR and router live?". The router is from Netgear and it doesn't have a built-in modem. Assuming the old and new systems connect to the router (and it works for the rest of the equipment, just not the DVR's port forwarding), it has to have a modem, somewhere, right?

The old system was slow, limited and the range wasn't very good. The fiber network has been installed on the opposite side of the water and the users have a small UBNT dish that may/may not be on a tower, due to the terrain. The new network has one provider, but some people have kept the connection to the old one until they can find out if the new has any problems. Each network is onsite, but not connected. He connected the existing router to the new network and the cameras were no longer viewable from the outside world because no port forwarding had been done. Once we found that the settings we were using didn't work, he reconnected the router to the old feed and it came back because the old port forwarding had remained. We used a different name and acquired a new IP address for with the new system.

This would be so much easier if the place wasn't 9 hours away. But I need a road trip, right?

This system involves many end users and each needs a separate dish to receive the signal from the main tower with AirFiber dishes (or whatever is being used)- I have been looking at the AirFiber device info and some are half-duplex while others are full duplex. The link below shows one of them and I really need the info for what is on his house.

[Link: dl.ubnt.com]

If it is an Ethernet handoff there would be no modem and nothing between the AirFiber PoE injector and the dish. AirFiber hands off Ethernet. Is the provider issuing a static IP or DHCP address? If it’s DHCP, is it a public IP?

The gateway IP address found in cmd prompt was in a public IP range. I asked the installer where the modem is located and he said it's not needed, which sounds really odd.

Carrier Ethernet is common on the enterprise side. Modems are necessary for cable and DSL (and some other technologies), but this is straight Ethernet. You should be able to just plug your router into the Ethernet. I assume since you are getting a non-RFC1918 (outside the 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16 ranges) that there’s nothing blocking ports upstream. The provider could NAT and block ports, but they generally do not. Especially if they’re providing a public IP. Your router will perform NAT and port forwarding for anything behind it. Are the port forwards already configured on your router?

As I posted, the DVR works fine when connected to the old system but not when connected to the new one and a separate profile for the DVR was created for the new feed. We even saved the old config and wiped the router, so only one profile existed and that still doesn't work. The settings were saved and printed, so they could be set up the same way, but with the new IP address. The DVR's ddns search was successful, but after the port forward setup, canyouseeme.org was unable to see it.

Is the IP assigned to your router the same as the one the DVR is registering with your DDNS provider? Have you attempted connecting the DVR directly to the provider’s Ethernet handoff (if it’s even feasible)? That would isolate whether your issue is upstream or on your router.

I'll have him try that- if he connects his laptop to the feed from the POE adapter, he can reach the internet and that's what caused me to ask the installer if the router needs to be in bridge mode with NAT turned off and he asked why I would think it was necessary.

I haven't worked with this system, only broadband and DSL but the fact that he can go online with his computer just by connecting it to the same ethernet cable he used to connect to the router's WAN port tells me there's a modem somewhere.

If you refer to the upstream device as a router, PE (provider edge) or “layer 3 device” with the provider technicians you may have better luck. They don’t usually refer to an Ethernet router as a modem.

If you are getting a public IP then they are likely not using NAT (as there would be no reason to do so). They may have a transparent firewall that is clipping the traffic.

If you’re not getting a public IP from the provider, then there is an upstream router that is NATing. In that case the carrier may have to port forward on your behalf on their router/layer 3 device.

I looked at the notes from last week and when he tried to use canyouseeme.org, the IP address came up as 64.224.xxx.xxx, which tells me it's a public address, rather than from a modem.

The link shows an image that looks like the photos I received- the copy shows 'Plug and play'.

[Link: ui.com]

Just called him- his laptop doesn't have an ethernet port, so....

I also read part of the user guide and it shows a section for port forwarding, so I think the UBNT may be in router mode.

You’ll always see a public IP when you go to canyouseeme. What determines whether you are getting NAT’ed is the IP on the local device connected directly to the provider’s Ethernet handoff. If the two IPs match, then there’s no NAT. If they are different, you are getting NAT’ed somewhere.

That's what I was thinking but didn't know this dish setup had a router mode and the guy didn't mention it.