Back To My Mac Issues

[newtonuk]

According to information readily available on the internet Back To My Mac in Leopard uses two incoming ports.

443 on TCP (which is the https port) and 4500 on UDP.

I've had my iMac sat in the DMZ on my standard Sky DG834GT and still cannot connect 'back to my mac' from my MacBook when away from home.

After trying many configurations the only conclusion I can come to is that Sky block incoming connections on port 443 TCP.

Is there anyway to confirm this? I recently contacted "technical support" who confirmed my issue back to me as "so you cannot browse any websites, we are not aware of any outages in your area so it must be your equipment".

When I correct the technical support rep on what I was actually asking she suggested I called back to see if I got somebody else who might now the answer! This sort of response from "technical" support is ludicrous at best.

So, can anybody answer the incoming connection on 443 TCP or suggest a method to check this?

Cheers!

[newtonuk]

Please see this thread...

Admin note: Threads merged. Please use just one thread per issue.

I'm trying to determine if the issues I'm seeing with 'Back To My Mac' are caused by an incoming connection on TCP443 being blocked by Sky themselves.

However, the Technical Support line wasn't able to help at all and the suggestion that I should call back in the hope that I might get somebody different is just plain ridiculous.

Sky Broadband Technical Support should be able to reel off a list of which ports are blocked in which direction fairly easily.

If my issues with BTMM are being caused by a restriction on Sky's service then I may have to look at moving my provider. I'm sure these weren't disclosed at the point of signing up for my service.

Can anyone help?

[PaulSky]

Why have you started another thread on this issue and why would Sky TS T1 be able to tell you what ports are blocked (if any)? T1 is their to troubleshoot the basics and filter calls, they are not furnished with details of every single port available to customers. As far as I know there are no ports blocked on Sky BB and from what I have just read online port 443 is used for HTTPS so there is no way Sky would be blocking traffic to it.

TCP Port 443 - HTTPS HTTP SSL
TCP Port 443 - HTTPS World Wide Web Publishing Service
TCP Port 443 - HTTPS SharePoint Portal Server
TCP Port 443 - RPC over HTTP Exchange Server 2003

[newtonuk]

Originally Posted by PaulSky

Why have you started another thread on this issue and why would Sky TS T1 be able to tell you what ports are blocked (if any)? T1 is their to troubleshoot the basics and filter calls, they are not furnished with details of every single port available to customers. As far as I know there are no ports blocked on Sky BB and from what I have just read online port 443 is used for HTTPS so there is no way Sky would be blocking traffic to it.

I had tried to make the topics of the threads discrete although they are somewhat related. The original one was specifically aimed at Mac Users to discuss Back To My Mac and the second one was a request for technical help. However I accpet that the admins have merged the thread in to a single entry.

Okay, so if Sky Broadband Technical Support cannot offer me the technical support that I require then who should I contact? The response of the agent on the end of the telephone was not "I'm sorry I do not know the answer to that question, but I will log a ticket and ask somebody to contact you with an answer", but "You should call back and see if you get somebody who might know the answer" which I don't think is acceptable.

The response from Apple during troubleshooting was that I should check with my ISP to determine if these ports are blocked for incoming connections by them.

So, my question to you PaulSky is if T1 are only their for basic troubleshooting and filtering of calls, how do I contact T2 or T3 if T1 aren't willing to record my question?

Sorry, it seemed fairly basic to me, but you seem somewhat riled by it.

[newtonuk]

@PaulSky

By the way, thanks for the information on the ports. It doesn't indicate however if Sky will allow me to host any of these services on my computer, which is essentially what BTMM is doing as I understand.

Outgoing ports to connect to a secure website or a sharepoint server are all opening, they're required for general browsing to be fair, but it's the incoming component of it, i.e. can somebody actually connect to a service I am hosting?

Cheers.

[PaulSky]

Not riled at all by the question, just wondering why you posted another thread on the same topic for no reason and I was just pointing out that T1 have no access to port information as it's not relevant to the troubleshooting that they have to do.
As I point out above that port is used for HTTPS connections so many banking sites etc would not work on a sky connection if that port were blocked. Therefor I cannot see a reason why Sky would block that port number.
You could try the contact us link on
Sky.com, customer support, contact us, complete our general technical enquiry form
I used this route to get my line capped to stabilise it and was responded to within 3-4 days.
Other than that it's a case of waiting for someone here to answer the question (but then you will need to wait for someone with access to port information).
Have you been able to use the feature in the past or is this the first time you have tried using BTMM?

[newtonuk]

This is the first time I've tried it. I would have thought that placing my Mac in the DMZ without any firewall would have allowed it to fly straight through, but it appears that some ports are still stealthed or blocked when I check my IP on Home of Gibson Research Corporation, I think it's called HeadsUp.

I appreciate that internet banking wouldn't work, but as I understand it they're outgoing requests rather than incoming, which made me wonder if the incoming route was blocked at all.

I'll try what you suggested on the portal.

Cheers

[the_sky_goat]

Hi,
Do you have uPnP enabled on the sky router? Back to my Mac requires uPnP or NAT PMP to be enabled on the router.

Also, where have you been trying to connect from? Have you tried several locations?

[PaulSky]

To be honest a port scan from an external source is the only real way to see if you have ports "open" or visible. It may just be a config issue within either the router or BTMM, is there any support forum for the tool that you can confirm details on as obviously Sky TS is biased towards Windows and unless you get a MAC user on the phone you will always have trouble. If I get time today before I go on calls I will ask the question of our CST group contacts to see if anyone can shed any light on it but I may not get an answer very quickly.

[Saturday]

I don't know whether 443 is blocked - there was some talk that it was in the early days but I haven't seen an update. Presumably not or I'd have thought there would have been more discussion.

One possibility is that there is already another process running on port 443. If there is then it will be effectively blocked for any other use.

Use the (Mac equivalent) netstat command to see if anything is using it?