[UsaSatsui]

I'm having trouble getting some ports open. I'm not sure if this is the right forum for asking, but it's the best match.

The issue is, I'm almost positive I did it right. When we were at our old place, it worked perfectly. Now, we're in a new apartment, and I have a new computer but the same router. The ports show as open on the router, and they're open in the firewall, but nothing can connect through them.

I'm using Windows XP. The router is a Westell model 6100G. I'm using the Windows firewall program. I'm not sure what other info is needed.

Thanks.

[Soundy]

What ports are you trying to use? Some ISPs will block ports 80 and 25, and possibly others as well.

[UsaSatsui]

Originally Posted by Soundy

What ports are you trying to use? Some ISPs will block ports 80 and 25, and possibly others as well.

Higher numbers than that. 10000 (TCP) and 5973 (UDP) are the ones that leap to mind. There's one more I can't remember but it isn't 80 or 25. Also, at my old apartment (same ISP), the ports were open.

[lunarlander]

Did you remember to go to Windows Firewall and add Exception ports?

[UsaSatsui]

Originally Posted by lunarlander

Did you remember to go to Windows Firewall and add Exception ports?

Yes, the ports are also listed as exceptions in Windows Firewall.

[lunarlander]

Have you given your PC a static ip address and does the router port forward refer to that ip ?

[UsaSatsui]

Originally Posted by lunarlander

Have you given your PC a static ip address and does the router port forward refer to that ip ?

Um...I don't know.

[lunarlander]

To do Port Forwarding, you must use a static ip address for your PC. Go to Network > Properties > Local Area Connection > Properties > TCPIP > Properties button. Then manually assign yourself an ip address. DHCP auto assgined ip addresses will change from time to time. And the Port Forwarding rule on the router only knows to forward traffic to one fixed ip address.

[Soundy]

If your router handles DHCP *properly*, the LAN IPs should rarely change on their own. The ONLY time a device should get a different IP is if it's offline/disconnected longer than the defined lease period.

If you're hard-coding a static IP into the computer, you want to make sure it's something outside the DHCP pool range, lest the router later assign the same IP to something else. Hopefully your router then also allows port-forwarding to IPs outside the pool (most do, but a couple I've come across don't).

The ideal solution is a router that supports reserving IPs from its DHCP pool; you then simply tell it that a certain computer/device should ALWAYS get the designated IP.

[UsaSatsui]

I'm sorry, but now I've been confused completely. I don't see any "Network > Properties > TCPIP > Properties" buttons anywhere, either on my PC or in the router. Sorry, I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing here.

I found the DHCP pool option in the router. Apparently my lease time is 1 day.

Mucking around in the router, I also found a "DMZ Host" option, which says "Please select which LAN device will share your Public IP Address." ...it's disabled. I also found a "Static NAT", which says "Set up an IP address to be your default NAT destination." and gives me the option of selecting a device or entering an ISP. I didn't touch anything yet for fear of screwing it up.

I should probably also point out I'm the only one on this network. It's a wired one.

[Soundy]

Don't worry about the static IP; if anything, increase the lease time, and be done with it. You could try putting your machine's IP in the "DMZ Host", that will tell whether the problem is with port forwarding, or elsewhere.

[UsaSatsui]

Originally Posted by Soundy

Don't worry about the static IP; if anything, increase the lease time, and be done with it. You could try putting your machine's IP in the "DMZ Host", that will tell whether the problem is with port forwarding, or elsewhere.

I will try this...how do I find my machine's IP?

[Soundy]

Click Start, then Run. Type in 'cmd' and hit Enter - this should give you a Command Prompt box. In that, type 'ipconfig' and hit Enter. You'll see something like this:

C:\Documents and Settings\Soundy>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration


Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : vf.shawcable.net
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.195
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1