Mac- Stealth connection

[olddude]

For the life of me (I'm talking 20 hours of messing with my connections) I can't get my iMac iSight G5 PPC running Airport Express and a DSL Zyxel P600 modem to connect without stealth showing up. I had everything ok once, when I had a direct line, but I had to change to a new modem (Earthlink provided both) and added the Airport to please the wife, who hates wires. I get excellent up and down speeds, with good connectability, but I still show up as "possibly firewalled" here. Using Bits on Wheels and Transmission- was using Azureus, but way too many variables in that! Other places show me as connectable or simply don't list. I ran the port check avaiable here and it reported back stealth. Stealth is NOT checked on the Mac, so it must be connections. I have a static IP address, ports opened in my Mac firewall, my Airport, and my modem. I think some setting is not right on the modem, but it could be how the Airport is set up. Any Macnerds (my wife's term) out there have any clues???? Help would really be appreciated.

[direwolf-pgh]

its almost always about the router/firewall config.

lets say your torrent client is 'listening' on port 6881..
you dont open port 6881 or ports 6881-6889 (on your router) to your static IP (on port 6881)..
other people are offering torrent pieces - on many-many 'other ports' (whatever they pick)
you need to open (accept) ALL ports on your router to your ONE port & IP address.

revision/nutshell:
your torrent client only works on ONE port - but needs to accept from Every/All ports.

hope that makes sense.

[olddude]

OK- let's say that the Airport is my router (my modem is a straight modem, not a combo). You're saying that the Airport (router) is the issue here, right? My clients (Bits on Wheels and Transmission) are set for 63150 for bittorrents (6881 is reserved for Acquisition). My static IP on my computer is set for 10.0.1.2. How do I open all ports to my one port/ip address on my Airport? Is that what you are suggesting? My Airport is using a 192.x address, I believe. So I guess what I am saying is, can you run that by me again, with perhaps a bit more- uh- gee, he's really stupid, I need to do a 1,2,3 type of thing so the fool gets it? Thanks.

[direwolf-pgh]

this is the WRONG way to config your Airport router.
http://www.blueskyis.com/bittorrent/...forwarding.php

see how they only opened ports 6881-6889 in the last step.
WRONG.

it only needs to be one line - one rule !

look at the graphic.. in this example it should read:

Public port = ALL
private IP = 10.0.1.2
private port = 6881 (for their example.. its whatever port you pick for your client. many choose a port over 48000)

you want ALL ports available and open to your one torrent client port.
thats the fact jack.

[olddude]

OK- makes sense. However, how do I indicate ALL in the line? The Airport Admin Utility will only accept numbers, so I can't type in "ALL." I tried putting in 0-x, but it won't take the hyphen. Is there a secret this fool is not getting? Thanks again for your help, I'm hoping the 3rd time is the charm and my connectability will magically open like the gates to heaven!!

[direwolf-pgh]

olddude, we have a problem.

you are correct.
the Apple Airport Extreme only allows port-to-port mapping.
that is why you see configs trying to open 10 ports, one by one. (20 port max).
you can only have a total of 20 individual ports open (not good for torrents)

the only way around it (that I've read) is to put your workstation in the DMZ (outside the firewall) using the Airport Admin Utility. this is bad idea.

No offence, but I would dump that wireless router first chance I get..
If anyone else has an idea.. help.

i read this recent thread from mac users & its grim all over.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread....9594&tstart=60

[U2Lynne]

I'm sorry I'm no help here. We do have wireless but it isn't an airport extreme.

[olddude]

Well, as the Brits say, I'm buggered. I bought the Airport (Express, not Extreme) to please the wife. We had/have a Linksys for her PC (boo) and I was hardwired from it into my Mac. If I reverted to that, there is still the "wires all over the freakin' house" issue, and I am trying to avoid issues (yes dear, of course you are right). I'm not sure my machine will even work with it wirelessly (I have a built-in Airport card, would it even speak with the L router?). I was just trying to be a good citizen and enable the most possible connectivity. As it stands, everywhere I dl from shows good ratio (1.99 from Demonoid, 1.37 on Dime, 1.52 here, etc.), and my speeds are good (75kBs + up and 300 kBs+ down), so I may have to live with this until I can figure out how to hardwire my system or Apple fixes firmware. Thanks, everyone, for the help. I really appreciate it. Sorry we couldn't work it out. BTW, I had no drop-out problem with Azureus or other apps, just this stupid connectability issue after getting the Airport.

[olddude]

Found this:

There is a maximum of 20 Port Mapping entries that can be made in an Apple base station configuration. If you use an AirPort Extreme or AirPort Express base station there is an option which can be helpful in the case where you need many ports opened to a single computer. This is the Default Host option. When using this it is not necessary to use Port Mapping at all as all ports will be opened to the specified Default Host. This is found in Base Station Options. The default IP address for the Default Host is 10.0.1.253. You may change this IP address. The target computer must be Manually configured as specified above with the same IP address. Since all ports are now open to this computer, you should enable and configure the Mac OS X firewall on the default host computer to protect it from intruders.

I can't figure out from this if I can assign a private port, or if all are open, public and private. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[direwolf-pgh]

that is the DMZ - and puts your mac 'out on the net'
(outside of the routers firewall settings)
you set your machine for .253 or change its IP to yours.

make damn sure your OS X firewall is on and configured.

[olddude]

Firewall is on and configured, but this sounds hinkey in the extreme. Think I'll pass. Thanks again for all of your help!