Forward ports easily with Simple Port Forwarding

[shawshankraj]

Many people struggle with forwarding ports even though there are hundreds of guides and tutorials on the Internet. If you are using a router and don’t know how to forward ports, some programs that require port forwarding will fail to function properly. Common examples of such programs are P2P software like uTorrent or Limewire.

Simple Port Forwarding is a software that makes the job easy for you by automatically logging into your router and making the changes necessary to forward the ports you chose. The program supports over 1100 different routers at the time of this writing.

When you run the program it displays a checklist that lays down the steps you will need to perform to forward ports. The checklist itself as clickable buttons that opens the necessary dialog boxes for you to enter information, such as router login, etc.


http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachment.php?attachmentid=6120

The main interface of the program is small and clean. Giving options of seeing what is going to be forwarded to the router and how many entries and ports it will use in the process. You have the ability to save your list and send it to another user of the program. So instead of spending a lot of time trying to explain port forwarding to say, a family member, simply have them use the program with your saved list and update their router.


http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachment.php?attachmentid=6121

The program has a large database of known ports for over 670+ games and programs, so finding the port you need is made easier. If you are not sure which ports a particular program is using, just select the program from a drop down list and it will automatically add the ports. The program will also remember custom applications you put in, so you don't have to reenter them.

Apart from forwarding ports, Download Simple Port Forwarding | Simple Port Forwarding? (http://www.simpleportforwarding.com/download) comes loaded with many extra tools like tool to set your IP to static or back to DHCP, or adding exception to Windows firewall. Once you have your ports forwarded you can then test to see if they can be accessed right from with in the program using the built in port tester.


Source:Forward ports easily with Simple Port Forwarding - Instant Fundas (http://www.instantfundas.com/2010/04/forward-ports-easily-with-simple-port.html)

[saebrtooth]

Nice find.

There is also something else that might help people with people getting firewalled n there p2p or game etc

One simple thing and that is to enable the UPnP on your router

[anon]

One simple thing and that is to enable the UPnP on your router

It doesn't always work (sometimes ports are "unforwarded" by themselves) and not all programs support it. Manual port forwarding is "stronger" in this sense, although with UPnP you often have the advantage of being able to delete the mapping upon closing the program that needs it, enhancing security.

[Mihai]

Nice find.

There is also something else that might help people with people getting firewalled n there p2p or game etc

One simple thing and that is to enable the UPnP on your router

Always work for me.

[Renk]

I have a question regarding the utility of opening ports.

When e.g. with emule, I don't open port, I'm lowid. Which means (If I well understood) that I'm connectable, but only through outgoing connections. So I can share with HighID peers (who are allowing outgoing and ingoing connections), but obviously 2 lowID peers are not connectable. It's the "only" (but important) problem I see when being lowid (please correct me if I did a mistake at this point).

But maybe there is some advantage to be lowid: Suppose I'm usig a vpn (with shared IP), so that I share my external vpn IP (say a.b.c.d) with hundreds of other vpn users. The vpn provider gives me some ports, says 25965 ans 34236. I'm the only person on the web, connectable though IP a.b.c.d and ports 25965 & 34236. And my vpn account is linked to these ports. If I use emule with these ports, I'm obviously HighID, but on the other hand, anti P2P people can detect my vpn IP, the ports used, and then pressure my VPN provider to know what is the "real" (=ISP) IP behind the ip a.b.c.d with ports 25965 & 34236.

Under pressure, cease or desist, etc, the vpn provider could say "We can nothing for you, as we don't keep any log. But if whe did, the IP you are searching for would be u.v.w.x".

But what if I was using emule with ports others than those the vpn provider attributed to me, and linked to my vpn account ? What if I used ports 44444 and 55555 ? Wouldn't the association between (the shared IP + these ports) and (my vpn account and/or ISP IP) much harder to do ?

It would then be a much more secure configuration, but at the price of not being able to connect with others lowid peers on the network.


