RDP Issues

[Brabian]

We've just returned from holiday and what was an occasional drop out has become a complete block: we cannot connect to my wife's company using RDP.

I've now spent hours with the broadband team (who did nothing) and the Rescue Gadget team (who completely failed) and STILL we cannot connect. 

Even doing a port check (portchecker.co) on port 3389 reports "CLOSED" (it was at this point that the Rescue guy quit!).

Now I know that this is a long-standing issue with VM and I don't know why it is, but using almost any other service (my own O2 hotspot, for example) works fine.

Does anyone know what the issue is and what, more importantly, the solution is?

[legacy1]

Tuff you need to use modem mode VM will do nothing to help you as they trust whats in place for router mode to be correct for your safety.

[timmer3]

no disrepect @legacy1, but i'm not asking VM or anyone else to decide which ports they should block without my consent or configuration. if they told you "by the way you won't be able to use many popular work-from-home services" many customers would not sign up, and many on this forum have said they have already left VM because of this issue.  the router already provides a firewall and allows for port forwarding if an advanced used wishes to forward ports to an internal device.  however what is completely unacceptable is the wholesale blocking of ports without the option for customers to use the ports they want to for their internet service.  to be clear, in my example lets say i have a custom RDP port of 3999 configured on my remote office workstation, it is not possible for me to use this port with virgin media without disabling wifi, same for the standard port 3389.  and to be abundantly clear, i'm not talking about the router filtering incoming requests on an unusual port, i'm talking about my computer inside the network trying to make an outgoing connection to a remote device that is listening on that port, but is being actively blocked by the VM router. 

it's not a case of VM doing what is best to "keep us safe", it's a case of bad router firmware that doesn't allow users to configure the port blocking.  fine for it to be blocked by default, but give people the option. 

last point, there is nothing wrong with the remote desktop protocol.  lots of people integrate 2FA with it to increase security, or they can integrate whitelisted IP addresses, it's not a decision any internet provider should make to block this service.

[legacy1]

No matter what you say nothing will change.

VM don't want to do advanced stuff like real firewall rules because one have you looked at the cost of a real firewall option? You really think VM will give us that? And two to complicated for many users. VM did a simple firewall with levels back in SH1 no one liked it everyone turned it off so VM give US control USE router mode or USE modem mode.

[ttt3]

I have the same issue as well as others with the Hub 3. Brabian can your wife’s IT department help out ?

[Brabian]

Hi,

No it's not an IT department issue, it's a VM issue! (See also posts in the RDP topic). And the only solution is to purchase a new router; switch the Hub to modem mode and connect your router and then you'll avoid VM's blockage of this port! Works a treat!

[newapollo]

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@timmer3 wrote:

I'm in the same situation with RDP traffic being blocked, it doesn't matter if i use the standard port 3389 or my own custom port.  this is since i upgraded to the new wifi6 VM router a few months ago.  

so "modem mode" is a work around but not a solution, and virgin media seem to be quite unaware of the port blocking behaviour of the router. 

  i'm paying for an internet service and VM are actively blocking part of that service without any option to turn it off. 

the router itself says that modem mode only disables wifi, but it obviously disables the port blocking as well.  these features should not be tied together. 

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Looking at your screenshot @timmer3 it looks like you are based in Ireland.  @Brabian may also be based in Ireland since they also mention a hub 6

These forums are for domestic UK customers and VM customers in the UK don't have access to the hub 6

Is the hub 6 configured for IPV6 ? If so I suggest asking VM Ireland if they can turn off IPV6  and switch you to IPv4 only mode.  << this thread may help >> 

[timmer3]

thanks for the suggestion.  yes, using VM in ireland, but unfortunately i've already spoken to their tech support a few times and i was already on ipV4.  it's nothing blocked by the VM network itself, it's the firmware in the router, verified by switching to modem mode, not related to VM network at all.  all they could suggest was downgrading to the previous router i traded in 😐

[timmer3]

this topic should not be marked as "Solved".  it will remain unsolved until VM stop blocking ports without consent or configuration options available to users.  i appreciates mods are trying to keep the number of open tickets low, but the issue is 100% unresolved.

[newapollo]

Hi again @timmer3 

It was  yourself that marked a post as a 'Helpful Answer'. The Forum then automatically shows the thread as solved.

That is easily remedied by yourself.

Click on the dropdown menu icon in the top right hand corner of the post you marked, and in the dropdown screen click on Not a helpful answer (screenshot  below)

[Omadawn]

There is a danger of everyone getting confused over what is going on here.

The original post referred to inability to connect to a remote RDP server, ie, that’s an outbound connection, and I absolutely promise you that VM DO NOT block this type of traffic. However you talk about ‘custom ports’ so are you running your own server on your home network and can’t connect to it from the outside? Because if so, that’s a whole different matter.