Aug 5, 2011 06:42 PM
(This post was last modified: Aug 18, 2011 04:41 AM by spikebites.)
[img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19745684/Tips%20and%20Tricks%20RATS%20copy.png[/img]
The Most Common Problems with Port Forwarding
***JUST A WARNING, LOTS OF TEXT***
(so if you rely on pictures to understand something, then go find a coloring book instead and stop trying to RAT)
After helping many people set up their rats, I have seen almost every possible problem that might cause port forwarding to fail. Here I will list the problems and briefly explain how to fix them. So read carefully. If you're stuck trying to port forward, I can guarantee you, it's because of one of these reasons.
Problem #1: When you are behind two routers and don't even know it.
This is quite common, more so than I would've thought. Most people have one dsl/cable modem and one router. Some need two routers, one for the wireless and another for the regular network. It is very simple to find out if you are indeed behind two routers.
a) First Step would be to login to your router, and find the status page. The status page is where you normally find your WAN or internet IP address. Look carefully at the WAN/Internet address, it should be identical to the IP address you find at http://whatismyip.com.
b) If it isn't, then it most likely is a local address (i.e. 192.168.X.X or 10.0.X.X) which means it's probably getting the IP from another router. Here's an example of being behind another router:
![[Image: Dtb9W.png]](https://i.imgur.com/Dtb9W.png)
c) Look at the Gateway address, and that address should be the other router's IP. So use that number, and in your browser, go to that address.
d) After logging into the other router/modem, find the DMZ page, and enter the IP address you found in step b. The first router's IP address.
I will go into greater detail on this in another tutorial, but for now, this is good enough.
Problem 2: Port forwarding to the wrong IP address (caused by DHCP)
Again, this is quite common to those people who turn off their computers every night. To make sure you are port forwarded correctly just follow these basic steps.
a) Click start and then in the run box, type CMD to open the command prompt. There, type in "ipconfig" . Find your network adapter, and look carefully at the IPV4 Address. That number should be the port you are directing it to.
b) If you look at your router port forward rules and see that your port is being forwarded to a different address, just change it to the new one. You might have to do this everytime you shut off your computer, but if you want to avoid that, simply make your IP address static by going into your network adapter properties and under IPV4, click on properties and input the exact same number into your address, and the gateway IP should always be your router IP.
c) DO NOT PUT YOUR ACTUAL EXTERNAL IP into the port forwarding rules. Some people do that, I have no idea why.
Problem 3: Firewalls in Windows
This is an obvious one. But some people overlook this simple issue.
a) Disable Windows Firewall completely. Don't bother adding an exception, just disable it. You don't need it, you have a hardware router that does its job 1000x better anyways.
b) Most anti virus software come included with a built-in Firewall. Disable that, or even uninstall it. It's not necessary.
Problem 4: Corrupted/Broke Windows Firewall
This is a big one. At one point or another, you might have been infected with a RAT such as dark comet and had your firewall corrupted but you would never have noticed it. If you DMZed your computer and still can't port forward, this is most likely the case.
a) Read this written by #1 Rat Support https://hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=1251301
b) If that doesn't work, which it should, try this... http://windowsxp.mvps.org/repairwmi.htm
Problem 5: Wrong computer names or multiple computer names
This is mainly for those with 2Wire routers from AT&T's DSL service where you have to pick the computer you wish to port forward on.
a) In 2Wire routers and Thomson routers, you have to choose the computer's name for the port forwarding rule to work. Sometimes, your name or computer will be listed multiple times and its hard to decide which one is you. Here's an example of a 2Wire router setting:
![[Image: djaC5.png]](https://i.imgur.com/djaC5.png)
b) In order to fix this and pick the right one, you have to go to the LAN settings and click on each individual device and see which one has which IP. You need to find the one that matches yours, and either try and remove the extra one or just reboot your router which might erase the extras...
c) another option would be to change your computer name so that it's different from the others. To do that, go into your control panel and under System, go to advanced settings and there should be an option for Computer Name. Change it to something else and reboot your computer. One time this guy and his dad were named Brian, so there were two entries for Brian in his router, so I changed his computer name to BrianSON, and after a quick reboot, the router saw the new name and made it easier to distinguish.
Problem 6: Multiple Rules using the same port. (applies to uPNP also)
I see this so much... people who try to port forward and fail have so many rules on their routers that its messing everything up. They have rules that forwards port 100 to 5 different computers. This will surely cause a multitude of problems.
![[Image: hfVrB.png]](https://i.imgur.com/hfVrB.png)
a) First thing you should do is RESTORE your router back to original configuration. Either that or delete every single rule you applied to your router individually until its clean, and we start from scratch.
b) Now make sure when you port forward, that you only see one instance of that port being forwarded.
c) This is especially true when using the uPNP feature. If you are forwarding port 1604 in your rules, then uPNP WILL NOT do it automatically if you choose to listen on port 1604. Let me reiterate IF YOU HAVE A UPNP ENABLED ROUTER, DO NOT TRY AND SET A PORT FORWARDING RULE. LET YOUR ROUTER DO IT, BECAUSE IF YOU TRY TO FORWARD A PORT, THEN UPNP WON'T DO IT FOR YOU.
d) If you do have uPNP option on your router, disable and re-enable it just to make sure its working, then go to your RAT program and +Listen to that port, and Listen on a few other ports as well. It should work by then.
Problem 7: DMZ is enabled
This one isn't as common, but if you have DMZ enabled for another computer, then all port traffic will flow to that other computer. Disable DMZ or enable DMZ but direct it to your computer instead.
Here's a few final tips on port forwarding...
a) Some routers require rebooting in order for it to work, so to be safe you should reboot your router everytime you make a big change. You might also want to reboot your computer just to make sure.
b) Turn on your Windows firewall to make sure its working properly, then turn it back off after its been confirmed to be working.
c) If all else fails, then maybe your router is faulty and needs to be updated with a new firmware, or perhaps a hacked firmware such as DD-WRT or Tomato.
d) If you get an error with darkcomet, it's most likely a bug, because your router doesn't support NAT Loopback or Reverse NAT.
e) ****ALWAYS BE SURE TO BE LISTENING ON THE PORT YOU ARE CHECKING ON.****
And if you still can't get it to work after all this, don't PM me because I will just be an asshole and refer you back to this thread since this pretty much sums it up as to what the problem can be. If you feel that your problem doesn't apply to this, then PM me your TV info and I'll try to fix it. But if I find out that it's because of one of these, then I won't fix it unless you write a paragraph saying how awesome I am, and how you don't know how to read.
***Thanks goes to #1 Rat Support for his awesome fix on the firewall issue... and www.pcwintech.com.
![[Image: FsxwJ.png]](https://i.imgur.com/FsxwJ.png)
![[Image: xo2.png]](https://i.ibb.co/HKMV51y/xo2.png)