Port Forwarding with Port Translation RV042, RV016, RV082

vreid_47362 · ‎09-22-2009

This is a feature request for the Linksys RV series Routers. Currently, it appears that the Cisco/Linksys RV042, RV082, and RV016 only support port forwarding and 1-to-1 Nat. One item that I find very helpful with customers is port forwarding with port translation. I am requesting that this feature be included with a future firmware relase for these RV series routers.

Here is an example of the request.

Take an incoming service request on a TCP or UDP destination port and forward it to an internal IP on a different TCP or UDP port. For example, customer A wants to allow different machines on the internal network to receive Windows RDP connections inbound. To make PC maintenance identical between the internal machines, the customer does not want to change the listening port for RDP on the individual PC workstations through the Windows Registry. The customer also does not want to dedicate separate IP's to each machine in a 1-to-1 NAT setup. The only option is to have remote connections to each of these PC's to use a different destination port. So, for example, PC one could be reached on TCP port 5151, PC two on TCP port 5152, and PC three on port 5153. This requres a firewall that is able to translate each of these connection requests to a different internal IP on the default RDP port (TCP 3389). So, the following setup is required:

Port Forwarding with Port Translation:

Router External IP on TCP port 5151 ---> forwarded to PC One's internal IP on TCP 3389

Router External IP on TCP port 5152 ---> forwarded to PC Two's internal IP on TCP 3389

Router External IP on TCP port 5153 ---> forwarded to PC Three's internal IP on TCP 3389

There are several comparable "small business" class router competitors to the RV042, RV082, and RV016 that will perform this port forwarding with port translation process without incident. Unfortunately, these Cisco/Linksys small business routers will not accomplish this task currently.

Please implement this feature in a future firmware release.

Thanks!

Te-Kai Liu · ‎09-22-2009

The requested feature can be configured at the Setup>UPnP page. Note that UPnP does not need to be enabled for the port forwarding rules to work.

vreid_47362 · ‎09-22-2009

Excellent. I see this now. None of our customers actually use the UPNP feature, so we never realized that Port Forwarding with Port Translation features existed on this page along with the ability to enable or disable UPNP.

Perhaps, in the future, this functionality could be moved to and incorporated into the port forwarding page which seems to be a more logical location.

In either case I'm very happy to know that this feature is available on the RV's.

Thanks for your assistance.

mail · ‎12-13-2009

Could I get more specific instructions for setting up RDP to 3 static computers on our LAN. I am looking at the upnp screen but I don't know which service to select for RDP connections. With other routers we have simply pointed 3389 to 1st IP, 3390 to 2ndIP etc. thanks,

Te-Kai Liu · ‎12-13-2009

To forward a non-standard port to LAN PC, you would need to define a custom service first. For example, click on the Service Management button on Setup>Forwarding or Setup>UPnP page.

a.morris · ‎10-07-2009

I wasn't sure if I should reply to this thread or create a new one.

It seems there is a Limit to the Number of Entries for the UPnP forwarding. Will this ever increase? We are having to use 3 routers so people can remote in.

Te-Kai Liu · ‎10-07-2009

How many forwarding rules did you try to create? RV042 supports 50 rules.

Correction: RV42 supports 30 port forwarding rules, not 50.

osbeeindustries · ‎06-14-2010

Does this also apply to UPnP forwards in the RV082? We need

to setup more than 30 UPnP rules.

Te-Kai Liu · ‎06-14-2010

RV042 supports 30 Port (Range) Forwarding rules and 30 UPnP Forwarding rules, which allow incoming port to be different from the forwarding port (i.e. asymmetric forwarding). So the total number of forwarding rules supported is 30+30=60. This number is the same for RV082 and RV016.

a.morris · ‎10-09-2009

Unfortunately, we need just over 100. We have reps that need to connect via Remote Desktop and also they provide VNC Demos for customers. That requires 3 ports for each user.

Is there a reason there is a limit?

Does Cisco make a product similar to RV016/RV082 that will allow more ports?

David Hornstein · ‎10-17-2009

Hi A.Morris,

I had thought that VNC was just one TCP port 5900, hmmm

Why is there a limit to the number of PAT rules ? Well there has to be resource limits to the number of ACL, VPN clients, VPN tunnels and Port forwarding rules. Or you can buy a traditional cisco router solution that still has limits, but not at 100 Port address Translation rules.

regards Dave

a.morris · ‎10-26-2009

Thanks Dave,

The VNC requires 5900 for VNC Viewer and 5800 for browser viewing, that's 2 per user plus the RDP for a total of 3.

Does Cisco have a router that gives you the capability for more than 100? If so, what models?

I chatted with a Cisco Sales Rep but he didn't have the info on the Port Address Translation. The info I was given was for the SA-5000 Series routers. There is a "Firewall" rule limit of 100 but is that the same?

thanks