Ethernet Communicator Non-Supporting of Port Forwarding?

Question

The security contractor has installed a node on the network for the burglary alarm system. It uses IP to communicate the alarm signals. It has some kind of call home feature and supports DHCP as they do not program the unit at all, they just program it in the manufacturer's portal.

So this unit stopped working and they came to troubleshoot it. The tech support from the manufacturer said port 80 and 443 needed to be open. We asked a few questions such as, you mean port forwarded and can it be different ports?

Tech support claimed that the unit did not support port forwarding to it and that both those port needed to be open and could not be changed...

My question is, how can this actually be? Who is crazy enough to request 2 ports to be wide open...

Answer 1

My question is, how can this actually be?

Because they designed it at such.

Who is crazy enough to request 2 ports to be wide open...

Apparently this vendor is.

Seriously, though, this is something you need to work through with the vendor. They should have provided you a requirements list before purchasing the product, which would have included this information. Sort out their requirements. If they truly do need inbound access to these ports, then you're going to need to figure out a way to provide that if you want to use the software.

There are plenty of ways you can accomplish what they need without creating undue risk to your network. Whether or not you're going to be able to do that, though, depends on your skill and what network equipment you have available.