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Still can't get connected. Struggled with this a long time...


borat

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Originally posted this in the general area, then realized "troubleshooting" might be a better place for this.

I've used torrent for over a year, and actually attempted to research how to "get connected" for hours and hours on end with no luck. I've changed my router out, tried various settings with torrent with and without a router, and no matter what I try this never works.

Here's my current setup, as I have tried many different things.

Zyxel X-550 Router

SpeedStream 5100--SBC Yahoo DSL modem

Windows XP2 Professional

In my Windows Professional XP2 Network Control panel, I've set up a static IP using information gathered in the command window. Then, in the router's IP interface, I configured the "WAN" area to use PPPoE. I read DSL needs to be set up this way in order to work, as you have to send out your login and password. Static IP is of course available as an option in the router's WAN configuration area, but I understand I can't use that for the reason just mentioned. Also offered in the same WAN configuration area in the router menu are "DNS Settings"--I don't have any specific Primary/Secondary DNS server information entered in this area so this is dim and un-enabled.

In torrent I've selected a port between 46000 and 48000 and added uTorrent to my firewall exceptions. However, I have Windows firewall disabled, so I don't think adding that exception really has any effect. I do not have SPI enabled in the router. I do run Zone Alarm basic, although I've tried my configuration with and without a firewall and it doesn't seem to matter. Zone Alarm lets uTorrent through (a little popup came up initially asking if I wanted to accept or deny uTorrent--I accepted, and it was added to my program list). Now it uTorrent appears as "trusted" for Access and Service. There doesn't seem to be anything additional I can add in the way of port control beyond that.

My Zyxel router does not have a specific area devoted to port forwarding. It has an area for creating a "special application", and this seemed to be as close as I could find to setting this up. In this area I created a "special application rules" instance called "uTorrent", and set my Trigger Protocol/Ports AND my Input Protocol/Ports to both TCP and UDP, pointing it to my aforementioned port between 46000 and 48000. Unsure if that's the method for setting that up (the port forwarding website I found that offers router configurations didn't have a specific listing for mine), but that's what I've done so far.

I think that covers it, although maybe I've missed something. Can someone please suggest what else I might need to do to get this to work?

TIA...

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To reiterate:

"Disabling" most software firewalls just turns off most of the firewall rules it follows -- many of its proprietary DLLs are still co-opting and probably corrupting your networking traffic. Some "phone home" even when disabled.

Only a complete uninstall of them tends to undo their damage. Some may even require very good registry and unused DLL cleaners to remove the "cruft" they leave behind.

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Windows Firewall is harmless itself when disabled, as Windows behaves the way Windows behaves, regardless of whether it's own firewall is enabled or not. Anyway, there isn't really a firewall of choice around here, but there are some that work fine (according to other people's reports), like Look 'n' Stop or Kaspersky AntiHacker. Kerio and Jetico Personal Firewall also.

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We need to know if the firewall is doing the blocking first, so you're going to have to uninstall ZA and get back to us on that. If you don't disable Windows Firewall, make sure you have µTorrent create a rule in it (you'll find that in the Connection section of the Preferences).

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I totally uninstalled Zone Alarm and disabled Windows firewall, and yet I still have the same problem with the speed guide saying my port is not forwarded properly.

I guess I'm not that surprised because even when I didn't have a router, and went direct with a static IP to the modem and didn't have Zone Alarm I still got errors saying I wasn't connected.

If I need a registry cleaner on top of it to get things working, please let me know what program is recommended for this. I guess I suspect the problem is elsewhere though.

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You probably need to configure the PPPoE settings in your modem for it to work without the router, something I'm not all too familiar with. At this point, I doubt it was ZA, but probably your router or modem. Can you give a more precise model number for your modem?

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The modem is a SpeedStream 5100--SBC Yahoo DSL sent me this modem.

I don't mind buying another modem if that will solve the issue--but I'd have to be buying one I know others have had success with with Yahoo DSL.

The old router I had (which I ditched in part because I thought it might be the culprit in all this) was a Netgear WGT624. I also always detested the fact that they have their customer service based in India (as does Linksys)--most of the reason actually I went Zyxel this time around. That's neither here nor there right now I suppose.

But I never could get uTorrent connected with the Netgear WGT624 either. So the modem is the one consistent piece that's been through all these configurations and hardware changes over the past year I've tried to "get connected".

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OK--will check this out. The modem doesn't really have any additional ports or antenna for wireless use though--strange they call this a modem/router combo. There's no router capability by looking at it. And I'll still have to use the Zyxel behind it.

Will see what I can accomplish with this. At least it seems like, maybe, the problem has been identified.

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OK--when I login to the modem itself it has a totally different interface than is presented in the portforward documents. It has a proprietary SBC interface, presumably, with limited options.

