Lost in Port Forwarding! (read every guide i could find)

[dredge000]

Okay, so im on bittorrent and all my links are yellow... it and every other p2p ive tried is going very slow. Somehow i managed to find out that my problem probably has to do with port forwarding... but, im a noob, and after thrashing through all the firewall/router setup guides i could find, i still havent found a solution. If anyone could help I would very much appreciate it.
Here is my situation: I am running windows XP. I have the microsoft firewall turned off. According to ICSconfig, I am not using microsoft internet connection sharing (whatever that is...). I am running Zone Alarm Pro 4.0. I am connected to the internet by verison dsl. I am connected to a couple other computers in my house through a D-Link router. I am able to download and upload files through kazaa lite and ABC (bittorrent client), but they are going very slowly, and in ABC all my links are yellow.
Okay... whew I have no idea if i have a dynamic or static ip, i followed a guide as if i had a static ip and it didnt work, a buddy told me i probably dont have a static ip (i just have a basic dsl package from verison).

Sorry for the lengthy post, but ive kindof hit the brick wall on this.. i just dont know enough... and yes, I have read the guides, but either i'm too noob to understand, or they dont apply to my setup (dynamic ip or something like that)

any help would be enourmously appreciated,
thanks
Drew

[alliercollins]

You want a static ip off the router, so that you can set it up to port forward to only that IP. An example for my network is I use the ip 192.168.123.1xx for one computer, then set up port forwards to run to that specific address. You should be able to set up a static ip for your computer in the router config.

http://www.portforward.com/ Here, see if this helps also.

[dredge000]

yeah i tried the portforward tutorials, i couldnt get it to work. I ran into problems with the first step, setting up a static ip. Here are the differences between mp ipconfig screen and the example: It identifies my "node type" as hybrid, in the example the node type is unknown. It says i have Dhcp enabled. It only gives me one DNS server (the example has two). It also gives me a DHCP server number that the example doesnt have. It also has "lease obtained" and "lease expires" lines that are not shown in the example. The one DNS server it identifies is the same as the "default gateway" and is much more similar to my ip, than that of the example.

now... the tough part is... i have absolutely no idea what any of this means... Do i need to disable dhcp? if so, how do i do this? what does all this lease stuff mean? can i just set a static ip, isnt my provider going to change my ip at some point (since as far as i can tell as a neophyte, i have a dynamic ip)?

yeah... i know, im a lost cause... but if anyone is up to it...

[alliercollins]

Could you take a screenshot of your router's screen for setting up a static ip address please. I would like to see which options they require.

Lease is how long an ip address is given to a computer. Like if your lease is 7 days, then you have that ip address for that long.

Once again, the static ip is not from your provider. You get an ip address from your provider, then your router assigns ips to your ports. say for example 192.xxx.xxx.100 is one computer and 192.xxx.xxx.101 is another computer. You want to assign one of these to each computer, so that the port forwards will work. When you tell it to port forward you have to tell it which ip to port forward to. It would be like port forward for 192.xxx.xxx.100, then you wouldn't want that ip to go to your other computer, so you set it up so that computer will always have the ip 192.xxx.xxx.100 so the second computer can't steal it and your port forwardings for that ip. Each port forward can only work for one computer. Say you port forward port 1234 to 192.xxx.xxx.100, that port will only work on 192.xxx.xxx.100 and not 192.xxx.xxx.101.

[dredge000]

This is what it looks like:

Virtual Server
Virtual Server is used to allow Internet users access to LAN services.
Enabled Disabled
Name
Private IP
Protocol Type TCP UDP Both
Private Port
Public Port


Schedule Always
From time 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 : 00 05 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 AM PM to 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 : 00 05 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 AM PM
day Sun Mon Tue Wed Thr Fri Sat to Sun Mon Tue Wed Thr Fri Sat

