NAT problem with Azureus and NetGear router

I know this seems like a n00bish question, and i did try to fix it myself before posting here, but i am kinda stuck.

I recently got a new NetGear WNR2000 router and i am having trouble getting Azureus to work now. It says it's firewalled (red circle icon in the status bar, next to ratio) and although i am getting some download speed (~20Kb/s) i don't think it's as much as i should be getting (up to 150Kb/s i think).

So, firstly, i will tell you what i have already tried and what i already know. And although i am not a complete n00b, networking is not really my thing, so i don't fully understand a lot of what i am doing. Ok, so:
1. I have looked at the Azureus wiki page on NAT problems. It says that i either need to enable UPnP, or use a static IP and port forwarding.
I use DHCP so i would prefer not to use a static IP (i am not aware of any benefits of one over the other, all i know is the internet is working now and i'd like it to stay that way). Besides, the router says that UPnP is enabled anyway, so it should work, right?

2. I tested a few different port numbers, all of them were closed. That would suggest that a firewall is blocking them. Anyhow, i decided to change it from the default to 53100.

3. I checked Norton's firewall, both for azureus.exe and javaw.exe. Allowed TCP&UDP on 53100. Didn't help. I don't think the problem lies in the Norton firewall, probably the router's. And i am not using Window's firewall.

4. I found out that the router can also use "port triggering", which it says is like port forwarding but can be used with DHCP. So i added port 53100 to it, still didn't fix the problem. Not sure if i did it right.

5. I checked the UPnP settings on the router and saw that it had already mapped (if that's the right word) the port that Azureus was using (53100), so it looks like UPnP is working(?) Anyway, still didn't help.

6. I looked at Netgear Bittorent Port Fowarding, but it too says i need to set up my network to use static IP instead of DHCP.

I am out of ideas here. Although i didn't try absolutely every option (i.e. using a static IP), i would like to try all the easy options first before messing with things that i don't understand (or rather, understand even less than the rest).
I can explain in more detail and/or give more information if necessary, but i would appreciate any help or advice.
thanks

 

Hi XTAL256,

Try using dhcp
keep upn on
turn off the port triggering and use the port forwarding feature instead
temporarily turn off norton firewall
reboot the router
reboot the computer

here's some info on the speed connection http://faq.vuze.com/?View=entry&EntryID=309

Techsent

 

Just a quick FYI as well, your ISP is the only person who can provide you with a static IP address for your internet connection. These are expensive and may not be available at all on some packages.

 

@techsent: I will try port forwarding instead of port triggering, although from what i read port forwarding can only be done if you use a static IP. I will play around with it and see if it works (and try not to break anything in the process ).

@collinsl: I was under the impression that the "static" IP was the IP of the computer (my laptop) that connects to the wireless network, not an IP from our ISP.
I tried setting a static IP for my laptop once before, setting it to 192.168.0.x, but it didn't work and i couldn't be bother trying to get it to work. I think i probably just had it configured wrong, but i figured that if there is no real benefit of a static IP over letting the router assign an IP dynamically using DHCP then i will just stick with DHCP.

 

Sorry I misinterpreted that.

To set the static IP for the laptop, just have a look at the router config page (192.168.1.254 normally, but this varies by model). There should be a page where you can go to look at the devices connected to the network, and in the laptop connection there should be a checkbox or similar to always use the same IP.

 

Hi techsent. Can you please tell me how to setup port forwarding with DHCP? In the router config page, i can add a custom service. I can select a port range and Server IP Address. What is the Server IP Address? Is it the address of the router, or my computer? Because if it is the IP of my computer then i can't use it with DHCP.

 

Hi XTAL256,

You can use dhcp when setting up port forwarding. use the current ip address that is assigned to your pc when creating the custom service.

Many home routers these days will not change your ip automatically. Ive had mine for a year +.

but, if you like, as a seperate step, you can add a reservation for your current ip. see page 4-5 of your manual.

Yes, the server ip address is the same ip that your computer currently uses.

Please see chapter 5 in the user manual for setting up a custom service to forward the port to your pc.

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4448

adobe reader must be installed on your pc to view the manual via the above link.

You can also download the user manual from http://kb.netgear.com/app/products/model/a_id/2614

Techsent

 

I have setup port forwarding on my router, but i can still not properly connect in Azureus.
My current IP address is 192.168.0.6 and Azureus is setup to use port 53100, so here is the details i entered in the router config page:

Code:

Service Name      : Azureus/Vuze
Protocol          : TCP/UDP
Starting Port     : 53100
Ending Port       : 53100
Server IP Address : 192.168.0.6

I tried restarting Azureus to see if it took affect, but it didn't. Testing the port produced the same error message that it did before:
"NAT Error - Connect attempt to 220.236.19.217:53100 (your computer) timed out after 20 seconds. This means your port is probably closed."

I am wondering if i should switch to using a static IP, then i can (hopefully) get port forwarding to work properly. But before i start doing that, i want to know if there are any advantages of one over the other. The router says that it's best to use DHCP (which is enabled by default), but i don't think there is much advantage since it's only a home network and i there is only a few computers that are on the network, so i can easily assign then a unique IP.

And if i do use static IP, i want to be sure that i know how to set everything up so that i don't have to spend a day trying to configure it. My dad would be a bit pissed if i broke the internet connection on his pc . That pc is directly connected to the router (and therefore, the internet) so i shouldn't have to do anything with that should i? My brother has a laptop and iPod Touch which both connect wirelessly, but they should be easy to configure.

