Internet programs and port forwarding

hitmann · 2 Nov 2006 at 08:09

I have a Netgear Wireless router and when I use it to connect to the internet, MSN Messenger and AIM don't work. Apart from http and ftp programs, I've only tested those two messengers as internet programs.

I need to forward the ports of each program that will connect to the internet?

Clarkey · 2 Nov 2006 at 08:17

something wrong there, MSN certainly doesn't need any ports of its own. If it can't connect on its normal outgoing port, it will revert to http.

hp7909 · 2 Nov 2006 at 08:29

Clarkey said:
something wrong there, MSN certainly doesn't need any ports of its own. If it can't connect on its normal outgoing port, it will revert to http.

That's true. Do you have a software firewall? That could be blocking it.

For any software that requires a port forwarded, check out this excellent site

hitmann · 2 Nov 2006 at 11:09

McAfee Firewall is installed, and I've configured it to let MSN MEssenger and AIM access the internet. Would it be wise to uninstall the software firewall?

There is a firewall included in my router but I've never used it (or configured it at least). Would it act the same way as a software firewall? I like the "live" functionality of a software firewall, asking you to allow or block a software as it tries to connect to the internet.

Uhtred · 2 Nov 2006 at 11:56

reinstall the software firewall to start with

hitmann · 3 Nov 2006 at 02:52

I've reinstalled it three times and it's still on my computer. But is it OK to have the software firewall and the router firewall running at the same time? Won't that create any conflict with programs trying to access internet?

Phemo · 3 Nov 2006 at 04:00

hitmann said:
I've reinstalled it three times and it's still on my computer. But is it OK to have the software firewall and the router firewall running at the same time? Won't that create any conflict with programs trying to access internet?

It'll be fine to have both. By default the router firewall will simply allow everything to go out onto the Internet without question. It'll only allow incoming traffic if

a). there's a port forward for it, or
b). the traffic is a response to the outgoing request.

An example of b) is when you go to visit a website. You can browse the Internet without having to allow any firewall rules because your computer makes an outgoing connection to the web server and the router then allows in a response to your outbound connection. Another example would be an FTP site - the router will allow incoming traffic on an FTP download if you initiate the outbound connection first. This is called Stateful Packet Inspection.

Some people like to have a software firewall as this allows them to control what goes out to the Internet. You might as well configure the software firewall to allow everything in though - since the router will be handling that side of it anyway.

Finally, you only need port forwards if an application needs to make an connection to your computer from the outside world without you initiating it first. An example of this is an FTP server - you'd want people to be able to connect without you having to do anything, so a port forward will simply open up that port to the Internet and allow incoming connections on it.

hp7909 · 3 Nov 2006 at 04:20

hitmann said:
I've reinstalled it three times and it's still on my computer. But is it OK to have the software firewall and the router firewall running at the same time? Won't that create any conflict with programs trying to access internet?

Its ok & even wise to have both. Software one can be tricky to configure (think thats why i just switched to using the Windows SP2 firewall

)