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[oldfogy]

I would like to disable the firewall settings "completely" in my BB Router.
The router is a (Mentor ADSL-FR4II)

As I have already tried most of the settings (of which I don't actually understand) I would need detailed step by step instructions, as the written instructions are very vague (or none existent) on how to do this.

I can access all of the settings ok, but don't really know which to enable or disable.
The manual says things like "WAN settings - LAN settings - NAT settings and Firewall"
But I cant find the Firewall settings, the only other setting appears to be DMZ, which I think is the firewall but not to sure.

The reason for this is mainly because of problems with P2P sites either saying I have a Low ID due to being NATTED, or not being able to UL which is not good.

Any help would be most appreciated, thanks.

Phil

[kitz]

Hi Phil

You shouldnt be turning your firewall off, Instead you need to port forward the relevant ports for the p2p application you are using.

Port Forwarding is normally a 2 stage process,
1) You configure the p2p software and
2) Set up your router to forward the relevant ports to the PC on which you want to use the software.

This allows then allows any traffic using these ports to flow through your router to and from your PC.
Different applications use different ports, therefore by doing this you are allowing the specific application access rather than turning everything off and leaving yourself "wide open".

-----

WinMX uses the following ports
TCP 6699 and
UDP 6257

Theres a good port forwarding tutorial for the FR411 here:-

http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/Mentor/FR411/WinMX.htm

Hope this helps.

[oldfogy]

Hi Kitz.

Thanks very much for the info, it's very much appreciated.

I had actually been to that site some time ago, but never got that far though, (never even found it).
I think my brain went into information overload at some point.

PS. The underlines look excellent and make life a little/lot easier, for me at least.

Thanks again
 \/

[kitz]

yw.

Hopefully you have it all working now

[oldfogy]

oow I like me "Avatar" Thanks.

Firewall, yes thanks I have been meaning to let you know how I got on but you know what it's like "I'll do it in a minute" :oops:

But what a nightmare, it kept locking up on me and the only thing I could decide on eventually, was it did not like me selecting the "correct" country, so I'm stuck in Canada and posting from the UK
But it seems to be working ok regardless of the country setup.

Where I was going wrong in the past was

 a) not setting a Static IP address in windows and
 b) not knowing what to put in the "Mapping Port" box in the router.

So I suppose that just about covers every-where.
Thats probably why it seemed a easier option just to by-pass the fire-wall (DMZ) but even that didn't always work.

I've tried shopping around for a BB router without a built-in fire-wall but no one seems to do one. Only available in ordinary routers.

Yes I appreciate they can be an excellent thing to have (which is why I use Norton's Firewall) but it seems at times things get a little over jealous.

Thanks again Kitz
Phil

[roseway]

Phil, you really don't want to use the DMZ facility of the router unless you know what you're doing. Putting your PC in the DMZ (demilitarised zone) exposes it fully to the internet with no protection at all, completely throwing away one of the most important advantages of a router compared to a simple modem.

As Kitz has said, port forwarding is the proper way to open up your router for purposes such as P2P, because it only makes the tiniest of breaches in the firewall and the only risk is the possibility of security bugs in the P2P client which you are using.

One marginally less secure option if your router supports it is to enable uPnP. This enables the P2P client program to make its own hole in the firewall, achieving the same end result as manually forwarding ports. Azureus (for example) works well with uPnP. This option is a bit less secure than port forwarding because a virus could open up ports to allow outside access to your PC, so you should make sure that your virus checker is kept up to date if you use this option.

Eric