Port Forwarding

Some of you may remember my thread where I was asking if I was having a router problem. Well, I was speaking with EnablingWolf about it, and though he says networking and routers are not his forte', he told me about port forwarding as a possible means to solve my problem with download/surfing speeds on my AOL DSL. He feels I may not have the router settings done properly. I don't even know how to get into the router settings to begin with. I just hooked both rigs up to the modem/router, installed software and set up the connection with AOL. My wife's rig is good to go and we made no special router settings on hers either.

Long story short to those who don't know...Wife's rig is fine with speeds, mine isn't. Tried switching cords, ports and switched NICs between rigs and all that, nothing helped. Found my speeds are fine while in IE when AOL is off. So there is something wrong somewhere, a conflict maybe.

Can anyone explain port forwarding and how is it done? It is my last best hope of getting AOL to pump out the speeds that it is supposed to. Otherwise I am going to cancel AOL when my contract with them is up, and try Yahoo SBC or something.

Check your Add/Remove Programs for "Port Magic." If you find it, Remove it. Its a AOL firewall/security feature that bogs down everything.

Get rid of AOL. If you have broadband, you dont need AOL. They offer the community/email services, while paying your local ISP for the actual internet service. Get rid of AOL.

AOL 9.0, even from 7.0 on was a joke. When I was a service tech, I would say 15-20% of our business came from AOL 9.0 security updates causing conflict, and Portmagic needing to be removed. Get rid of AOL.
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Port Forwarding: This is basically a router feature that allows for your to forward queries from the internet to a specific port/PC on your network.

For example: You have a PC on your network with IP: 192.168.1.100 and its a FTP Server(Port: 21). Your IP thru your ISP is: 70.85.1.1.

When someone accesses your FTP server from the net, the router forwards them thru Port 21 to the assigned terminal = 192.168.1.100

I checked, and I thought Port Magic was in there, but it isn't showing up. I don't remember taking it out, but it's not there.

And believe you me, I want to get rid of AOL even more since they expanded their front screen and filled half of it with advertising!

Fortforwarding, won't help with internet and downloading, forforwarding I have seen set up for certain games that require that, bittorent programs.

Sbs yahoo isn't that great either, that's based on my experience in my area.

Port Forwarding. <------

I have yet to play a game that requires me, the client, to forward ANY port in order to play. Its when you run a dedicated server you forward ports. UT, BFV, etc...

Bittorrent: I have yet to have to forward ports for this as well, I don't know what client you use, but I think you may have firewall ports and Port Forwarding a little misconstrued.

SBC is a DSL service, and CO Distance and saturation are the 2 biggest issues. With the latter not even a consideration in comparison to Distance. Been with them 6+ years in 3 different locations, I highly recommend them.

I don't really do the LAN game thing, I prefer to play alone so that's not an issue.

I don't have a bittorent client at the moment, but that could change. EW wants to help me in that area. But I am basically trying to figure out why my download speeds in AOL suck big time, but they are fine in IE. Like I said, my wife uses AOL as well, and she has no problems at all.

Check your network settings on your computer.... make sure you are set for 100Mbps and Full Duplex. also try another switch port.

skidooosl said:

Check your network settings on your computer.... make sure you are set for 100Mbps and Full Duplex. also try another switch port.

Click to expand...

It is set for 100/Full Duplex and has been since another member suggested it, but the problem remains. I just think AOL is having a problem on my rig, since I get good speeds within IE. So this means my network connections are set up right, and it isn't necessarily my rig with the problem, but AOL is having a problem.

Gig-O-Ram said:

I don't really do the LAN game thing, I prefer to play alone so that's not an issue.

I don't have a bittorent client at the moment, but that could change. EW wants to help me in that area. But I am basically trying to figure out why my download speeds in AOL suck big time, but they are fine in IE. Like I said, my wife uses AOL as well, and she has no problems at all.

Click to expand...

So if IE anf firefox work fine, why would you want to use aol interface?

Call AOL it is definitely a problem with the AOL software on your computer.

