Port forwarding: Modem > Router > PC etc

Samir Duran Duran

So I'm trying to get ports forwarded mainly so the battlenet delay is less crippling, and I plan to get xbox live at some point. After trying everything I can think of I still have a problem at the router.

For background:

DSL modem (Zyxel P660-R) (192.168.1.1) > Router (Linksys WRT54G v4) (192.168.2.1) (def. gateway) >
PC (realtek RTL8139 family PCI NIC) (192.168.2.136, statically assigned)

Now when the network is simply this:

Modem (same) > PC (192.168.1.136 static)

It works just fine with the ports being reachable. After testing some stuff with Azureus I got a timeout with the port test tool and a yellow "meh" face (NAT problem) on a test download, this being with the router config.

The ports were forwarded to my computer IP on both modem and router initially but It soon hit me that I should forward modem to router followed by PC forward. This changed nothing.

Upnp is not enabled on anything currently.

My ISP is earthlink.

Can't think of anything else to add but it seems like the router is certainly the problem and I cannot find anything else to tweak. The major guides are just like "Final step: profit!" and I just want to punch the writers in their faces.

vonPoonBurGer

If your DSL modem has an IP address assigned, then it's operating as a router. If possible, it would simplify things a lot to switch the modem to bridge mode. In bridge mode, it doesn't have an IP address, and simply bridges two network segments (hence the name). This page seems to have instructions for switching to bridge mode. Once the modem is in bridge mode, you'll need to configure your Linksys router to perform PPPoE authentication. Instructions to do that are in the manual, which you can download from here. Once you've got the router connecting via PPPoE, it should have a routable IP address (one that doesn't start with 10., 192.168., 172.16-31., or 169.) in the Status page of the admin interface. Configure your port forwarding rules (or enable UPnP) on the LinkSys router, and you should be set.

It is possible that you'd be able to set up port forwarding without configuring your modem for bridge mode, but it would require that you enter every port forwarding rule twice. Once on the modem, to forward the port to the Linksys router, and again on the router to forward the port to PCs on your internal network. I'm not even sure if your modem has support for port forwarding rules.

txt

i had a similar problem myself, and since my ISP had custom firmware installed on the modem, i couldnt switch it to bridge mode without a big head fuck of problems. I just created a DMZ setup to the WAN IP of my (wireless) router, and used the router to configure any ports that needed to be forwarded since the modem didnt need to deal with them anymore.

I am by no means a technical nut, i just wanted wireless internet to my laptop.

Samir Duran Duran

I seem to be having a big head fuck with the bridge mode as well, though I've never tinkered with DMZ so I'm not sure what you did there.

Also whatever a ADSL (2 other 3 letter acronyms) loopback test is, I always seem to fail it.

vonPoonBurGer

Samir Duran Duran wrote: »

I seem to be having a big head fuck with the bridge mode as well, though I've never tinkered with DMZ so I'm not sure what you did there.

A DMZ host is one that's treated as though it were directly connected to the Internet. In essence, it means that all ports are forwarded from the modem to the DMZ host behind the modem. If you put your router's external IP address (it'll be 192.168.1.something) as the DMZ host on your modem, all ports will be forwarded from your modem to the router. That would be pretty ideal for your setup, then you'd just have to worry about setting up specific port forwards from your router to your computer.

Samir Duran Duran wrote: »

Also whatever a ADSL (2 other 3 letter acronyms) loopback test is, I always seem to fail it.

If you're able to browse the web and speeds are acceptable, I wouldn't worry about this too much.

Samir Duran Duran

So I did everything again and was still unable to connect to the net, but the router picked up a valid address for PPPOE and I could ping an address, so it seems I just needed to get my DNS servers addresses.

I did that and it seems to be working fine.

My thanks to the dude, this can be locked now i guess.