I have an older Airport Extreme, I have installed a wireless Foscam camera and need to do port forwarding to access it outside of the network and for that it needs to be DHCP and Nat mode. I have reset it and rebooted to several times and in creating a new network it automatically sets it up in Off mode. When I switch it I get a warning thats it "Double NAT" and it won't work. Any thoughts? Thanks!
iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.4)
Double NAT indicates that you have two routers that are both providing DHCP and NAT services for the network. That is almost always a network no no.
One of them.....the device that you likely call your "modem" is actually a modem/router, or as they are also called a gateway device. A device like this combines a separate modem and a separate router in one single package.
This is the device that will need to be setup to handle the Port Forwarding......since it is your main router.
The correct setting for the AirPort Extreme is "Off (Bridge Mode)" since you already have a router...(the device that you think of as your modem) handling DHCP and NAT services for the network. When the AirPort is in Bridge Mode, it will simply pass through the Port Forwarding settings that it receives from your main router.
This gets complicated, but if you really do want the AirPort Extreme to act as the main router for your network......then you will need to investigate to find out whether it would be possible to configure your modem/router or gateway device to act as a simple Bridge Mode modem. Sometimes this is possible, sometimes not. Even if it is possible, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may not support this type of setup, so you will need to do some research if you want to look at that option.
All things considered, it will be tons easier for you to run your modem/router "as is" and set up Port Forwarding on that device. Then, run the AirPort Extreme in Bridge Mode.
Double NAT indicates that you have two routers that are both providing DHCP and NAT services for the network. That is almost always a network no no.
One of them.....the device that you likely call your "modem" is actually a modem/router, or as they are also called a gateway device. A device like this combines a separate modem and a separate router in one single package.
This is the device that will need to be setup to handle the Port Forwarding......since it is your main router.
The correct setting for the AirPort Extreme is "Off (Bridge Mode)" since you already have a router...(the device that you think of as your modem) handling DHCP and NAT services for the network. When the AirPort is in Bridge Mode, it will simply pass through the Port Forwarding settings that it receives from your main router.
This gets complicated, but if you really do want the AirPort Extreme to act as the main router for your network......then you will need to investigate to find out whether it would be possible to configure your modem/router or gateway device to act as a simple Bridge Mode modem. Sometimes this is possible, sometimes not. Even if it is possible, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may not support this type of setup, so you will need to do some research if you want to look at that option.
All things considered, it will be tons easier for you to run your modem/router "as is" and set up Port Forwarding on that device. Then, run the AirPort Extreme in Bridge Mode.
I think the conflict is that I have the Clear network for internet and use a wireless tower for that
The fact that you get Double NAT when you try to set up the AirPort to handle DHCP and NAT tells us that the Clear "modem" is acting like a router.....whether it is or not.
AirPort Utility is telling you to configure the AirPort in Bridge Mode for a reason....it thinks that is the correct setting for the AirPort on your network.
Even if you decide to run the AirPort incorrectly in the DHCP and NAT mode with a Double NAT on the network........Port Forwarding will not work correctly with a Double NAT error on the network.
I was able to ignore the Double Nat message and went ahead with the port forwarding but the the IP address I get when I go to whatsmyip.org is different from the IP address on the airport - it's the Clear network tower like you said. Any ideas on what I can do, I tried using the Clear IP address and port number in in the URL window to check the port forwarding and that didn't work but it does work with the Airport IP address. However neither work in the settings of the phone app which is what I need it to do. Thanks!
I've never been able to get Port Forwarding to work through a Double NAT on a network, but maybe someone else has, and they will post their "secret". In theory, it might be possible, in practice, I cannot say.
If the Port Forwarding is an absolute requirement for you on your network, you may need to start looking for another Internet Service Provider that can supply the type of modem that will support what you want to do.
I was able to log into the clear tower and open it up for port forwarding but I still can't get it to work
It won't work.....in my opinion.....until you can solve the Double NAT issue. Apple will allow you to "ignore" the Double NAT....so the AirPort will display a green light instead of blinking amber, but ignoring the problem won't make it go away.
The real issue is that your modem or router....whatever you want to call it....appears as if it cannot be configured to operate as a simple bridge mode modem.....which is what you must have if you want to run DHCP and NAT on the AirPort.
Bottom line here is that you have two options on a normal network......
1) The modem is set up in Bridge Mode and the router handles DHCP and NAT
2) The "modem" handles DHCP and NAT and the router must be setup in Bridge Mode
Sorry, but I don't think that I will be able to provide any more help for you on this. A Clear customer who has figured out the workarounds....if hey exist.....to do what you want is probably your best bet at this point.
It's possible that a Clear customer might be poking around on an Apple forum and will see this post......but realistically it is also very unlikely.
Good luck on finding a solution.
Hey, thanks for all of your input, I appreciate it. Clear Network is going away by November, Sprint bought them so I need to find another provider and maybe that will be the ultimate solution. For now though, I will keep trying to figure it out.
When you switch to another provider, please look for one that will provide you with a simple modem option. The simple modem will allow you to configure the AirPort in Router Mode of DHCP and NAT.......and Port Forwarding will work correctly in this setting if you have the correct port values to enter into the AirPort router.
You don't want a modem/router or gateway type of device that combines both a modem and router in the same package.
One option that may work in your situation is to configure both routers for port forwarding. No guarantees, but may be worth a try.
The idea is to configure the Clear Network router to port forward to your AirPort Extreme, and in turn, configure the Extreme to port forward to the IP camera.
For example. Let's say that your camera is configured to send/receive data on TCP port 2500. Configure the Clear Network router for this port with its destination the WAN-side IP address of the Extreme. Note: This would work best if you configure the Extreme with a static local IP address for its WAN port.
Then configure the Extreme to accept data on TCP port 2500 and forward it to the IP camera's static local IP address.
For the Extreme, the settings in the AirPort Utility would be:
Can't switch from Off (Bridge Mode) to DHCP and Nat