Virtual Servers List

Name Private IP Protocol Schedule
Virtual Server FTP 0.0.0.0 TCP 21/21 always
Virtual Server HTTP 0.0.0.0 TCP 80/80 always
Virtual Server HTTPS 0.0.0.0 TCP 443/443 always
Virtual Server DNS 0.0.0.0 UDP 53/53 always
Virtual Server SMTP 0.0.0.0 TCP 25/25 always
Virtual Server POP3 0.0.0.0 TCP 110/110 always
Virtual Server Telnet 0.0.0.0 TCP 23/23 always
IPSec 0.0.0.0 UDP 500/500 always
PPTP 0.0.0.0 TCP 1723/1723 always
NetMeeting 0.0.0.0 TCP 1720/1720 always
DCS-1000 0.0.0.0 TCP 80/80 always
DCS-2000 0.0.0.0 TCP 80/80 always
DVC-1000 0.0.0.0 TCP 1720/1720 always


Also, i should note that when i tried this with the portforward guide, i hit the snag when i tried to enter the ip that i had set as a static ip into the "private ip" box on this screen

[kuajmc]

zone alarm is a firewall

[dredge000]

yeah, i know zone alarm is a firewall, does that mean i should be doing something different? i know you have to configure it, but shouldnt i do that after ive figured out this static ip/router stuff?

[alliercollins]

What you just showed me is your virtual server page (Where you port forward, not assign a static ip), we need to focus on your static ip page. I use a USR router and it's under the category routing for me and it's called Static.

[dredge000]

Hm... i think im getting warmer. This tab is called dhcp:

DHCP Server
The DI-614+ can be setup as a DHCP Server to distribute IP addresses to the LAN network.
DHCP Server Enabled Disabled
Starting IP Address 192 . 168 . 0 .
Ending IP Address 192 . 168 . 0 .
Lease Time 1 Hour 2 Hours 3 Hours 1 Day 2 Days 3 Days 1 Week

Static DHCP
Static DHCP is used to allow DHCP server to assign same IP address to specific MAC address.
Enabled Disabled
Name
IP 192 . 168 . 0 .
MAC Address - - - - -
DHCP Client JUDAS,00-07-E9-AA-62-B5 JOE,00-0D-87-00-04-13 Jesus,00-02-B3-90-1A-05


Static DHCP Client List
Host Name IP Address MAC Address
Dynamic DHCP Client List
Host Name IP Address MAC Address Expired Time
JUDAS 192.168.0.101 00-07-E9-AA-62-B5 Jun/28/2004 12:15:50
JOE 192.168.0.103 00-0D-87-00-04-13 Jun/26/2004 15:01:59
Jesus 192.168.0.100 00-02-B3-90-1A-05 Jun/28/2004 14:50:40



Should i enable "Static DHCP"? if i do that i should keep "DHCP server" enabled right?

[alliercollins]

I would turn off DHCP and assign an ip address to each computer that you have. You can get the mac address through command prompt if you are using windows xp. Open up your start menu, go to run. Then type cmd and hit enter. This will bring up the command prompt. In it type ipconfig /all and your physical address is the mac address of your computer's ethernet card. It is possible to find this in your routers logs or even current status page, but that way is the best and is quite easy.

Anyway assign a static ip address to your computer (you should have a range that you can use, mine is like 192.168.123.100 - 192.168.123.xxx and one to each computer on your network. Then use that new ip address for port forwarding. It will only forward to that one computer and the ip won't be lost on it.

Anyway that probably wasn't all that helpful compared to what other people can say or do, but I'm beat right now and I'm going to bed. Goodnight and good luck. Hopefully someone smarter than me wakes up and can help you.

[dredge000]

thanks alot for the help, ill try it out, im off soon too.

[nukehella]

Is your modem a Westell 2200?

[Ken17625]

http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=1347

[hawkburn]

http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=1347
That should solve the problem. And don't worry about ZoneAlarm screwing you. If you just tell it "Yes, this program may access the Internet" then it'll be find after you port-forward through your router.

[dredge000]

thanks for the link ken. I did all that... now am i set? or do i also need to follow the instructions I found that deal with the "virtual server" page? Also, on the home-->dhcp tab, I previously disabled the "DHCP server" and then enabled the "Static DHCP" should i stick with this configuration? Also, do i need to do anything in windows to enable my static ip (i saw a tutorial on this somewhere)?

thanks
drew

[dredge000]

oh.. and nukehella, my modem is a westell, im not sure which version, it also says "wirespeed" on the front