Port forwarding help

[loulz 0]

Hi all!

I have a physical PC setup at a remote location running Windows 11 Professional, where the ISP blocks access to the modem web interface via policy, so I've been trying my very best to connect to ports 3389 (Remote Desktop) and 4455 (Websockets). Before AirVPN, I tried just adding firewall rules, which didn't work.

Now with AirVPN, I have requested a port, tried to set the local port to both 3389 and 4455, both unsuccessfully. I am trying both the actual assigned IP and the DDNS url (preferred). I get error 110 with firewall on, and 111 when firewall disabled. I have read other similar posts, but I do have both services running on the physical PC, and if I was on LAN with no VPN, both services would function as expected in a closed environment. I have noticed in Websockets on the PC, it still suggests the IP as 192.168.1.19 (assigned local IP), where on my previous rental server I'm attempting to replace it reflects the actual IP of that server.

What am I doing wrong, and how can I fix it?

Edited ... by loulz

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

14 minutes ago, loulz said:

I get error 110 with firewall on, and 111 when firewall disabled.
[…]
I have noticed in Websockets on the PC, it still suggests the IP as 192.168.1.19 (assigned local IP), where on my previous rental server I'm attempting to replace it reflects the actual IP of that server.

Which tells me RDP doesn't listen on the VPN interface. Explains the timeout with firewall (expected) and connection refused without.

Quick internet search reveals, you can bind RDP to another interface using WMI. You could try that.

[loulz 0]

1 minute ago, OpenSourcerer said:

Which tells me RDP doesn't listen on the VPN interface. Explains the timeout with firewall (expected) and connection refused without.

I discovered the specific issue causing that problem was a conflict with no-ip software (at least I believe so). Disabling that and restarting reflects the ports being opened. It was an oversight as I've been at it for hours trying to find a solution.

I am now seeing the ports open, but experiencing issues using the airdns.org links. example.airdns.org:port isn't working for either, where using the actual assigned IP is working. Is there a known issue?

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

3 hours ago, loulz said:

Is there a known issue?

Nope. Make sure you use the same key pair you forwarded the port for. If it's set to All Devices, make sure you're not opening another session as this will update the DDNS address to the new session.
If you want stable reachability, create a new key pair for the server exclusively, regenerate the configs using that key pair (or relog in Eddie and select the new key pair), then forward that port for the new key pair only, then connect and try again.