Bdtyktl

This is a fairly narrow issue, but I'm hoping the Ubuntu group can help. I asked on SO, but I am fairly sure the error I am getting is due to a missing setting in Ubuntu or an issue with my router port. I don't know how to debug this.

I installed Mosquitto on my Ubuntu 18.04 system. It operates on port 1883 by default. You can specify the exact port either on the command line or in the config file. I've tried many variations:

I opened port 1883 in the firewall via the ufw. That seems correct:

mark_admin:~$ sudo ufw status

Status: active    

To                         Action      From

--                         ------      ----

1883                       ALLOW       Anywhere                  

5900                       ALLOW       Anywhere                  

1883 (v6)                  ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)             

5900 (v6)                  ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)             

I am able to connect to it from another computer on the local network. But when I try to open a connection from the "outside world" using the computer's actual IP address, I get a "No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it" Error.

EDIT: Solved. I was port forwarding on the wrong router.

I am assuming that your server has internet access.

If you can get to the port on the local network, then the problem is definitely with the port forwarding.

First, does your server machine have a static IP address inside the network? If not, I highly recommend getting that fixed first. The reason for this is that when you set up a port forward, it will want to know what internal (192.168.0.x range) address to forward to. But if your server is Dynamic (using DHCP) then it will occasionally move, and every time it does, it will break the port forwarding.

Second, looking at your screenshot of the port forwarding settings, it mostly looks good, EXCEPT, it has 192.168.0.144, which is different than the 192.168.0.155 listed in the comments on the question. Make sure you fix that.

Third, where are you testing connecting with the outside address (96.221.154.134)? If it is from behind the same router, unless your router supports "hairpin NAT" (which most consumer routers don't) then it will not work. But it will work for everyone else "out on the internet" (IE, people not behind the same router). So it could be all working, and just how you are testing it could be broken. Obviously, if you are behind the same router, you should just use the internal address instead of the public address (if possible, IE, you aren't using DNS names that answer with the same address regardless of what router you are behind).

Fourth, if you have multiple routers, with multiple layers of NAT, the whole "set a static internal IP & forward a port to that" applies to each router. So if you have two routers, A & B, with B behind A and A connected to your ISP, you need to set router B to have a static IP address on it's WAN/upstream connection (which is router A's "LAN" network). Then on router A, you need to set up port forwarding to router B's address. Then you repeat the process for router B: set a static IP address on the server, and then on router B, forward the port to the server's static IP.

PS: Isn't NAT & port forwarding fun? (that was sarcasm). You might ask your ISP if they have IPv6 available which is the long term solution to not having to deal with port forwarding or NAT. Most ISPs have been pretty slow to implement IPv6; mostly because few customers understand enough to know it would make this all easier (once we get everyone on IPv6).

I'm posting this as an answer so I can give more detail in case anyone stumbles upon this in the future.

Setting up the MOSQUITTO MQTT Server in Ubuntu 18.04 is actually not hard, but the steps are important.

Step 1: Install Mosquitto Software

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mosquitto-dev/mosquitto-ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mosquitto

Step 2: Open Port 1883 and start firewall

sudo ufw allow 1883 

sudo ufw enable

Step 3: Verify Mosquitto is not already running

pgrep mosquitto

[Note, if any number shows, that is the PID of an already running Mosquitto. You can just kill it. Also, you can try: sudo service mosquitto stop]

Step 4: Start Mosquitto with verbose option

mosquitto -v

[Note: This starts Mosquitto without using any config file. It echos connection and status information to the screen. Easiest for quick debugging.]

Step 5: Check connectivity using local host

Go to your client machine (in my case a Windows 10 laptop) and run the MQTT client, connecting to the local address of the Linux Mosquitto server (in my case 192.168.0.144). You should be able to connect. In fact, you can do this step before you even open the firewall, since this is all on the local network, the firewall rules are irrelevant at this point. Until next step which is...

Step 6: Check Connectivity using web tool

use either: www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ or
https://canyouseeme.org/

[NOTE: You will not get an OPEN state UNLESS THE MOSQUITTO BROKER IS RUNNING]

Step 7: If Port Shows Closed When coming In from Internet (ie not localhost)

Here's where I got tripped up. In my case, I have a Verizon Modem that ALSO has a firewall (because it has a router). I have my own wireless router, a tp-link Archer C1200, that I have plugged into the Fios Modem/Router. I started by putting the port forwarding in the tp-link. But that firewall comes after the Fios firewall so I needed to go to the first wall and do the port forward there.

And this is the second thing that is tricky. All of the online how-to's said I should forward port 1883 to the local IP address of my Linux Server, which in my case was 192.168.0.144. But that was not correct in my case. The Archer C1200 was actually the device that I needed to forward to -- it handled the correct distribution from there. It had an address of 192.168.0.152 assigned to it from the Verizon router. I still have both forwardings in place (ie the Fios and the tp-link) and my guess is that I need them both.

Now all pathways are open, you can follow the other Mosquitto instructions regarding logging, config files, Daemons, etc.

Hope this saves someone some time down the road!