Topic: Port forwarding help

[Todd R]

Ok, it looks like the answer to my bt seeding problem is that I am in fact firewalled and cannot seed to other firewalled users.

So, I guess what I need help on is port forwarding.  Info on bt.etree and elsewhere has been useless.

Anyone who uses the Allied Technologies CopperJet 810 who can explain to me how to do this port forwarding business so I can open up ports 6881-6889?  I've played around for hours and am getting nowhere.

Truthfully, I don't even think I have the firewall feature enabled on the 810 router.  Is the problem not with my own firewall but perhaps a firewall created by my ISP?  Nice to finally have high-speed DSL, but my ISP is speedtrail, a garage operation of two people, neither of whom seem to have a clue what port forwarding is when I call their support line.  They do offer static IPs (for gamers according to their marketing) for an additional fee, is this what I need to move to?

Sorry, I'm pretty useless on this stuff, any help appreciated.

-Todd

[Tim]

 

[Brian Skalinder]

Todd - sorry I can't help specifically with your router as I don't have one, but, it's basically as simple as:

[1] Change your router and client machines to use static IP addresses in your home network (default on most routers is DHCP) - this involves defining the static IPs on your router as well as on the client machines.  Pretty easy to do, I just can't tell you how on your router as it varies slightly from device to device.

[2] Follow the router documentation for port forwarding.  Once you find the right place in the router interface to do this (some menu option, basically), it's as simple as specifying starting port range #, ending port range #, and the IP address to which the ports should be forwarded.

Your router's paper or online documentation should be able to help you do both of the above fairly easily.  If you need help with Windows, I'm sure someone here can assist as it's not device dependent like your router.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Oh, yeah, no need to switch to a static IP with your ISP, that's a separate issue and not a problem in this case.

[Sean Gallemore]

what are called firewalls on routers are really IP readdressers.  Your computer talks with your router with one IP, and then on another IP your router talks with the outside world.  Bit Torrent needs to know where to send the info once it hits your router, that's what all this port forwarding talk is all about.

about the port numbers......it doesn't really matter what ports you forward, as long as they correspond with the ports that your BT client is utilizing.  The newest shadow client has ports 6881-6899 set as default, so naturally people say to forward these ports.  But why limit yourself to only having 20 torrents open at the same time?

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~hamilton/btclientconfig.html

read this page, it talks about all of the above, and even gives advice on how to defeat your router

[Todd R]

Tim:  Bugger off!    Maybe I should do like you and have Phil Lucks come over and set things up.    Of course, I tried getting JBK to configure it for me, but apparently he's no Phil.  

Brian:  Thanks for the thoughts.  When I get some more steam, I'll try looking into that.  One concern:  if I don't have a static IP, but configure my router with my currently assigned IP as if it were static, won't I run into problems the next time my ISP reboots me and assigns me a new IP?

Scwhilly:  Thanks for your inputs, but contrary to Tim's post, I do understand the basics.  I've already gone through the info on the link you've posted, and basically it's been useless.  The trouble is my CopperJet 810 router is nothing like those that are described in the help info I've found.

The documentation for the 810 is pretty pathetic, but after going through all my configuration settings, there is nothing like port forwarding, or opening particular ports for specific programs (as in, opening ports 6881-6889 for BitTorrent).  The closest thing I've found is something called "firewall triggers", which I've tried using to no avail.

Anyway, thanks for the help.  Any additional help is appreciated.  I think the best thing, short of someone knowing exactly what to do with my specific router, would be to get more input on what else my documentation might be calling the feature I need.  After going through everything, there is nothing that allows opening specific ports for particular programs, nor is there anything labelled as port forwarding.  What other names might the feature I'm looking for go by?  As I've said, I've used the "firewall triggers" to try to do it, but it didn't work.  Also tried "NAT advanced mapping", which didn't work, and it is only for a particular port, not a range of ports.  

-Todd

[Brian Skalinder]

One concern:  if I don't have a static IP, but configure my router with my currently assigned IP as if it were static, won't I run into problems the next time my ISP reboots me and assigns me a new IP?

I didn't explain myself very well, lemme try again.  There are actually three different IPs in use in your situation:

[1] the external, internet IP address assigned to you (actsually to your router) by your ISP
[2] your router's IP address as defined within your home network
[3] your local machine's IP address within your home network

Your ISP-assigned IP address [1] may change - and in this case it doesn't matter if it changes, we're going to ignore that one for the purposes of this discussion.

We're also going to ignore [2], as whatever the default IP address is for your router should be fine (the default is likely 192.168.0.1, in which case an easy naming convention for your other machines would be 192.168.0.2, .3, etc.).

The IP address with which we are concerned is [3], your local machine's IP address within the context of your home network.  This is the IP address referenced in my previous comments:

[1] Change your router and client machines to use static IP addresses in your home network (default on most routers is DHCP) - this involves defining the static IPs on your router as well as on the client machines.  Pretty easy to do, I just can't tell you how on your router as it varies slightly from device to device.

With respect to configuring your router for port forwarding:

[2] Follow the router documentation for port forwarding.  Once you find the right place in the router interface to do this (some menu option, basically), it's as simple as specifying starting port range #, ending port range #, and the IP address to which the ports should be forwarded.

This is independent of any software being used on your local machine.  All you're doing is telling the router "If a request comes into my router from the internet on port 6881, send it to my local machine with a home network IP address of X".  THEN, on  your local machine, you'll configure BT to use port 6881 (actually, it comes configured for ports 6881 - 6889 by default so you shouldn't have to change anything).

Todd, I think you're right - there's likely a terminology problem here.  I know on my NetGear 314 router assigning static IPs and port forwarding are called something different.

Port forwarding within the context of my RT314 router's configuration is called: SVA Server Setup.

I'm not able to find right now how my router's config refers to [a] turning off DHCP for my home network, or how to define static IP addresses for my home network.  When I get home I'll try to remember to post how they're referenced, maybe that'll help.

If all else fails, give the Allied support folks a call, even their tier 1 support reps should be able to walk you through where to find these options in the CJ configuration.

[Cooker]

nat advanced mapping is probably it, try doing just port 6881