my home network is so weird sometimes. most things work fine most of the time, but sometimes i just cant connect to things? but only some things.
like, my browser will be just fine connecting to websites, but a command line application wont be able to open a connection to for example download a youtube video. or a connection to a game server will be fucked while im in voice chat with friends just fine
the absolute weirdest part is that using a vpn makes the issues go away! somehow tunneling the connections over another connection makes it fine actually?
its usually something i can work around (restarting my router often helps too) but its just so weird
If the network connection is using NAT then it’s plausible that these problems are caused by the router having too many connection tracking entries.
@kasperd@westergaard.social that does sound like a feasible explaination... my dad has a whole load of iot devices that may be doing something in the background? otherwise most of my stuff is going into the network via a port forward
any idea how i could check and/or fix this on residential routers?
another thing i should mention is that i have a weird double NAT setup, with one (good) router behind another (bad, isp-granted) router/modem combo. it feels like something that would cause issues, but im also not sure how else to do things
I wouldn’t be surprised if the ISP does one more layer of NAT so you got a total of three layers of NAT. If the problem is due to NAT it will not be obvious which of those three layers of NAT is responsible.
The long term solution for all NAT problems is IPv6. If the ISP supports IPv6, then chances are they delegate a prefix to the router they have provided, but it’s unlikely that this router can then create sub-delegations for your own router. (I have never seen a router which can sub-delegate IPv6 prefixes like that - even though it is totally doable within the spec.)
Switching one of the routers to bridge mode can eliminate one layer of NAT, it also avoids the need for sub-delegating IPv6 prefixes, so it can potentially make IPv6 work if it didn’t work before.
Which of the two routers to switch to bridge mode depends on what settings are available on each and on why you have two routers in the first place.
Evelyn :spinny_cat_trans: :spinny_cat_lesbian:
kasperd