WinMX and NAT firewalls - DSL

[troubleshooter]

Hi all,

I am running my ADSL on a Draytek Vigor 2200USB Router which takes a USB modem. The router has a NAT firewall built in and this works fine for almost everything. However, on WinMX, I cannot get the system to actually allow uploads.

It worked fine when the USB modem was plugged into the USB port on the PC, but I am using the router to serve the whole house.

I also have Norton Personal Firewall running for extra security (belt and braces), however even with this disabled uploads in WinMX always time-out. Not one has worked since I started using the router.

I have set up the port filtering to allow WinMX, or at least so I thought. The configuration is displayed in the JPG file linked to below, sorry it's a bit big at 517k.

http://www.compnetserv.co.uk/router.jpg

Can anyone tell me by looking at this what I need to do to get this working? I have WinMX set up as making a secondary connection, but I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Any advice gratefully received.

Troubleshooter

[TheOldMan]

Troubleshooter,

I'm confused. You say you can not get WinMX to do uploads but all the firewall rules are set for INCOMING traffic. These would be downloads.

No need to set NAT to allow WinMX to work. Just go into the settings and check "unable to accept ..." for both Incoming TCP packets and UDP datagrams. WinMX will still work fine.

Hope that helps.
The Old Man

[troubleshooter]

Thanks for replying OldMan.

The firewall rules are set for incoming traffic deliberately so that WinMX can listen on ports that it has not made an outbound connection on. It's set up to allowthe open port to listen for incoming data.

However, It still won't upload. I don't want to give in and select the "unable to accept", I'm sure I can get it to work with the right settings.

[TheOldMan]

Troubleshooter,

All you should need to do is map TCP port 6699 INCOMING to your IP address and UDP port 6257 BOTH DIRECTIONS to your IP address.

From a WinMX FAQ:
=============
5.1. How Do I Use WinMX with My Firewall?
It depends on what firewall you are using. With something like ZoneAlarm you just allow WinMX to access the internet, and act as a server, and it will work fine. Otherwise, you have two options:

Option 1

You can map an incoming TCP/IP port to the machine running WinMX.

If you are using a home router or software router (such as ZoneAlarm) this is a very simple procedure, which will be outlined in the documentation that came with your firewall or router. If you are behind a corporate firewall or proxy, you will need to ask your network administrator to do this for you. Some network administrators may not want to do this, in which case you should use Option 2 below. In either case, you will need to know the port number to map. This can be found by going into the WinMX connection settings, and clicking the "Network / Proxy Settings" button. The port number you need to map will appear below where it says "Incoming Connections".

Option 2

You can put WinMX into "Firewall Mode".

This mode doesn't need to have any incoming connections, but will reduce search results because you will be unable to download from other users that are in the same mode (as neither side will be able to accept a connection). Uploads will be pushed outward when in firewalled mode instead of waiting for an incoming connection. To put WinMX into firewall mode, go into the "Connection Settings" click the "Network / Proxy Settings" button, and below where it says "Incoming Connections", select "Unable to accept incoming connections".

===================

Hope that helps.
The Old Man

[troubleshooter]

Well it's working now - I hadn't actually changed my firewall settings from the the posted configuration, just changed the setting in WinMX.

Thanks OldMan, I thought that that setting would have prevented uploads, but you've shown me something new.

Cheers, as we say in the UK.

Troubleshooter