Opening Ports

[d3xt3r]

Hello. I have a problem that has been bothering me for weeks now, and I just cannot find a solution. Hopefully someone here could help me out. I need a certain port open on my router that needs to be opened in order for me to host certain games I play over a LAN. Now, I have been to portforward.com and done everything I could possible do to open this port. I have also enabled the game and ports in my routers firewall and applications. And I still cannot host when I make a game.

So I went to grc.com (ShieldsUP!) and tested the certain port to see if it was open, and it says it's STEALTH, infact, every single port STEALTH. So my question basically is, how come my machine is Stealthing all my ports? I turned off Windows firewall, and McAfee's firewall as well. Is there anything else I can do to make these ports "not stealth"? Thank you.

[johnhook]

d3xt3r,

Please reply with the make/model of your router as well as the make/model of your PC including the version of Windows you're running. Do you have any firewall or internet security software running on your PC? If so, what is the product/version? Do you have multiple PCs and/or game consoles running on your home network?

Your problem may be either a simple router configuration change and/or a configuration change on your PC or game console you're having issues with.

Please reply with more detail and someone here should be able to help.

- John

[d3xt3r]

Yes of course, sorry. My router is a D-Link (DI-524) and my machine is a Dell Dimension 3000 running Windows XP Pro SP2. I have windows firewall turned off, and I use McAfee for security. For the purpose of eliminating every factor, I completely turned off McAfee before running the scan on my ports, yet they are always Stealth. I hope this helps.

[johnwill]

What is the make/model of the modem you're using with the router? Who is the ISP?

[d3xt3r]

Speedstream 5200 from Bell Sympatico

[johnhook]

d3xt3r

Have you tried D-Link's support site? Go to:

http://support.dlink.com/supportfaq/

Pick DI and 524 from the drop down lists, on the right open up the "Open Ports/ Applications" folder on the left, then drill down to "Games". Find your games in this list and it will give you step-by-step instructions for setting up your router for the game(s) in question.

Hope this works.

- John

[d3xt3r]

Oh... Thats really cool. Unfortunately my game is not listed there. But did look at other games, and it's practically the same thing I'm doing, except opening a different said port. I did upgrade my firmware to latest version, but still no luck. I did actually phone D-link, but they really only give me intrusions on how to open the port, which I already know. The didn't tell me why my port is not opening. Maybe I should call back and ask for Advance support or something.

[johnhook]

d3xt3r,

If you know the ports for your specific games (not listed on D-Link's site), follow the same instructions for other games - just use the ports specific to YOUR game(s). Are you using DHCP (automatic IP address)? If so, you probably want to switch your gaming PC to a STATIC IP address so that the address remains the same. This is necessary if your forwarding ports as the forwarded ports will always point to the same IP address. If your PC's address chages, those ports won't get forwarded. Make sense?

- John

[d3xt3r]

can you explain the DHCP thing a little more? I'm not entirely sure what that is. I think it is enabled, the range is 192.168.0.100-199. I read somewhere that if I want to forward ports that my static ip, it should NOT be in that range, which it isn't (my static ip is 192.168.0.47). And for the record, I did disable it at one point, but still the port remained closed/stealth.

[johnhook]

d3xt3r,

DHCP automatically configures your IP address and settings via the router. Static addresses are fixed and never change. The address you're using 192.168.0.47 is a valid static address. Make sure you have the default gateway set (probably 192.168.0.1, subnet mask 255.255.255.0, DNS probably 192.168.0.1 same as gateway).

When setting up those NATS for games specific to your PC, make sure you point them to 192.168.0.47.

If your ports are stealthed - it's happening on your PC (some firewall software - Windows firewall, McAfee, etc) or you possibly have firewall features enabled in your router - check on D-Link's support site about any firewall features on your router.

- John

[d3xt3r]

Yes, I believe all my ports are stealthed. I don't know how they are, but they are and I'm almost positive now this is the reason why I cannot open a single port on my router. I have windows fire wall turned off, and when I ran the port checker test, I had Mcafee turned off to make sure. Still the all ports came back stealth, so it has to be something else. I also allowed access to the ports I chose in the firewall tab for my router. There absolutely nothing else I can think of what can be stealthing my ports, is there anything else you can think of that I might have missed? Other then that, I'm not too sure on what else I can do.

[johnhook]

d3xt3r,

The only way to stealth ports on the D-Link router is to forward or NAT those ports to an invalid IP address. Do you have the proper ports forwarded on your router to your PC's static IP address? If so, your games should work.

If you've disabled and/all firewall software on your PC, ports should not be stealthed. Ports which are not listening won't respond anyways - it's not that they're stealthed. I think you may not have things forwarded correctly in your router.

- John

[d3xt3r]

I'm positive they are forwarded correctly. I have followed the portforward guide to a tee, and phone dlink and they told me the same thing that I have been doing all this time. I have done everything correctly, the only thing that could be wrong is something that I am not aware of. You say the only way a port can be stealthed is if it is forwarded to the wrong ip address? Again, unless it's something I'm not aware of, the ports are forwarded to my correct private ip address (which I checked many times to be sure in ipconfig).