I have no access to any port forward possibilities in the modem itself. The only setting of value is a PPP Location option which offers 3 options:

PPP is on the modem : (normal working mode when connected to a single computer--this was previously selected)

PPP is on the computer : It says: This mode is normally used if you need to run a PPPoE client on your PC. This mode can be used with a gateway or router which initiates a PPPoE session. To return to the DSL modem user interface you will need to directly connect your PC to the modem without any gateway or router between the modem and the PC.

For now, I selected this one.

The third option is Bridged Mode, where it says PPPoE is not used, and says that is the mode to use if you're NOT on a PPPoE network. Moreover, when I selected it, I got a warning: "When using PPP on a device other than the modem, your access to the modem becomes limited. To access the modem after this change you need to configure the IP address of your computer to be on the same network as the modem by using an IP address of the form 192.168.x.x and a network mask of 255.255.0.0." I'm not sure what all the stuff necessary to set this to bridged mode means--and I'm not sure it matters as by all indications I need PPPoE to connect to DSL. If I still need to select Bridged Mode, can someone please explain this description further? I didn't want to not be able to connect back to the modem if I had to.

In any case, switching from "PPP is on the modem" to "PPP is on the computer" did not help my connectability issue. I still am not connected, but the internet still works fine so apparently the PPPoE that's being sent through the router is working OK.

Any suggestions? Should I look into buying a different modem?

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You probably should be asking your ISP how to port-forward the (messed up) modem OR better yet put it into simple bridged mode, since they changed how it's set up. Lots of games require an unfirewalled connection to play multiplayer, so you shouldn't have to say what you're using it for.

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I'm going to reply to this because I also have that modem with SBC, and to my knowledge, it is not a router--just a modem. I checked it out when I started having the issues (posted in my own thread in Troubleshooting). My router isn't the same as Borat's, however, but my settings are identical on the modem--SBC limited interface, PPP on the computer. However, these settings have been on my system since I set it up, and uTorrent was working fine until...well, until I posted that I was having issues, out of the blue.

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This is SO frustrating!

I called SBC (onshore) tech support and was walked through putting the router into bridged mode. It was really no big deal--and now my router *is* in bridged mode. So now, if I understand correctly, the router should basically be bypassed as much as it possibly can.

Yet, still, after reconfiguring all my static IPs and with all firewalls (except Windows Firewall) uninstalled, and with SPI in the router off, when I run the "Test if port is forwarded properly" in the uTorrent Speed Guide it still gives me an error that my ports aren't forwarded properly.

Are other torrent programs easier ot configure in this regard or are they all the same? Really have no "next step" to try at this point. I'm still using PPPoE as my WAN mode (out of necessity I think) in my router (but using static IP in my network control panel). Does the PPPoE in the router need to be configured somehow to Static IP--or should this make no difference? I'm not even sure my internet connection would work without this set to PPPoE--I doubt it as my l/p seems to be needed with DSL. If I *enable* UPnP would that help, or hurt?

Is there any chance I still have my port forwarding somehow misconfigured? I still have them configured as described above in my "Special Applications Rules List".

I'm just not sure what to do. I'm very tempted to cancel Yahoo DSL and go to cable internet again, but with my router now bridged and the whole deal I can't help but feel like it MUST be something else. How does ANYONE get this to work? I've never put so much into fixing a computer issue--and so far--efforts have been fruitless.

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@borat:

Information I found with a Google search may help you: Connecting to SBC Yahoo DSL - bypassing the SBC Yahoo CD installation. This will allow you to connect your modem directly to your PC and use your PC to establish the PPPoE connection to your ISP. There should then be nothing blocking µTorrent's network connection if you have truly disabled your software firewall. This is how I am running a D-Link DSL-360T modem in Germany, in bridge mode without a router. The software firewall I run is Norton Internet Security 2006, which somehow works very well for me despite being constantly condemned in this forum.

UPnP can set port forwarding automatically if your router supports it.

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@decarillion: Taking your router out of the loop temporarily would be a troubleshooting step. If your µTorrent network connection works as it should with your modem bridged to your PC it will confirm that your router has µTorrent firewalled. If it does not that would indicate there is still a software firewall blocking the port on your PC.

I looked at your other thread. Maybe this will help you: D-Link TechSupport - FAQ

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@decarillion: If µTorrent's network connection does not work properly with your laptop connected directly to your modem then the port µTorrent is listening on is either blocked or stealthed on your laptop. Steve Gibson's ShieldsUP!! is a good port scanner you could try to determine if the port is actually open. Enter the port you want to check and select User Specified Custom Port Probe. The stealth analysis must fail and the port status must show as "OPEN!".

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I called in a professional network guy to deal with this as I was sick of troubleshooting fruitlessly.

Instead of setting up the port forwarding in the "applications" area of my Zyxel router, he set it up in the "Game Hosting" area instead--which required entry IP information as well.

And that was all there was to it. Unsure if all the steps I took before helped, but that was the only thing left.

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