Didn't read all of the posts, but this has nothing to do with Port Forwarding. Port Forwarding issues have no relation to performance problems... A port forwarding problem would be a connectivity problem. In other words, slowness isn't ever caused by port forwarding; but not being able to make a connection could be a symptom of incorrect port forwarding.

I would uninstall, reboot, and reinstall AOL and see if this makes any difference.

Other than that, I would remove your wife's machine and the router from the equation then continue troubleshooting. Connect directly to the modem and observe performance. This should help you find where the problem lies.

I don't know why Kendan hates you, but I wouldn't wish for my worst enemy to have to speak with AOL support. Seriously, I would just forget going through AOL for browsing downloading if I were you, if you cannot solve the problem yourself. Their support is abysmal.

He ahs AOL because his wife uses AOl

You CAN access AOl service via IE - www.aol.com - you dont have to use the AOL software.

I.M.O.G. said:

Didn't read all of the posts, but this has nothing to do with Port Forwarding. Port Forwarding issues have no relation to performance problems... A port forwarding problem would be a connectivity problem. In other words, slowness isn't ever caused by port forwarding; but not being able to make a connection could be a symptom of incorrect port forwarding.

I would uninstall, reboot, and reinstall AOL and see if this makes any difference.

Other than that, I would remove your wife's machine and the router from the equation then continue troubleshooting. Connect directly to the modem and observe performance. This should help you find where the problem lies.

I don't know why Kendan hates you, but I wouldn't wish for my worst enemy to have to speak with AOL support. Seriously, I would just forget going through AOL for browsing downloading if I were you, if you cannot solve the problem yourself. Their support is abysmal.

Click to expand...

I had never heard of port forwarding until EW mentioned it to me. As far as doing the uninstall/reinstall of AOL, I'm way ahead of you on that one...per AOL's lousy advice I already tried it three times to no avail because the software had some sort of problem when it reinstalled and I went through this
whole "AOL-will-now-install-the-software-needed-to-connect-and-needs-to- restart-blah-blah-blah-then-restart-only-to-get-the-same-message-again" loop about half a dozen times before doing a system restore just in order to get it back.

I have also connected directly through the modem and have gotten top speeds in both AOL and IE. It is only when my rig is hooked up on the router that I have the problem in AOL. I tried buying a new router to see if that would help...it didn't. So as a result, I have been spending more time in IE for surfing (especially here at OCF) and downloading.

But thank you for your advice and suggestions.

We can scratch that off the list.

I didn't want to advise you to start messing with your router settings and break your connection. There is alot of areas of computers I lack in. One thing I know, if in doubt come to were our peers hang out. Since I don't have a router on my setup, I never had a chance to mess with one in depth. The ones I have fiddled with were on a LAN. So not much except using like it like a switch.

I still suggest learning how your router works, so you have that in your toolbox for later. It might be handy later.

Like we was talking about via IM, and Matt told you( he is pretty good with networking ). It isn't the router. Least you can tell AOL that is not the issue, even though they try to insist it is.

Just keep using what you been using for now. Think how much it would cost you to burn the contract versus, switching out to another provider. Like I mentioned, the DSL market in your area is very crowded.

Wanders off to read on routers some more.

Sounds like the AOL you are trying to install is bad try to download a fresh copy or go find one of the millions of CD's they have floating around. Personally I would try to avoid using there software.


p.s. I don't hate you, I just want AOL to have to deal with the problems that they create.

Kendan said:

Sounds like the AOL you are trying to install is bad try to download a fresh copy or go find one of the millions of CD's they have floating around. Personally I would try to avoid using there software.


p.s. I don't hate you, I just want AOL to have to deal with the problems that they create.

Click to expand...

Well the weird thing is that it did actually install correctly the first time I did the reinstall, but I think I did something wrong in the connection setup so I redid it again, and thats when I started having problems.

I know what you are saying about AOL...the last guy I talked to there actually told me, and I quote, "I don't want to hear about what other techs told you...I was expecting to hear you say this because we have a database of problems..." So much for customer service.

Look here regarding port forwarding.