[johnhook]

d3xt3r,

Let me clarify - the only way a port can be stealthed on a D-Link DI-524 router is by NATting (or forwarding that port) to an invalid IP ON THE ROUTER. Ports can be stealthed on your Windows system using firewall software. Ports can also be blocked by your ISP (Consumer Cable ISPs typically BLOCK HTTP ports 80 and HTTPS port 443 to prevent subscribers from hosting their own websites).

I'm thinking you still have some type of firewall (Windows or otherwise) running on your PC if your ports are being blocked or stealthed. Check your Network Settings - Advanced - look at the firewall settings and see if anything is configured there. Also, Press CTRL-ALT-DEL, bring up task manager and report the running processes so we can make sure that McAfee, Norton or some other Internet Security program isn't still running services. We might also need to look at your System Services to see if there's something running in there that's blocking your ports.

Does your DSL modem automatically connect to the Internet (i.e. no PPPoE Dialer/connection software necessary on your PC?). If so, we could try connecting your PC directly to your DSL modem - set your PC's IP address back to AUTOMATIC (write down all of the existing static IP settings). Reboot the PC and Modem - and see if your ports are still being stealthed. If so, then the ROUTER is NOT the problem - it's either the PC (most likely) or your ISP.

Let me know if you need help with this.

- John

[d3xt3r]

Ok... I downloaded a tool called PFconfig from portforward that automatically forwards the ports for the program I select on the programs list. So, even if I was doing something wrong this should rule out any chance of error with me opening my ports. It turns out I still cannot host games even with this program running and opening the ports automatically, so the problem has to be something with my computer or ISP. I'm leaning towards ISP right now, because I did the things you mentioned on my computer but am still having trouble.

I was speaking to a friend earlier and they suggested that I should forward the ports on my modem as well. I wasn't aware I could do this, I thought you only can/need to forward ports on your router. Maybe this is my big problem. So I accessed my modem setup page by entering the DNS server but there was no option to forwarding ports, or anything firewall related. The only thing that is on this page is a status screen that tells me my connectivity and ip information. There is also something about a bridging mode, resetting and restoring factory defaults option.

[johnhook]

d3xt3r,

Bridging mode basically removes your modem's ability to establish it's own PPPoE connection to your ISP (i.e. LOGIN to DSL automatically and get on the Internet). In Bridge mode, if you connect your modem to your PC, you'll need to install PPPoE dialer/connection software and manually establish a DSL internet connection via your PC. If you set your modem to Bridge mode and connect it to your router, you'll need to set your router up for PPPoE access and configure your DSL username/password on the router so the router can establish a connection to the internet.

I'm not sure if bridging mode on your modem is the answer. Did you try connecting your modem directly to your PC (bypass the router) to see if your games would work? If not - then it's likely something on your PC.

- John

[d3xt3r]

Yes, I tried but I couldn't connect to the internet when there was straight connection to the modem. Other than that I looked in my task manager a disabled just about everything, made sure nothing that may be blocking ports was on. Also, I wasn't talking about bridging being the answer, I mean opening the ports on my modem may be the answer. I was saying the only thing I can really do on my modem setup screen is bridging and that's it. There is no options for port forwarding or firewall. So my question was, how come I cannot access these options on my modem? It is a SpeedStream 5200.

[johnhook]

d3xt3r,

The problem with connecting directly from your PC to your modem might be that you didn't configure your PC's IP settings to AUTOMATIC (they are set to static now). If you set the PC's IP to auto, reboot and connect to the modem, you should be able to get on the Internet and test your games.

The reason you can't make port changes on the modem is because they don't exist. The modem just provides a stratight connection to the Internet VIA DSL - it's not a router. It's possible that your DSL provider is blocking ports on their side, but I'm not aware of this being a practice with DSL providers - only Cable providers seem to block ports (i.e. 80/http).

Try setting your PC's IP settings (local area network) to Automatic. Connect the PC directly to the MODEM (bypass the router) - reboot the modem and the PC and see if you can get on the Internet.

- John

[d3xt3r]

Well, I phoned my ISP today and told them my problem. They said they are blocking no ports and my modem is not configurable to manage port forwording and all that tecnical network stuff. So there is nothing I can do with that. They said the problem has to be with my computer. So I guess it is, but I'm baffled because I don't know what could be blocking all my ports on my system. Have you heard of such a thing? What are some possibilities that could be doing this? I already checked my firewall settings, and I have allowed for my game to run in there. But I don't know If there are any settings within my Mcafees software that would do such a thing as to blocking all my ports. Could there be some kind of system setting? Thanks for any info.

[johnwill]

You do realize that the Speedstream 5200 is a router, right? The ports need to be forwarded in that unit, or perhaps the right way it to configure it in bridge mode. Here's a discussion on configuring that modem in bridge mode: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,13765870



Connect directly to the Speedstream 5200 and do this.

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD to open a command prompt:

In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following command:

IPCONFIG /ALL

Right click in the command window and choose Select All, then hit Enter.
Paste the results in a message here.

If you are on a machine with no network connection, use a floppy, USB disk, or a CD-RW disk to transfer a text file with the information to allow pasting it here.