cvisionz wrote:Well... I did finally fix my problem, but it wasn't necessarily what I had envisioned.
After smashing my head against the wall, I did end up getting a replacement router from Verizon-- which the port forwarding still didn't work... but prompted me to solve it in a different way. It should be noted, there are two distinctly different customer service experiences:
1) BAD: The second I said the words "router" and "port fowarding not working", the lady said they don't support that sort of thing as it is beyond the scope of their support. figures....
2) GOOD: When I told them I did know what I was talking about and it must be the router, the lady gladly said they would replace it, no questions asked. I told her to just ship me a new one, which I recieved next day. Nice!
Note: Verizon Support says they only have the newer Actiontec MI424WR (http://tiny.cc/vd79zw) in stock anymore, so if you were trying to get a different model to avoid this problem good luck.
After getting excited and ripping out the old router and putting in the replacement-- port forwarding still didn't work. But, at least the DMZ portion of the router was working this time...
THE FIX: Plugged in a third-party router and placed it in the DMZ of the FiOS Actiontec router. Disabled wireless on FiOS router. Configured all internal network clients to use third party router for all services. Left only the TV STB's to use the FiOS router. Setup port forwarding on MY router, and viola-- magically everything works (to include external sites showing ports were open). A little more info can be found reading "Secondary DMZ" at the following blog: "http://tiny.cc/ie79zw".
In a nutshell, create your own stand-alone network and use the FiOS router as an Internet Gateway. Double NAT? Yes. Does it work anyway? Yes. :-)
Conclusion: The first router was bad-- if for anything I couldn't get the DMZ to work properly. More importantly, no matter what anyone tells you, port forwarding does NOT work on all Verizon-branded Actiontec MI424WR routers. Either Verizon is changing something with it's propriatary firmware that replaces stock Actiontec firmware, or I just happened to have recieved (2) defective routers in a row. Regardless, I hope someone with the same problem now or in the future finds this post and saves themselves some headaches.
Should have asked for a Westell 9100em. Even though it's a piece of c... port forwarding works fine without the need for use of DMZ