ive tried many searches and possible fixes but i cannot figure out what is keeping my ports closed.

for the sake of testing i tried opening the same ports on my router to my windows machine and the server will run and appear properly on the net. yet for some reason when using the server with ubuntu - xubuntu-core the ports always come back closed.

ive tried disabling ufw, and even adding the ports to it anyway. same result - nothing.

the router set up - https://i.imgur.com/kdFFaNE.jpg
the server being reserved to 105 on the dhcp
i even tried to dmz the server - nothing

oh and yes i can connect to the server on a local computer from within the lan.

Can your Ubuntu instance reach the internet? Or to ask the question another way, is the Default Route set the same for your Windows and Ubuntu so the networking supports the traffic?

Have you a firewall running in Ubuntu? Could it be blocking non-local traffic?

it can reach the internet in the sense that i was able to download xbuntu and the steam server files.

not sure what you mean by default route.

ive downloaded gufw and tried turning it on and off but seems to net the same results.

how can i tell if i am blocking outside traffic?

not sure if it made a difference but the server is actually running ubuntu-server

If you can successfully ping www.google.com (as one example) then your routing is correct and allowing packets to be delivered both in and out between your server and servers in the cloud. That is important, because if the route is wrong then local traffic should work, but outside of your local network will not.

Since your networking during the install may be different from your current settings, it pays to ask (and check).

i did a ping (didn't realize it doesn't stop)
146 transmitted 146 recieved no packet loss

if it works locally, but not from the outside, your ISP probably prevents this.
it's rather common (they don't want you to run a server from a cheapo home connection).

Very good. Then the basic networking should be in place. Now, how are you addressing the connection from the outside?
You must use the outside address, not the inside address, and you may be unable to use a name for the connection unless there is a a DNS or DynDNS style entry for your external address.

Internal (LAN) addresses are private and non-routable so they are not directly usable from outside your LAN.

can confirm that it is not blocked by isp since trying this whole process with another machine (windows) works flawlessly

i thought port forwarding was the solution. simply because again when i used an old windows machine that's all i had to do and it worked. is this an issue specific to linux? im not saying that im unwilling to try this and my router does have a static routing option, i just don't know how to set it up.

Are you using the same addressing and forwarding when the game is hosted on Windows, as when it is hosted on Linux?

I know of nothing that would make one work differently than the other for this purpose. I have used both as hosts, just not for network games. (Web servers, music hosts, just not games) I suspect there is something in the configuration.

On the linux server, check the output of [code]netstat[and confirm the address and port the game is using to listen for connections. I am looking for 0.0.0.0 or 192.168.1.105 for the listening address. This SHOULD be good, or it would not work from inside the LAN, but I want to make sure.

I would also like you to verify that the address 192.168.1.105 is the correct address for the interface you are using. I suspect it is correct, but since I cannot see for myself...

Can your network device log traffic? I would like very much to see what the log looks like when a connection attempt is made from outside the network for one of the failed attempts.

Have you disabled SELINUX protections? We have no direct evidence that it is involved, but I would try turning it off to find out.

Somewhere packets are being directed improperly, dropped, or ignored. The most reasonable place to suspect is the Linux server itself, simply because when you used a Windows game server it worked and the one thing you changed (and the ONLY thing you should have changed) would be the operating system.

ok for the hell of it i attempted to boot up the server on my old windows machine that has had it running before, and it seems as tho this is also not showing up outside of the network. so there may actually be a problem somewhere else that i am not seeing.

and if i manage to figure it out it might also solve the linux problem along with it.

ive been testing my forwards with a tool called port listener and when using it i get open ports back when using yougetsignal.com but it only seems able to pick up on tcp i have no idea how to check on udp but im looking more into it

so as I understand at this stage: your web browser works on ubuntu and Windows 10, but the game hosting application does not

could be your ISP blocking ports but ...

what ports? we cannot say whether the ports are special (blocked inbound or outbound by your provider) if you did not say which they are. some providers are more vigilant than others and extort you to "re-enable" the ports they disabled. (it's called extortion)

note I assume this is NOT an issue since your testing with Window 10 (get that working first). you said you disabled firewall on ubuntu (easier done on Windows 10 btw): however you maybe can't have "no firewall". you might have to use a few rules that ALLOW the (3 kinds) going IN, FORWARD, and OUT. (your firewall program should have a way to list current kernel rules, and yes, a firewall program leaves rules inside the kernel so it doesn't need to be running to be blocking)