Remote access to home-based lab, via an XFINITY router

[Jelani_DTE_PRO]

Has anyone had the luxury of successfully creating an SSH remote connection, to his or her's home lab equipment, via an XFINITY router?

I'm trying to SSH into my Cisco switch, but Port Forwarding doesn't seem to work. With a laptop connected to my Cisco switch and a trunk port between my Cisco switch and XFINITY router, I'm able to successfully browse the internet. Just trying to connect up (preferably, using NAT statements on my XFINITY router), to my home lab equipment. Also, I'm able to successfully establish an SSH connection to my switch, from my LAN. I connected up to my friend's FIOS router, and it seemed to have way more configuration options than XFINITY...including NAT. :(

Thanks,

Jelani

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

not sure what you have tried, so have a look at the link below. SSH uses TCP port 22, so that is the port you need to specify in 'Manual Setup'...

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/port-forwarding-xfinity-wireless-gateway

[Jelani_DTE_PRO]

Hi, Georg. Thanks, for the reply.

I've actually, tried that. In the Common Services dropdown menu, of my XFINITY router, there's a menu choice for SSH. Port Forwarding config, on my XFINITY router below...

[paul driver]

Hello

First of all can you ssh onto the switch from router sourced from the routers lan interface?

Once you have been able to do that then you should look at creating a static nat and access rule on the router to allow an internet host to gain tcp 22 ssh access.

[Jelani_DTE_PRO]

Paul,

You know what? I didn't even think to connect my laptop to my XFINITY router, to try establishing an SSH connection from it to my switch. Good one! I'll try it, once I'm back home. I'm guessing it should work, though. Because I did make an SSH connection to my switch from my laptop with an internal IP Address configured on it. 

But, if I can get internet traffic sent over that trunk port from my XFINITY router, isn't it fair to think I'd get SSH traffic from XFINITY router over that trunk?

[Jelani_DTE_PRO]

Paul, 

I totally agree with you, about the creation of NAT statements on the XFINITY router. However, I don't see where to do that on my XFINITY router...create NAT statements and access rules.

I've seen those options, on my friend's FIOS router however. :(

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

what is the exact model of your Xfinity ?

[Jelani_DTE_PRO]

Georg,

It's an ARRIS TG1682G.

[Jelani_DTE_PRO]

Is it possible that I have an IP Address reserved, with an incorrect MAC Address? I've reserved an IP Address, using the Base Ethernet MAC Address of my switch versus the SVI MAC Address...

[Georg Pauwen · Accepted solution]

Hello,

which Cisco switch model do you have ? If it is a 'normal' IOS switch, make sure you have it configured with an IP address and a default gateway. The default gateway must be the LAN port IP address of the ARRIS. Below is an example:

interface Vlan 1

ip address 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0

!

ip default-gateway 192.168.1.1

On the ARRIS, in the Port Forwarding section, specify the IP address you have assigned to the switch Vlan 1 interface.

https://setuprouter.com/router/arris/tg1682g/port-forwarding.htm

[Jelani_DTE_PRO]

Port Forwarding, has been configured with the IP Address of my SVI. I removed the default-gateway, of the router, after realizing that it wasn't needed for internet access; the IP Address of my SVI was acting as the gateway, for that VLAN.

I'll add it back and test out Port Forwarding, again, this evening. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks,

Jelani

[Jelani_DTE_PRO]

Georg,

Thanks, for the link!!!

[Jelani_DTE_PRO]

Awesome news, guys...I was able to SSH into my switch, over the internet, using Port Forwarding!!!

The difference, was the addition of the IP Address of my XFINITY router, as the default gateway of my switch.

Georg, thanks for that suggestion! By the way, Paul, I was able to successfully SSH from XFINITY router to my switch prior to adding the default gateway config on my switch.

You guys, were AWESOME!!! Thanks much!!!