Unblocking listening port

[williamscel]

i am always seen a yellow light at the bottom left corner of my bitcomet screen. it says my listening port is blocked how do i unblock it.

[kluelos]

You unblock it by opening that port in the firewall(s) that are blocking it.

[Vasy]

Hi! Um...read this Announcement first. ;)

[blizzard0c]

My major problem is that the listen port says it is blocked by the firewall

1) What version of BitComet are you using?

1.14.7.31

2) What type of Internet connection do you have (ADSL, etc.)?

(IDK) AT&T U-Verse through the phone jack. 10 Meg Dedicated Connection wireless and hard wire ethernet

3) Do you have a modem? Do you use a router? What model? Have you forwarded your port?

Port Forwarding settings I have tried are default and the following pictures are the other ways (easier then missing a detail).

None of them have made the "Listening Port Blocked" alert go away.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i181/blizzard0c/allportsopen.jpg

I have a Gateway... (router, modem, firewall all in one)

Model: 3800HGV-B Gateway

Hardware Version: 2700-100531-006

Software Version: 5.29.105.94 [/b]

4) What version of Windows, Firewall and Antivirus do you use?

Windows XP Professional (My own copy not pirated if that makes a differance)

ZoneAlarm Security Suite (disabled and shut it down to see if that was the problem, no change)

5) If you are asking about a specific torrent or file that you have downloaded, make sure that you include the complete torrent name, as well as the complete names of the files and their respective extensions/formats (e.g.: .rar, .wma, .bin, .cue, etc.).

Save location: C:\Downloads\Crysis-Razor1911

Files size: 6.02 GB Selected: 6.02 GB

Progress: 23.0% ( 4.63 GB left )

Torrent: C:\Program Files\BitComet\torrents\Crysis-Razor1911.torrent

InfoHash: e07a0ed5c2a43bca39e9c91535e96277a43d38d8 Piece size: 4 MB

Comment:

Tags:

Connections: Seeds: 3(Max possible: 6) Peers: 20(Max possible: 83) Connecting: 7

Download Rate: 74 kB/s, Downloaded bytes: 225.62 MB, including LT seed: 0 kB/s(0 B), ED source: 0 kB/s(0 B)

Upload Rate: 130 kB/s, Uploaded bytes: 475.51 MB

Created time: 2009.09.11 18:59:59

Finish time:

Time elapsed: 10:57:12(download only) 10:57:12(total)

Downloaded: 1.44 GB ( 38 kB/s)

Uploaded: 4.24 GB ( 112 kB/s)

Publish date: 2007.11.11

6) For speed-related issues, please run various speed tests at a site such as speedtest.net (make sure that no other computer is using your Internet connection and that all other programs - including BitComet - are closed, during the tests). Include the results, along with the settings that you are presently using, in your post, so that we may review and offer suggestions to improve its performance.

Ok According to the following is my speed:

Gateway:

Down:25216 kbps

Up:2048 kbps

Bandwith.com (recommended by my isp)

Down:2456 kbps

Up:1345 kbps

Speedtest.net

Down:8.33 Mb/s

Up: 1.44 Mb/s

[kluelos]

When you have more than one firewall, you are not safer, you just get more management headaches. You do, however, need at least one. Never connect to the internet without a known working firewall, because your computer can be taken over within minutes of doing so.

Most of the email spam you get, comes to you from somebody who did just that -- their computers are now serving somebody else.

The screen shots that you posted need more explanation. Where do these come from? Where did you go to get to those screens? Is there a separate way to manage your router? Are you able to get to it?

In the meantime I do suggest that you uninstall ZoneAlarm. It has a long history of creating problems, and generally can't be shut down -- you have to uninstall it to get it to quit. There are free applications that perform each of the suite functions, but are not nearly so badly behaved.

