Getting around a problematic ISP


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So...this isn't quite what it sounds like.

 

Long story short, I'm giving T-Mobile ISP a shot. Mostly because there's zero data caps (you know, allegedly) and I'm getting better speeds than Comcast offered, and it's $50 a month. If I can get things running the way I want them to, it seems like a workable solution. 

 

The biggest problem is that I can't port forward or do a DMZ IP or anything. The options are there in the actual gateway config, but T-Mobile's support, which is mostly pretty good, basically says "yeah, that isn't quite implemented yet. But, you know, it will be eventually. Probably". So, that's not exactly helpful. 

 

As a general ISP user, it works fine. But I've got too many docker containers that don't work correctly without the ability to forward ports. Most specifically, OwnCloud and Plex. 

 

I'm currently sampling AirVPN, since PIA only allows one port forward. But this is where it gets complicated. 

 

Let's say I want to do OwnCloud. I can setup a port forward that gets a random port and then forwards it to 8000. OK, great. But that port forward has to come in on something that's connected to the VPN. My Windows PC doesn't really do me a whole lot of good there. I've messed with SpaceInvader One's VPN forwarding instructions, and they work, but I haven't quite worked out how to do port forwarding with IPtables yet. 

 

I figure at worst I can use SpaceInvader One's instructions on an old Zbox dual-nic machine I've got and eventually get the port forwarding working. But this seems like a really long way to go to get around this problem. 

 

Another idea that occurred is that I could take an ASUS RT-3200AC that is currently operating as just an access point, install an OpenVPN client on it, and have it as a secondary gateway out of the network. Then point the unRAID machine's default gateway to that device. Then the port forwarding would (presumably) be fairly simple. 

 

Man, the lengths people will go to give Comcast the finger. 

 

Anyone have any suggestions? 

Edited by Merijeek
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