I'm Firewalled Somehow But I Have It Turned Off

I'm using a downloading software
and when I connect to it, it says I'm firewalled (so my connection is extremely slow).
I've tried everything I know. I disabled windows firewall. I turned off all my antivirus.
I also set my port forwarding to the ports and it still says I'm firewalled.

Is there other things I should check to remove my firewall?

 

Your internet router may be firewalled BUT I would be highly suspicious of any software prompting me to turn off my firewall. It's very rare that you need to disable an antivirus to install or use software and I don't even remember the last time I saw a suggestion to turn off a firewall.

Also installing software to make downloading faster is a myth. Your internet connection and computer hardware is either up to the task or it isn't. The website you are downloading from either serves downloads efficiently or it doesn't. Download helpers/managers aren't going to change that.

 

Thank you for your reply!

The program is a torrent-type downloading application. This one in particular requires a connection to my TCP port and I've used it for several years without issues. For some reason recently when I had to update the software, it no longer has a connection to my TCP port and so it will not function normally (fast down/upload speeds).

I also use it on a separate laptop specifically only for this purpose. The laptop has no other sensitive data so it doesn't matter if I have AV or not or no firewall. I don't use it for any personal applications. It solely exists and runs as a download/upload laptop so I'm not worried about lack of firewall. Also I use a VPN while running it and it always worked fine for years. I just can't get it to connect anymore because it says it can't make a connection to my TCP port and told me to either port forward the appropriate ports OR disable firewall / give permissions etc. I've done all of that AFAIK. Same settings I've always used for years.

 

Does the torrent software connect when the VPN is off? Could the VPN have updated and has somehow changed a Network setting?

 

I thought that too so I tried. Even if I'm not using vpn, it still won't connect to TCP saying same thing (can't establish connection to TCP port) and saying it's either blocked by firewall or you have to port forward which I have done both.

 

Try putting the computer's IP in the routers DMZ, that will open all ports to the net, if it still doesn't work sounds like an OS issue. What is the OS?

 

The OS is windows 7. I've been using the same setup for a few years and connecting to TCP/UDP was no problem and always had high connection speeds/downloads/uploads. It just suddenly stopped recently. When you say computer's IP, do you mean the ones I find in cmd prompt ipconfig?
The 192.168.0.1 is the the router address so not that one? Or the IP that shows up when i search on whatsmyip etc?

 

Yes, the IP when you do an ipconfig. The router should have a setting for a DMZ - put the local IP in there. It will work as a test, but if you are using DHCP, that IP can change and the DMZ will not work until the ip is in the router updated. To fix that you'll need to put a static IP on the device if you want to keep it in the DMZ. You can also use tools from https://www.nirsoft.net/network_tools.html to see what ports are open. Aslo check here https://portchecker.co/

You did port forwarding on the router? Did the local IP change?

 

Thank you. I entered the IP in the DMZ in the router and made sure it was the same IP and it still didn't work (says firewalled).
Yes, I added port forwarding in my router as I've always had it set up for several years and worked fine before. For some reason
it's blocked now.

 

Still tried everything and port checker utilities still says my ports are not opened or reachable.
I put in rules to allow all ports TCP and UDP.
I tried static IP and dynamic IP, either ones didn't work.

The only thing I haven't tried yet is to simply reset/reboot the router. Maybe I'll try that.

 

What does the network look like? Do you have an ISP provided modem/router and one you purchased behind it? This is a stretch since you say this worked before and stopped after an update, BTW what updated the torrent software? Did you try going back a version?

 

I have my own router (TP Link WR910N).
I was using PureVPN for many years on Emule and all I had to do was port forward my TCP and UDP ports to get a high ID connection. If I got a low ID connection, it meant that my TCP and/or UDP ports were not accessible or open.

But it stopped working when PureVPN forced me to update my software. The newest software no longer supports Windows 7 (which is what I was using on my laptop). I can't go back and install it again because it no longer works for Windows 7 OS. So they had to help me set up a remote VPN using OpenVPN. After I got set up and connected to PureVPN, that's when my emule never gets high ID anymore no matter what I do to try and disable firewalls, make exceptions/rules, open all ports, turn off all AV and windows firewall, port forwarded the ports in my router with the correct settings.

When I use port checker utilities, it will always say my TCP and UDP ports are not opened or accessible.

 

I don't know why, but that is the second VPN that I have heard about that stopped port forwarding - the other was mullvad.

 

I'm not sure it is the VPN stopping it. I even tried without using VPN and I still can't get a high ID connection and testing the ports always tells me the same thing, "port is closed or unreachable", "TCP connection could not be made" etc. I am and have been subscribed to port forwarding option with PureVPN for several years and checking my account it's still enabled.

I wonder if it could be my ISP?

 

Are you sure the issue is on your end?

 

I'm not sure. How would I check to find out?
I feel like I've done everything on my end to port forward, disable firewalls, make firewall exception/rules etc.

 

There used to be a site called Glasnos that would show you if your ISP was doing anything to your connection.
https://superuser.com/questions/10903/is-there-a-simple-way-to-detect-isp-port-blocking