Friday, February 14, 2014

[Tutorial] How to do Port Forwarding

Port forward or commonly known as 'opening blind port' for those who loves doing P2P (Peer-to-Peer). Ok fine, its torrent. Those who loves to torrent. As you all know, open port allows you to connect to more peers or users, giving you higher speed when downloading torrent. Port forward is usually for the private torrent tracker, where the tracker connects you to only specific peers that are members of the private torrent community. Public tracker usually doesn't effect your connectivity with other peers (because you basically able to connect whoever that is online) and even if you are unable to connect to some of the peers, the numbers are usually insignificant. But still, opening your port or port forwarding helps you to connect every one thus in a way, it will boost your download speed (still depend on your internet bandwidth of course).

The idea of port forwarding is making your port open and available to be connected with other peers in the same network, by making you IP address to be static instead of dynamic making it easier to be recognized by other peer. In case you doesn't realize, most if not all of the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) nowadays block default P2P port. Some corporate company or education institution network also block default P2P to avoid their network from being abused (you are not suppose to torrent at you workplace).

So I decided to make a tutorial on how to port forward in the most general way of all. I won't be providing screenshot because different modem or router have different user interface. So if I to provide a screenshot, then it would be on one brand of modem/router. Better to understand the general setting so that next time you got yourself a different set of modem/router, you'll know just what to do regardless of the bedazzling and fancy user interface. Truth is, this is more of a note for myself for future use.


First of all, what you need is your own internet connection. And by that, I mean you are the owner and the administrator of the network. Do NOT use this guide so you could use to bypass your company P2P restriction, its unethical.

Second, when you bought your modem/router from computer shop or get the modem/router from your ISP for subscribing, make sure you get a manual book. Preferably, the one that contain the default username and password for the modem/router. Also, you'll the IP address of your router. If your opt for the ISP technician to set up your internet connection, so be it and let the man do his job. But be sure to ask for the IP address to enter your modem/router interface, and the default username and password for the modem/router. Take note, its the default username and password for the modem/router, NOT the username and password to access the internet, the one that uses your ISP email and password.

Now, once you have covered the first two required stuffs I mentioned above, let us do the port forwarding:

1.
Log into your modem/router. To access your modem/router, type in your modem/router IP address in your browser (Chrome, Mozilla, IE, etc). The IP address should look like this: 192.168.1.1 
But different modem/router would have a different IP address, hence that is why you need the manual book. If you don't have them, then look at the back (below?) of you modem/router, there should be a white sticker that states you modem/router details such MAC addresses, IP addresses, product brand ID, stuff like that. Otherwise call you ISP. Or Google them in the internet.

You'll will be brought to a page where you'll be prompt to insert username and password. Do so.
Usually its the modem/router default password. If its belong to a corporation or institution, the username and password would be personalized and accessing it would be an act of hacking.

2.
Next, what you want to find is the 'DMZ settings'. It is usually in the Advance settings or tabs. Check the box or turn on the 'Enable DMZ' setting. Fill in your IP addreess in the 'DMZ Host IP Address'.

To know your own IP address, you can open a Command Prompt (or in Windows if your search in Start button, it would be 'cmd.exe') and type in this command: ipconfig

You will get something like this: 198.168.1.12 (its right next to IPv4 Addresses).
Keep note for the Subnet Mask too, it just below the IPv4 Addresses.
Also, if there is an opt for dynamic or static IP, choose static IP.

Then click Ok/ Apply Changes, then click Commit/ Reboot. It will restart your modem/router, not your computer.

3.
Once the modem/router is restarted, log in again. This time we are looking for the Firewall settings. It might be in the Advance settings or it'll have its own tab. Just look for anything that says Firewall.
There should be an option or button for 'Add Rule'. There would be several rules to set, 'Incoming, TCP',  'Incoming, UDP', 'Outgoing, TCP', 'Outgoing, UDP'. In the 'Incoming, TCP', key in the following:

  • Rule Action - Allow
  • Direction - Incoming
  • Protocol - TCP
  • SRC IP Address - (your IP address that you just got from the command prompt)
  • SRC Subnet Mask - (your Subnet Mask from the the command prompt)
  • Port - (your selected listening port, the range would be between 49152-65535)
Continue to key in for the rest of the rules.

Click Ok/ Apply Changes, then click Commit/ Reboot.

4.

And your done!
/nobigdeal


What changes?

Your listening port is opened and your *cough*torrent software*cough* should be showing a green light or says that your connection is working as it should. If you in a private torrent community, you shouldn't be having 'blind port' problem. On the side note, changing the listening port could actually boost your internet speed if you know what you are looking for. Known default port for bittorent is 6881 and 4661/4662 is for emule. Usually the ISP would be looking for the most used port and block or limit its speed to prevent P2P sharing. However, some of the port still need to be opened for company usage or highly valued subscribers (you know what I'm talking about). So changing you port once in a while is good to get an optimum internet speed. Its all trial and error.


0 comments:

Post a Comment

Copyright © 2010 - ; Blissful Life. All Right Reserved.
This site is best viewed with 1024x768 resolution using Chrome