 

I am now trying to setup a static IP for my computer but i don't know the DNS addresses.

When i type "ipconfig /all" in a command prompt, i see that "DNS Servers" is 192.168.1.1 (the router address). So this means that the router is a proxy to the DNS, but do i use this address or do i need the actual DNS addresses? When i look at the router config page it says that the DNS address is obtained dynamically from the ISP, but it doesn't say what the address is. Is there any way i can find out the DNS addresses?

And if all else fails, i would still like to know why i cannot get Azureus working with DHCP.

 

Try Simple Port Forwarding, looks like it supports your router.

 

Hi satrow, i downloaded that program but i'm not sure it will help. It just looks like it provides a simple interface to do what i can already do in the router. I don't think it can do anything that i have not already done.

Also, i tried setting up port forwarding with DHCP, using my current IP address as techsent suggested. Although it is dynamically assigned, i should still at least be able to setup port forwarding on that address so long as it is assigned to my computer. But it still didn't seem to work. I'm not sure if i did it right, but it is quite simple so i can't see what i could do wrong.

 

Ok, i think the problem is that i have 2 routers as explained Problem #1 here.
I used the tool in Simple Port Forwarding and it tells me that the 2nd router is 10.1.1.1, my SpeedStream modem. I though it was just a modem but i guess it's a router, hell, i don't even really know the difference :-o.
I read what to do on that website but i don't think my problem is quite the same as the example. It says the 2nd router is http://192.168.1.254 which seems to suggest that it has something to do with the 192.168.x.x network. I'm not sure if my case is different but i know that the SpeedStream is not a wireless router, it's just the modem that sits between the internet and the NetGear and connects it to the internet.

 

Setup your devices as described in this link first then go back to the SPF software to setup port-forwarding.

 

Ok, i read the link but i have a few questions:

1) The tip says "You should setup a static WAN IP address for router 2." (i.e. my NetGear). What does this mean, and what are the consequences of doing so, i.e will it break anything else? And what do i set the IP address to?

2) Since i now know the modem itself is actually a router, what does it mean to have DHCP and all that enabled on it too (which it currently is)? The 2nd router (the wireless NetGear) is the only thing connecting to the modem router then all it should do is forward everything to it

3) Is this setup secure? I don't know exactly what DMZ is but my understanding is that it basically opens the modem/router up to the whole world, i.e, as it says in the link, forwards all incoming connections to the computer. Since it is only being forwarded to the 2nd router which would then block any attempts by hackers then i guess it's safe, but i would like to be sure.

 

1) You can set it to use the IP address that it's currently using, nothing should break that way.

2) The DHCP server should be enabled on the router only.

3) It's as secure as most setups, until you fire up your P2P software, which will open you up to attacks and inspections from 30% of China and all anti-P2P companies, anti-CP, anti-terrorist, terrorist, governments, ... PeerBlock and blocklists FTW!

 

So you would agree that that's a bad thing, right!
Considering that i have internet security software (Norton) which i have setup to only allow communications on port 53100 then it should be fairly safe, shouldn't it.
Anyway, how would hackers be able to attack my computer? If they can go through Azureus then would they be able to upload any viruses or steal any information or anything like that?

I will try what you said anyway, hopefully it will work. I'll see how it goes.

 

Yay, i fixed it!!
Azureus even congratulated me:

 

Sorry, one more question. If i were to disable DHCP on the modem/router, how would i do that? I would need to setup the NetGear to point to it's address or something.

 

I think you have all the required information; you now need to re-read it and note your particular settings down and perhaps print or save a few webpages locally.

If and when you become infected, which is very likely using P2P - Norton 'protected' or not, most forums will not help you unless you uninstall all P2P software and delete/uninstall any cracked software, etc. They consider that you will quickly become re-infected otherwise, thus wasting their valuable time and effort.

 

Ok, thanks for all your help.

Btw, i am not downloading any cracked software from P2P, only things like music and movies. Can i still get infected this way, and if so, how?

 

Yes. Because P2P works by basically sharing the files from other people's computers - just the files you have downloaded - anyone can add any virus into any part of the program at any time in the download process, into anything.

 

Hi again. Just one more tiny question.
If my firewall problem was caused by the modem/router having DMZ enabled as well as the wireless router, then why didn't my old D-Link have that problem?
I don't think i mentioned it in my first post, but i recently replaced my old D-Link DI-524 with the NetGear i have now. It was setup pretty much the same as the NetGear, it had DMZ enabled by default and was using DHCP. I didn't setup port forwarding on it (considering i only just learned about it), yet Azureus could get through and would most times display a green status icon. I do remember it being orange for a while whenever i started Azureus, but it eventually went green.
Anyone know why that would be?

 

DMZ enabled = unprotected computer.

No router should ship with DMZ enabled.

 

D'oh, i meant disabled. It's confusing because it's one of those things where it's good to not have it.
Yes, like you said, no router will have it enabled by default, so all my routers/modems had DMZ disabled until now when i enabled it on the modem router.

So my question still stands. Why did the D-Link not have this specific problem? Could it be because different routers work differently with regard to firewalling? I should imaging that the NetGear has proven itself to be more secure than the D-Link then if the D-Link perhaps should have been firewalling Azureus too.