FiOS Blocking ports?

[#1]

Ports 20125, and all ports i began forwarding within the last 2 days have began to be blocked. Why is that? I called verizon technical support and now i need to change to a business account to do port forwarding for games that i am hosting a server for (so clients can connect and we can game together).

What exactly is going on?

:This wasn't explained to me initially during my start with verizon FiOS back in 2012 of April.

Anyone else having ports blocked>?

[#2 · Accepted solution]

VZ does not block ports, except for port 25 outbound.

You do not need a business account to do port forwarding.  However, running a server is technically against VZ's Terms of Service (TOS) for a residential account.  That said, VZ has never made an issue of doing so for incidental usage.

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@supernet2 wrote:

This wasn't explained to me initially during my start with verizon FiOS back in 2012 of April.

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You had to agree to the TOS in order to activate the service. 

[#3]

So if i keep a server running when im playing games with others, its okay but if im host one at all times its against TOS? Thanks for explanation.

[#4]

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@supernet2 wrote:

So if i keep a server running when im playing games with others, its okay

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I didn't say that.  The TOS do not make any distinction about how much a server is used. 

What I was trying to say is that no one has ever reported VZ complaining about running a server on a residential account as long as it was non-commercial and not eating tons of bandwidth.  VZ has clamped down on a small number of users that were running tens of TB of upload. 

In point of fact, both the VZ router and STBs have servers built in.  So do those violate VZ's own TOS?

[#5]

Not sure how to answer that. I do not work for verizon. When i was explained about my service i was explained im able to use it for small scale gaming, examples like hosting minor servers, or port forwarding for games i do use open up ports for ,etc when running my end before their end. Considering i also use my own cloud network for my streaming content to and from my mobile devices, remotely and directly im uncertain of the bandwith eaten up. Usually i see roughly 50gigs of data in a 1month timeframe. Give or take, maybe more or less depending on how much data is being shuffled to and from devices.

Thanks for answering my question. (Seems you took it hostile?)

[#6]

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@supernet2 wrote:

Seems you took it hostile? 

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Not at all.

Just trying to be clear and accurate.

[#7]

To try to answer your question to the best of my knowledge. The only outbound port I have heard of Verizon blocking is port 80. (which is open inbound for email). If you are having problems with ports not actually being open when the router says they are open, then it could be a problem with the router or how you have it set up. Did you set it up for TCP or UDP or both?

[#8]

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@logan8 wrote:
To try to answer your question to the best of my knowledge. The only outbound port I have heard of Verizon blocking is port 80. (which is open inbound for email). If you are having problems with ports not actually being open when the router says they are open, then it could be a problem with the router or how you have it set up. Did you set it up for TCP or UDP or both?

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Hmm

If they blocked port 80 outbound you would have ZERO access to the internet.  Port 80 inbound is closed by default but can be opened by a port forwarding rule.  It has nothing to do with email, unless you read your email on a web browser.

In reality as stated earlier in the thread, they don't block ANY port except 25 outbound however, most inbound ports are clsed by default but any can be opened by implementing the correct port forwarding rules at the router/s.

My guess would be that the OP's problem is that he built his PF rule based on an ip address to a dhcp connected server destination.  .

[#9]

yes sorry viafax, got that mixed up, 25 outbound is blocked right and 80 inbound. What I meant is that besides the Verizon router normally Verizon does not block ports except for a few exceptions.

[#10]

Turns out just needed to reboot ONT unit. Last resort would have been to reboot the actual FiOS box directly. Instead rebooted the modem/router. I think considering i have many gaming consoles on my network, many cloud servers setup for my mobile devices (Ie: Phones, tablets, etc..), and the many laptops i have, the massive amount of data, and gaming on different devices resulted in a system over load. It doesn't help that i have a 48port switch with a cat6 cable heading to other devices hardwired, and those that are wired in are on different routers that go back to the main unit (not including wireless bridges ive setup).

Just a heads up to those who have this same issue (All ports lock up). First reboot your router/modem verizon provides. If that doesn't work, last resort is to force power cycle the FiOS box (literally unplug it plug it back in, if you have phone services with verizon, this will be interupted if your backup battery isn't working or is old).

Otherwise, i'd also just call into verizon and call them and ask them to literally reset or manually send a reboot command to your FiOS box (same as powerdown... but more so a "safe shut down") Assigns a new ip from the main hub, so if you DID have any form of gaming setup even for temperary access, your global ip would infact change (least in my case)