uplink and WAN?
 

I just bought a Linksys router, on the
back it has uplink and WAN and 4 connections..
This online gaming software I am trying to use tells me
to switch the cable to Uplink...

What is the difference in uplink and WAN?

What does each one do?

The WAN port is the Wide Area Network interface. This is where your router is going to look for its connection to another network, such as your cable providers network, or more simply, the internet.

The uplink port on your router is there to connect other hubs and/or switches to your router. You cannot plug one hub into another hub with a straigh through cable. For this you must need a cross-over cable. To elinimate this most manufacturers have added the Uplink port switch does the function of a cross-over cable internally.

As for your game, I am not sure why they would want to you switch it. Does it work fine right now?

Okay, right after I made that post I had an epiphany.

If you hook your cable modem into the uplink port of your modem you will no longer be going through the router for internet. This means that your computer will get an external IP address from the cable modem instead of an internal IP address from your router. Most cable internet providors only allow 1-4 external IP's per customer, you would have to check with your providor about that. Just remember that if you have more computers than IPs allowed some will not be able to get online if you hook the cable modem to the uplink port.

That gaming software must not work so well through the firewall built into those routers. I would check into the documentation for that software and see if they have and How-to's for setting it up with a firewall. You will most likely need to setup port forwarding to get it to work through the firewall. Port forwarding is a much better solution that exposing yourself direcltly to the open internet.

Yeah, the gaming software does say it has problems with firewalls
in routers.


"That gaming software must not work so well through the firewall built into those routers. I would check into the documentation for that software and see if they have and How-to's for setting it up with a firewall. You will most likely need to setup port forwarding to get it to work through the firewall. Port forwarding is a much better solution that exposing yourself direcltly to the open internet."

Yeah, but if I turn my routers firewall off, and leave my computer firewall on, will I still be protected? What I am asking is, can I deal without the routers firewall?

You can just turn the firewall off, it is totally integrated. If you hook up direclty to the uplink port and disable DHCP in your router it should work. As far as being safe, if you have a good software firewall it should protect you fairly well. It will also be easier to allow the ports to be open for those gaming applications.

How many computers are on that network?

Hmm..Ok I will try that. Thanks.



"How many computers are on that network?"

At the moment just two, but soon four.

When you get 4 computers on your network you might run into problems, most cable companies limit you to 3 ips.

Well, I tried that, the software still says proxy settings found..firewall..etc..

I went to the routers ip address, clicked DHCP
and disabled it...

Are there any steps I missed?
(example: restarting computer, resetting router..anything?)

Is there anything else I can do?

1. Disable DHCP on router

2. Hook cable modem to uplink port

3. Restart Router

4. Restart computer

5. Play game online

6. Get fragged.

Ok, that worked...Thanks alot!

I have one more question though, it really doesn't
have anything to do with networking, but I've got to ask.


My computer used to restart on it's own randomly...
Now it restarts when I get to certain places...

Any idea what the problem could be?


Thanks again for the help with my last problem.

glad you got your problem solved. you might also ahve been able to put your gaming rig on a DMZ or do port forwarding, just for future refernce.

Ok, now I have another problem...

I can only use one computer (in the third slot)
unless I switch the main cable from WAN to uplink,
but then I can only use the one computer in the fourth slot...

I can't get back to the page because to re-enable the DHCP,
it keeps saying
"Page cannot be displayed" on the computer in the
fourth slot, but I can get to it on the computer in
the third slot, but everytime I try to change something
it says it has changed, but has really stayed the same....

How do I reset my router COMPLETELY?

Nevermind, I've figured that out...


James, how exactly would I do the DMZ
or port forwarding? Which one is easier, and which
do you reccomend?

The DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) is used to show network ressources to the other computers outside that network. (tell me if Im wrong) Basicly it takes ur comp and let the traffic pass trought the router to that computer (to the IP specified) without any restrictions the router would have in his config. (When you play games and all sometimes you cant because the router block the ports used by the game.

Using the DMZ option resolve that problem but it makes you open to attacks from the net. It's what I do here, I have a D-Link Router and I put myself in the dmz zone. Then I installed zone alarm on my comp to protect myself. The best would be to config ur router by specifing the input and output ports you need but Im too lazy for that.

EX:
[Network]

"Router" ---> [DMZ]

[Internet]

I hope I'm being usefull :biggrin:

1.first find out what port your game is using

2.type 192.168.1.1 in your web browser

3. click on the advanced tab

4. click on the fowarding tab

5. on the farleft type a name to keep track of the rule

6.under ext port type the port for example but not the numbers that you will use in your case (80 to 80 or ports 80 to 85)

7.Check the protocal the game will be using(more than likeley tcp)

8.Enter the ip adress that the router assigns the machine you are setting this up for usually if its in port 1 its 192.169.1.100 but that isint always true.To find this if you are running xp or 2k open run and type cmd then type ipconfig. For 98 and the like open run and type winipcfg

9.lastly check the enable filed to set activate it.

b/w 2 and 3 there will be a prompt for user/pass. leave user blank, your pass is admin (you might want to change that though ;) ). If there are other techies in your fam, learning port forwarding so you can get everyone setup with their own thing is better. but if you ahve a software firewall and get annoyed with dc connections etc, DMZ is for you (but you ARE more open to the net, so SECURE yourself)

Didn't work...
 

Ryon,
I did everything you said to do in your post...
Then the software took longer to load up, and
when I was actually going to join a server/game
it would just freeze and I would end up timing
out and getting kicked before I could even play.

Also I did a modem speed test and the speed dropped
significantly...
I had to reset the modem to get everything back
to normal.

the only thing i can suggest is that you opened the wrong port or didnt open all the ports needed by the game. All the proccess does open a hole(port) in you router. I would have no idea why in your case this wouldnt work.

Ok, say I need to open ports 6700 and 6500 (udp),
I'm guessing you know what the page looks like
becuase you described to me what to do..
Under Ext.Port it has the two slots that both say
zero with the word "to" inbetween them,
and it continues down the page...

Now if I need to open those ports would I put
6500 to 6700
or
6500 to 6500
6700 to 6700

?

To be safest just open the specif ports that you need. Such as:

6500 to 6500
6700 to 6700

cheers...

Hmm..well that's what I tried (again) and I still
get the same results..
Freezes and, or goes slow...

Do you think it could be a problem with the router?

Sorry it took so long to reply im in at home while on break from college and i gotta say dial up sucks.. any how... I cant say why its not working all i know is that it should be, but networking isint really my strongest suit. What i might suggest is to tell us what game it is that you are trying to play so that some one might have the same setup as you do and be able to help. Secondly i would suggest checking on the website for the game and look for a forum there.. I hate to turn people away from twl with out an answer but there you are more likely to find some one with a linksys router and the game you are runinng so that you will be able to find a work around i do ask that if you find a solution elsewere you post how you finally got it working here so that others may use this info

best of luck

Well, I am trying to use GameSpy arcade/Game Tunnel,
I try to host a game with my Xbox, but when the narrator says
"Game Started"
and everyone is supposedly on the same server as me, nothing
happens..no one detects my Xbox....
I've asked around the GameSpy forum, but pretty much everybody on
there is a little kid who just wants to talk sh*t...

But, thanks anyway, I'll figure it out sooner or later.