Asus RT-AC68U blocking ports 465 and 995

I connect to the internet but I am unable to log into my mail servers --
1and1 and verizon -- on ports 465 (SMTP) and 995 (POP). The only way I
figured out it was the router was by swapping my old Linksys back in.
The problem went away.

I have no idea how to unblock these ports and would appreciate any
assistance. On other routers it seems to be very Mac like and just
works so I have never had to deal with the problem before.

 

After playing around a bit I found I could log onto 1and1 but not
verizon. Both use the same ports. The router does not appear to be
blocking ports except verizon works fine if I replace the Asus router
with my previous linksys router. Therefore, something is going on in
the router but I don't know what.

 

If you have not already done so, reset the router to factory default and
see if the problem goes away.

It could be you got one that had been returned by someone with some
strange firewall or other setting locked into it.

Other thing is to try to go to the problem site(s) using the IP address
rather than the URL name and see if that works. If it does it's time to
change DNS servers.

 

Curiouser and curiouser. My wife had 1and1 and verzizon in mail. Since
she wasn't using verizon for anything I took it out. After that she
couldn't log into 1and1 anymore. It appears the Asus, in some strange
way, will not connect to the "last" server. In my wife's case it is now
the first server.

I went back to the Linksys until I get an answer.

 

I did that but it didn't help.

I believe mine was new. Also, I just installed the latest software update.

I get there okay on the Linksys. I also discovered the ability to log
onto a mail server seems to depend on how many are in the list. I have
two and the second one, verizon, doesn't work. My wife had the same
two. When I removed verizon, 1and1 stopped working. There is something
weird about this router.

 

This: "the ability to log onto a mail server seems to depend on how many are
in the list."

What does that mean? What list? We're missing some key information here,
including any configuration you might have done to the router itself.

 

It could be you got one that had been returned by someone with some
It really does sound like a firewall issue; try completely disabling the
firewall and maybe set DNS to Google (8.8.8.8) to rule out host lookup
issues. If it works with the firewall disabled you've found the problem.
Some of the user interfaces on these consumer routers are quite bad and
it can be hard to tell what exactly is being blocked. If it does logging
turning that on can help determine what's going on.

 

Sorry. In the mail client on a Mac you have a list of accounts. Mine
are iCloud [IMAP],localhost [POP], Peirce Family [1and1.com][POP] and
Verizon Mail [verizon.net][POP]. All these connect perfectly when I use
my old Linksys router. On the Asus they all fire up except the last
one. My wife's computer does the same thing.

If you remove the last one in the list then the next to last will fail
to fire up. I tested this on my wife's computer. She had 1and1 and
verizon but did not use verizon. After deleting it 1and1 would not log in.

 

I did a default setup. I had put a list of DNS servers on the Linksys.
I have no idea what might be on the Asus. I will look into setting
those to see what happens. If that doesn't work I will try turning off
the firewall on the computer and router to see if that does anything.

 

Does traceroute die at the router? Does telnet (to the desired port, not the
telnet default port) also die at the router?

The thing is, the router doesn't know that you've added or removed email
accounts on the computer, so I don't see why it might be acting the way it
appears to be acting.

Do you know how to use a TCP packet capture program?

 

You've ruled out DNS lookup issues, right? If not, then start there.
I see the suggestion above, but no word on whether you followed through.

 

I haven't tried either but I will. Traceroute looks like it could be
useful. I'm not sure about telnet, since I don't really know how to use
it. It would be interesting to know if mail thinks it is trying to log
onto the server but it actually isn't.

Exactly. I can't figure that either. I called Asus and they don't
know. They suggested using port triggering except all the mail servers
use the same ports and it is only the last server that hangs. How would
the router know it is the last server?

All I know is that my wife's computer could log onto 1and1 but not
verizon, the last in the account list, until I removed verizon. Then it
couldn't log onto 1and1, which was now the last in the account list.

 

traceroute to smtp.verizon.net (206.46.232.100), 64 hops max, 52 byte
packets
1 router.asus.com (192.168.1.1) 2.195 ms 0.881 ms 0.853 ms
2 10.251.32.1 (10.251.32.1) 11.040 ms 9.716 ms 15.941 ms
3 4.31.163.137 (4.31.163.137) 9.136 ms 8.712 ms 12.290 ms
4 209-145-79-57.unassigned.ntelos.net (209.145.79.57) 11.342 ms
12.289 ms 82.687 ms
5 lumos-netwo.edge2.washington4.level3.net (4.53.115.2) 76.154 ms
50.315 ms 16.059 ms
6 xe-9-1-3.edge2.washington4.level3.net (4.53.115.1) 15.012 ms
20.060 ms 14.431 ms
7 ae-103-3503.edge1.washington12.level3.net (4.69.158.25) 29.996 ms
ae-101-3501.edge1.washington12.level3.net (4.69.158.17) 110.537 ms
ae-104-3504.edge1.washington12.level3.net (4.69.158.29) 364.364 ms
8 ae-102-3502.edge1.washington12.level3.net (4.69.158.21) 371.847 ms
ae-202-3602.edge1.washington12.level3.net (4.69.158.37) 329.104 ms
ae-204-3604.edge1.washington12.level3.net (4.69.158.45) 39.274 ms
9 mci-level3.washingtondc12.level3.net (4.68.62.134) 25.914 ms
16.906 ms
mci-level3.washingtondc12.level3.net (4.68.62.138) 21.017 ms
10 * * *
11 80.ae1.sa4.dca6.alter.net (152.63.41.114) 20.826 ms
80.ae1.sa3.dca6.alter.net (152.63.41.110) 22.890 ms
80.ae1.sa4.dca6.alter.net (152.63.41.114) 19.621 ms
12 * * *

$ telnet smtp.verizon.net 465
Trying 206.46.232.100...
telnet: connect to address 206.46.232.100: Operation timed out
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host

whois says 152.63.41.114 is MCI d/b/a Verizon Business. I have to try
to contact them because it may be some IP in the chain is being
blacklisted. Interesting. Thanks for the advice.