Router Help

We just got a new router, a Belkin F5D8235-4 N+ router.

Turns out it blocks loads of things default that you wouldn't expect - like irc ident didn't work properly and msn voice chat.

This wouldn't be so much of a problem but it seems you can only do 20 port forwards on the firmware - so you run out of slots fast (and with common applications i don't really know what i need to unblock - or why some games work when i haven't forwarded their ports - or does this just mean they run slower online?). And the firmware for doing these port forwards seems really annoying. Also you can't do port forwarding for every computer (so if you wanted to unblock irc for every computer you would have to do it individually for every pc - though I don't really know what you would do then as you can't have them on the same port).

I think you can always enable upnp but i heard it is a bit unreliable and it doesn't work for old games and things?

Are belkin routers and firmware really that bad or should I persevere with it?

Any suggestions would be great, thanks whether it be to stick with it and suggestions on how to use it or a better alternative

The router is for a cable connection as we are with NTL (virgin). Apparently that makes a difference?

Thanks for your time

H E L L O



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2009 09:58PM by Daniel Knott.

Go to portforward.com, or something like that. You need to enable port forwarding services, you do that in the router, not on the computers. The site has a list of all routers with instructions. Too easy.

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central

Thanks, but I know how to forward ports for an individual computer The problem is only 20 slots and also what do you do if you need to forward ports for the same thing for different computers.

H E L L O

AFAIK, you forward the port in the router, not on the computer. When you assign the port in the router for a particular service, then you can assign the computer address (it's local ip) to use that port range in the router. Different computers on the network can then use the same router port that you have assigned for a service. I'm not sure what you mean by 20 slots.
Have a look here, this is set for your router. [www.portforward.com] Do it for each individual computer if you have to.
You can also download the port checker to check that you have opened the ports correctly.

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central

The belkin router only gives you 20 slots in which to use for port forwarding. Yes you do it in the router, but what you are doing as far as I am aware is telling the router to consider to forward the port you define (on the router) to the private port (on the computer) of the ip you specify.

H E L L O

I have a Belkin, its not great but does the job. Have 3 pcs, and exbox, a ps3, a wii an iPhone 3 laptops and a netbook connected to mine, so the 20 slot limit is a pain.

However, you can open a range of ports by using a hypen (i.e 1000-1050) and that will open up those 51 ports to teh IP you have chosen


Some models (not mine ) allow you to use a comma to open up non sequential ports (i.e 1000,1020,1030-1040)

Although in saying that, i only have about 12 ports forwarded, so not that much of a limit

Sim

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Ok thanks, I think mine can probably do that - strange how it would work though, as the 2 boxes are for "starting port" and "ending port". So like you say, I imagine you could do 1002, 1030, 1050-1070, 1084. However I guess you cannot do 1002 - 1030, 1034, 1050 - 1070 or something, sadly ?

Anyway, thanks for the help

H E L L O