If so, what about feature such that Nattraversal, making LowID to LowID connections possible ?
Nattraversal - EMule Wiki (http://wiki.emule-web.de/index.php/Nattraversal)


For sure, the two lowid peers must have this feature implemented on their own client in order the nattraversal works. But if the two clients are supporting this feature (which seems to be the case with Bitcomet, uTorrent and Vuze), there would no longer be any connectivity problem, and on the other hand the added security (for vpn users) would remain.

Comparison of BitTorrent clients - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_BitTorrent_clients)

[transgressive]

Fails to work on my Fritzbox 7170. Now that would have been nifty. But I didn't expect to work. I guess it works better with Routers with a less complicated web interface.

[anon]

When e.g. with emule, I don't open port, I'm lowid. Which means (If I well understood) that I'm connectable, but only through outgoing connections. So I can share with HighID peers (who are allowing outgoing and ingoing connections), but obviously 2 lowID peers are not connectable. It's the "only" (but important) problem I see when being lowid (please correct me if I did a mistake at this point).

First of all, technically you aren't connectable at all when you are firewalled. You just can only connect to other non-firewalled peers, that's all. The definition of connectability is being directly reachable by other hosts on the Internet, which isn't possible when you're behind a router and haven't forwarded your ports (either manually or via UPnP/NAT-PMP).

Furthermore, having a low ID has other tangible consequences as well: it increases overhead and load for your connected server(s), due to the extra callbacks (google this if you want more info). Also, since you can't be notified by others when it's your turn in their queues, you have to spent extra time reasking. This increases your bandwidth cost even more.


But maybe there is some advantage to be lowid: Suppose I'm usig a vpn (with shared IP), so that I share my external vpn IP (say a.b.c.d) ...

...

But what if I was using emule with ports others than those the vpn provider attributed to me, and linked to my vpn account ? What if I used ports 44444 and 55555 ? Wouldn't the association between (the shared IP + these ports) and (my vpn account and/or ISP IP) much harder to do ?

It depends. One would think so, however they can still know who you are via the username/password combo or certificate you used to connect to the VPN. In your case, how does the provider identify you? Is it a public or private service?


It would then be a much more secure configuration, but at the price of not being able to connect with others lowid peers on the network.

Correct. By using ports other than the ones your VPN provider has forwarded to your real IP, you will get a low ID.


If so, what about feature such that Nattraversal, making LowID to LowID connections possible ?

That does alleviate (not solve, just "soften") connectability issues when two people are behind a router and haven't forwarded their ports, but I'm not sure how it'd work in your case. You're behind a router, then connect to the VPN and get another LAN IP whose two forwarded ports aren't being used, that LAN IP is then used to connect to the gateway of the virtual network, and only then is the Internet contacted. To make it simple:


Your PC --> Router --> Virtual LAN IP <--> Virtual gateway <--> The Internet <--> Other eMule users...

Double arrows indicate connectability, not flow of data. Your router can, in theory, contact your PC since you're both part of the "real" LAN, however I don't see how it would do so in practice (multicast maybe, but I'm assuming you're the only one behind the router), so I didn't use a double arrow. The Internet can contact the virtual gateway, but not your virtual LAN IP, so there are two "rocks" in the path, which makes me unsure of whether eMule's NAT traversal will do any good.


For sure, the two lowid peers must have this feature implemented on their own client in order the nattraversal works. But if the two clients are supporting this feature (which seems to be the case with Bitcomet, uTorrent and Vuze)

Does Vuze have this? :unsure:


there would no longer be any connectivity problem

I know this isn't what you're saying, but as I said before, NAT traversal isn't a 100% magical solution for connectability issues. You still need a non-firewalled peer acting as server to coordinate your transfers. More info here:
Session Traversal Utilities for NAT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STUN)

uTorrent uses PEX-acquired peers as STUN servers for its UDP hole punching feature, for example.