Can anyone help with port forwarding on a USR9108 router

[stevvi]

I've just got rid of my Netgear trash and got a USR but no matter what I try, I don't seem to be port forwarding properly. In the router config I choose security/port triggering and then put the one port number for the outgoing range and incoming range. I can't see that there is anything else to set. Am I being totally stupid and missing something?

Thanx

[Intangir]

Don't know your router, but I'll give it a shot.

First off, for a quick port-forwarding you want to go to the Virtual Servers area of your router config. It should look more or less like this. Read over that link.

Now all you have to do is apply that to µTorrent. Pick your favorite port number; for simplicity's sake keep it in the domain of 20,000 <= x <= 50,000 (e.g. Port 41567). Put that port in your port start / port end boxes like they do for Port 113 in the linked page. Make sure it's TCP protocol, and the Server IP looks like it should be the IP of your computer (Windows > Run > cmd > ipconfig).

Save your settings, make sure you have that port set up in µTorrent under Network Settings. Disable randomize and UPnP, restart your client, and you should be forwarding through that port. After you've connected to enough peers, you can check this by going into a cmd console and typing 'netstat -no'. If you see your IP and the proper port number in the Local Address column, chances are you're good to go.

There's also a PortForward page on a router similar to yours on PortForward right here which you can look through to help piece together the situation. It's for BitTornado, but it's generally the same except you don't need more than one port to use µTorrent. If you need any more help, it's worth your time to read through PortForward's Introduction page and all the tangent pages that it links to (if you haven't already).

Report back if you run into some problems.

EDIT by silverfire: good job @ linking to http://right%20here >_<;;

[abbad0n]

Well for one thing, it is listed at http://www.usr.com/datasheets/ as a gateway and not a router.

[stevvi]

abbad0n,

It's actually a rouer/modem which I guess could be called a gateway

Intangir,

Thanx for that but I kinda thought that I could use the "Port Triggering" setup rather than use the "Virtual Server" stuff, as they say that port triggering is more secure. Every was all fine and dandy with my Netgear router/modem (or is that a gateway?

If anyone does know how to do it with Port Triggering then I'd appreciate the knowledge.

As a quick update, the Virtual Server solution does work (thanx for that). Any advice on the Port Triggering stuff would still be well appreciated.

EDIT by silverfire: please don't double post

[Intangir]

Usually for something to work with Port Triggering is has to support it or at least be "Port Triggering friendly". BitTorrent, as far as the clients I've used, are not very PT friendly.

Port Triggering is basically automated Port Forwarding. Instead of telling the router to keep a port forwarded all the time, triggering will open a port for the duration of the activity and then automatically turn itself off when no activity is happening over a certain time interval. This eventually closes the port and once again you're secure (as far as closed ports go). So if you made port 6001 the trigger port, whenever traffic was sent OUT on that port it would automatically open whatever port you have specified so users can connect to you through it.

A typical example of this on mIRC. When you connect to a server, you send out through a port on the mIRC range (6660-6669 if I remember right). After connecting to you, a server will try and connect to your IDENT port (113). You could use the 6660-6669 as a trigger range to open your IDENT port. Then the server could connect to it and, when you quit mIRC or stop using the trigger range long enough, port 113 will shut.

The problem with BitTorrent is that it doesn't use any one port to send information out on. For instance your client may send out on port 3783 to connect to someone's port 41030 and then the next connect to another seed may be 3784 to 37654. Because BT sends out on a different port, you'd have to make a Trigger Range -- and then that range has to be a lot of common ports that are often shared by other programs and services which means that whenever they use a port in that range, it'll also open the port specified by your trigger range even if it's not going to use it.

Other problems include when you aren't sending anything on the trigger ports. This would close your listening port. If you were seeding, you'd typically only use your open port because users want to connect to you; they make the request. If that port isn't open, they can't connect to you that way and your trigger range, not being in use, wouldn't open the port to allow them to.

A way around this is to ensure that the trigger port is always in use for the duration of the program. There are programs that do this. Presumably, once you're done with BitTorrent, you can just stop the program from triggering and it'll stop sending to your trigger port. I'm speculating at this point because I've never actually used such a program as it never seemed worth the hassle -- I could just log into my router and stop forwarding the port once I'm done. [That and I'm lazy.]

It makes more sense to use UPnP where a UPnP program (like µTorrent) can tell your router (assuming it is capable of UPnP) to forward a port. Once you close µTorrent, it'll tell the router to close the port. Some people don't like this either because of a "security threat" having UPnP running on your computer. I believe it used to be a threat, but was since patched. Whether that argument is just FUD nowadays is very probable, but I can't comment since I don't know enough nor use UPnP (my router is too old).

Hopefully this clears some stuff up and may give you an idea as to go about triggering BT if you so choose. I can't guarentee all this is correct, but if it isn't hopefully someone can show up and set the record straight.

[edit]

EDIT by silverfire: good job @ linking to http://right%20here >_<;;

Not sure what you mean by this.

[silverfire]

Your link was incorrectly formatted so that it lead to 'http://right%20here' instead of the link you intended, probably because you did

[url]right here[/url]

and forgot to use

[url=http://www.domain.tld/]right here[/url]

instead.

Example:

right here

[stevvi]

Intangir,

Again, many thanx for your time and help. You'ce explained tings brilliantly. I may well now look into UPnP as I, like you, have been put off in the past by the apparent security issues that I know very little about.

Thanx again.

[cenkyk]

I have trouble with my USR9108. When I go into virtual servers page;

http://192.168.1.1/scvrtsrv.cmd?action=view

does not work.

I do change this link into http://192.168.1.1/scvrtsrv.html

then works.

But all the virtual servers are full , default from manufacturer. When I try to select any of them and click "Apply"

Again it does not work. system again warns there is no more right for an additin.

If I click on blank, it asks you have to make selection.. it is like paradox..

Did anyone experience this? is there any way to edit a text files that store these virtual servers and ports?

Thanks in advance

Cenk