Thread: Opening a Port: For Dummies!

I'm on uTorrent and it says I need to "open up a port so others can connect to me"


can someone post/link to step by step instructions in layman's terms (read: So a Grade 5 student can do it) I know basic computer... stuff... but I don't understand when they get really technical sounding. lol

In case you're curious
Explanation of what port forwarding is / does, here
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...6&postcount=23

Re-reading this, I think I've done a pretty crap job at explaining things, so
If you're not sure about any of this, just post back your router make & model

most routers have a web interface
basically, open up your browser and connect to your router
Eg. mine is http://192.168.1.1

If you're not sure
check your network status (it's in control panel)
The "default gateway" is your router, and it should tell you what your routers IP address is

what you're after is called many different things by different manufacturers
sometimes called "port forwarding", sometimes "virtual servers"

but it'll be somewhere (hopefully) and it'll allow you to specify what internal IP address (your computer's IP) packets on specific ports get forwarded to

and looks something like this


Basically, when my router gets a hit from outside on port 22
it forwards it to my file server (which is 192.168.1.12)

*edit*
also, if you have a personal firewall
make sure it's configured to allow the connections on that port
(otherwise, your router will forward the connection to your machine ok, but your firewall will block it)

[Edit] I found a site with instructions, http://www.portforward.com/english/r...W/Utorrent.htm but they're way off.