Reef Angel Forum

I recently moved and during the process, Comcast recommended an upgrade to a much "better" router. (I inquired about range and connectivity which is what led to the upgrade conversation) The new router is a dual band Cisco model dpc3941t, router/modem all-in-one. After installing it, running the wizard to connect, reserving my RA's IP, and opening port 2000, it connects, gets online, is updating to the portal, and can be accessed from within the network, but I cannot access it externally.
My initial assumption was that it is a port forwarding issue so I first went to http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ and verified the port is open. When that didn't work, I called Comcast and they suggested that it might be an encryption issue. I changed between the available security modes. that didn't work, so I opened the network entirely (no encryption, no firewall). I still cannot connect externally.
At this point, Comcast has offered to return me to the previous model router, citing that it had encryption options that this one does not and perhaps that is the issue but I am not satisfied with that option for a couple of reasons. First, this is a better router and switching back solves my RA issues, but unsolves the other issues that prompted the upgrade to begin with. Second, if encryption was the issue, I think that would have been solved when I opened the network.
I am completely baffled. I admittedly am quite a novice when it comes to networking. Would someone with more experience please weigh in here and help me get this solved?

When you were trying to connect to your wifi attachment with the new router, were you trying to do it from inside your own network or from an totally external network like your work or neighbor?

Ha! That is the problem... I was on the network. I use http://freedns.afraid.org/ and everything points to my DNS which I forward to my IP. With my old network/router configuration, It didn't matter whether I was on my network or a public network. On this new network/router configuration, it appears to only be accessible from outside the network. Is there a workaround for this? I am asking specifically for app functionality. I don't want to have to toggle between home and away in order to have both constant updates, and immediate access whether I am home or away.

Not really.
It's a problem with most cisco routers
I have this problem on both my house and at work

It's called NAT loopback. If you can make Comcast configure the router to enable NAT loopback, you may be able to make it work. I was never able to get it to work.