A firewall is like a fence. Opening a port is like opening a gate. If you have five fences, opening a gate in one of them isn't going to make any difference because traffic gets blocked by the other(s). It only takes one that's closed to block you. All five must be opened. You don't need five fences. If you have five, then everything you do to configure one must be repeated to configure the other four too.

You've got, apparently, one firewall built into Windows, one in ZoneAlarm, one in the router, one in Uverse, though this may be the same as the router. This is serious overkill. No wonder nothing's working.

You've opened a whole swath of ports in the Uverse firewall. Either way, that's a really bad idea. If you're going to use the Uverse firewall, whatever it actually is, then close those ports. Open only the one(s) you actually need. (BitComet only needs/uses one.) If you're not going to use the Uverse firewall, you should disable that firewall completely.

[blizzard0c]

I figured it out!

Sorry I did not have much time to explain my problems and failed attempts to fix them. Since I am deploying this Friday I'm extreeeeeemly busy trying to get ready.

I may have misled my help by capitalizing the letter "G" in gateway (I was not referring to my computer's manufacturer, it was built by me) while describing my connection hardware. I guess it more of a new device U-Verse (AT&T's high speed internet service) uses to connect you to the internet. This device that U-Verse calls a "gateway" acts as a Modem, Router (wireless and hardwire), Firewall and Switch all in one device (I found out it can also be used to manage file sharing restrictions on my LAN). It is also accessed the same way as your typical router would be.

The major difference in setting up the port forwarding on it is quite simple yet I had not previously dealt with. With most routers you can set up your ports with the I.P. address (eg. 192.168.2.1:65000) and pick TCP and UDP at the same time (application affiliation optional) and be done with it once the settings are saved.

The firewall in the gateway comes by default at the maximum settings without blocking all internet (from what I've seen most do). The way it was done successfully on the gateway was, TCP and UDP had to be set up separately and associated with a program/application first. Since BitComet was not a preset application on the pre-programmed list containing many popular games. I had to in a sense create a profile for BitComet which contained only the ports I wanted open and algorithms used with timeout parameters (this profile does not contain any ip addresses). [if you have a U-Verse gateway... Open it just as you would any other router. Click on the Firewall tab ---> enter your password -----> Firewall Settings -----> in fine print you will see "Add a new user-defined application" Click it and create the BitComet profile) Once that was done and saved it became an option on the list. I had to now Select the option "Allow individual application" and "Add" BitComet to the hosted applications list.

That wasn’t enough... of course, right?? No IP has been selected (what was so frustrating to me is I could not figure out how to add an IP address).

Next, Click on the home network tab -----> Click "Edit firewall settings" in the same box as the computer you are wanting to host BitComet. Add BitComet to the "Hosted Applications" list save your settings and your good!

Well I hope this helps more people get that Green Smile Face because I see a lot of Yellow Frowns that are being awesome enough to seed.

Thanks for the pointers on Spyware, Malware, add a ware. I understand your analogy about firewalls but my problem was that many programs do not have the same "virus"-defenitions. For instance... I used Macafee for a while and couldnt standit b/c stuff was always getting through (and I'm not even a p*** junky) I used symantic corporate b/c its free for military. A friend of mine (who is an amaizing hacker) suggested Zone Alarm. So I tried the trial and it found hundreds of things Macafee and Symantic missed. After it was done cleaning up my computer it ran a million times better. So I have stuck with it thinking they are more on top of their s***...

Any more pointers on this subject are welcome.

Thanks again for your help.

~ blizzard0c ~

Edited September 15, 2009 by greywizard
Removed advertising URLs (see edit history)

[greywizard]

First, congratulations on your success. I bet you feel a lot much better having solved this one on your own.

As for this:

Well I hope this helps more people get that Green Smile Face because I see a lot of Yellow Frowns that are being awesome enough to seed.

you should know that the green light which you can find in the status bar of Bitcomet can be an indicator to you if your listen port is open or not. The little icons you see in the Peers panel on the other hand, have an entirely different meaning. If you want to know more read here.