can't connect to irc servers

[akmsr]

hi,
i'm on cable using a linksys router. two machines are connected with it. now can't connect to irc. in the router manual it says to set port forwarding to 113 for the pc thats going to use irc client.
on the router configuration page in port forwarding tab it has 3 headers. service port range, protocol, machine ip address. under the port range it has 0 ~ 0. now where do i set 113? i tried all combinations without any success.
on the irc client help page it says this server usually uses port 6667. now what should i do?
thanx

[K A Hall]

See the attachment and try it like that. Change the IP to whatever yours is instead of .2

[glc]

You shouldn't have to forward any ports to be able to connect to IRC unless the server refuses connections to clients that have ident disabled. If this is the case, the only port you have to forward is 113 and you must enable the ident server in your IRC client software. Note that this is a popular port for hackers to exploit. 6667 is not YOUR local port, it's the port on the server, do NOT forward that one. You will be connecting on a random port from 1024 to 4000 something.

[akmsr]

ok, i forwarded only port 113 as in k a hall's picture. not the 6667. in my irc client software ident server is enabled. but the same thing is happenning. 'unable to connect to irc server.'

[glc]

Have you tried different servers on that particular IRC network - and possibly different ports than 6667?

Which network are you trying to use - I may have some info for you.

[akmsr]

yup tried 7/8 of them. didn't check any other ports. dalnet, efnet, undernet. tried all of them. same error message. using the new mirc 6.01 client software.
i'm getting suspicious of my internet connection. this is the first time tried to use irc after swiching to cable internet from dial up. i just noticed that i can't connect to live update server of norton antivirus either. it says check the internet connection like i'm disconnected or something like that. and in the event viewer i'm getting random errors called 'netbt' and 'browser'

[akmsr]

this is the error i'm getting in the event viewer under 'netbt'
The name "WORKGROUP :1d" could not be registered on the Interface with IP address 192.168.1.101. The machine with the IP address 192.168.1.100 did not allow the name to be claimed by this machine.

this is the error i'm getting under 'browser'
The browser was unable to promote itself to master browser. The computer that currently believes it is the master browser is PRO1.

last year when i started using xp (from win2k) if i remember correctly the computer name was given 'pro1' and workgroup was left blank i think. in last march when my roommate upgraded to xp from win98, i installed it for him and same thing was done for him for computer name and workgroup i believe. at that time we were using separate phone lines, different dial up isps. now we're sharing a single cable internet account using a router for a week and half and i started noticing these errors. i can browse internet and download mp3's without any problem whatsoever. within the next week i'm going to reformat and start afresh. should i change the computer name and what about the workgroup? should it be the same?
how can i check the name of the workgroup that i have now.
p.s. 192.168.1.101 is my machine and 192.168.1.100 is my roommate's given by the router. his machine retained the name pro1 and mine changed to pro automatically.

[glc]

Time to check your router setup - I would guess that maybe the ISP setup is not right. Clients should be pure DHCP, no gateway, no DNS. I would start by removing all entries on the ISP setup page and let the router try to sort it - that works for me in 95% of the cable installs I do.

[akmsr]

router set up was done according to the manual provided by linksys. dynamic ip provided by isp. dhcp is enabled. configured to get ip automatically. no dns.

[glc]

Manually rename both computers and change the workgroup. Release and renew the IP addresses.

[akmsr]

changed my machine's name. my roommates not home. shouldn't the workgroup's name be same on both machines? since they are connected with same router and sharing same internet connection.

[glc]

Yes, workgroup must be the same to share files (but not just to get Internet access) and the machines need to have discrete names with no punctuation or underscores. If your machine browses fine and gets e-mail, there is no reason why it shouldn't connect to an IRC server unless the IRC network's "open proxy" scanner is finding your port 1080 (Socks) or 23 (Telnet) open. If you have the firewall settings enabled in your IRC client, get rid of them, that's for using an external proxy.

[akmsr]

thanx glc it worked. sorry for the late. was busy for couple of days. changed my workgroup and all the errors are gone and everything is working. thanx again