Nintendo Switch complains I have "NAT Type D" and Splatoon 2 multiplayer fails

[cjw]

My son cannot get Splatoon 2 to connect to other players. It needs these ports, so I turned them on in UPnP but they don’t seem to work:
https://portforward.com/splatoon-2/

Nintendo info…
http://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/22541/~/unable-to-connect-with-others-online-%28errors-during-match-making-process%29

I don’t see a way to turn on a DMZ or a range of port forwarding in pcwrt.

I reviewed several posts like this one, but it’s not clear to me how they would apply to pcwrt.
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=126746.0

Is there a way to set up “static port outbound NAT” on the pcwrt? In that pfsense forum thread, the end of the first post says, “My son is using the Splatoon pre-release global test fire and the online multiplayer is working fine, still only using static port outbound NAT. No UPnP.”

Also: https://www.reddit.com/r/splatoon/comments/6rtgmg/nat_types_and_connection_problems_explained/dqd4frk/

So how do I configure pcwrt to get static port outbound NAT?

• This topic was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by cjw.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by cjw.

[support]

You may try setting up port forwarding as required by your first link (disable UPnP, they don’t mix).

On the Network Settings page, click the Add button in the Port Forwards section to add a port forwarding rule. You can enter a port range in the “External Port” and “Internal Port” fields. For example: 1-65535.

[cjw]

Port ranges don’t work. I enter the values as follows, and see an Invalid Port error message:

External Port
[ 1-65535 ]
Invalid port

Internal Port
[ 1-65535 ]
Invalid port

[cjw]

After upgrading the firmware, I was able to enter port ranges. So I set it up to map all external ports to all internal ports on the Switch’s IP address.

HOWEVER, it still doesn’t work. The Switch complains that NAT Type is “D” and it can’t get anything through.

[cjw]

I checked for “double NAT” but confirmed that my wireless router’s public IP matches what I see at whatismyip.com – so I don’t think there is any other NAT happening at the cable modem or ISP.

[cjw]

I ran some more tests:
– When I disable Parental Control, the Nintendo Switch goes to NAT Type B (the second best rating)
– if I also set up a DMZ (in Port Forwarding, send all external UDP ports to switch’s IP address) then I get NAT Type A (the best rating)
– as soon as I enable Parental Control, I get NAT Type D (multiplayer doesn’t work at all) regardless how the above is configured.

None of the settings in the uPnP section make any difference. (I can disable or enable the whole uPnP section and it doesn’t change anything.)

So does Parental Control block something that would affect Nintendo NAT? Because I kind of want the Switch (mainly a kids device) to have basic parental controls included on it.

[support]

Thanks for the additional info. Did you check the block VPN or Literal IP addresses boxes in parental control?

[cjw]

No, I did not check the boxes to block vpn or literal. I also tried a profile without any timed calendars. Basically no boxes checked except parental control itself…

[support]

@cjw Can you look at the Internet logs to see if anything is blocked? Click the View Logs link on the parental control page. Then switch to the raw view. If any outbound traffic is blocked, it will be displayed there with the reason why.

[cjw]

I looked at the logs. I see the “nintendo-switch” in the little filter tree thingie. In the Visited section, it has 140 hits (mostly nintendo.net and nintendo.com but a few raw IP addresses). In the Blocked section, it shows nothing for nintendo-switch.

[support]

@cjw Thanks for the additional info. We’re looking into this.

[support]

We are putting in an update to improve compatibility between parental control and UDP port forwarding. This is being tested currently.

[thepaintedtiger]

We are also having difficulty getting our Wii U to connect through Super Smash Bros. We did add the port forwarding. We do not have any NAT code error messages, it just does not connect. The Wii U has Error code 118-0516

I have it on its own profile, Parental Control enabled, Safe Search, and moderate YouTube. No calendar. The logging is not showing that anything is blocked, despite many times trying to connect while I adjusted settings. I did look at our OpenDNS account, and we tried it while allowing file sharing and another time allowing Proxy. We also tried changing the DNS Server to Google. No luck.

I’m happy to provide logging of what it does go to if that would be helpful.

Ok, I reread what the OP tried, and I turned the Parental Control off the Wii U profile, and it does connect fine. But yeah, I need parental control on it. Thanks for looking into this, I’ll manually turn it on and off Parental Control until you figure out a fix.

[thepaintedtiger]

Has there been any update on this? My kiddos haven’t played much Smash Bros, but when they do I have to turn off Access Control to the Wii-U. My daughter has also started playing some multiplayer games she’s downloaded from Steam on her laptop, and she cannot log into these unless I turn off Access Control. Now, she is fairly trustworthy (and an adult); however her brother will be wanting this too, so I would like for him to be able to play some games, but still have the Access and Parental Controls on.

[cjw]

My update is I switched to the netgear orbivo. I use the free built in Circle for parental control. It doesn’t let me set time limits (that costs $5/mo) so my wife and I just flip the on/off switch manually to save yet-another random monthly fee.

[Author]

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