Closed ports for LimeWire and BitTorrent

I have successfully installed both LimeWire (TCP-4662 UDP-4672) and BitTorrent (27177), and a colleague of mine suggested that for a truly efficient download experience, I really ought to ensure the specific ports used by these programs are properly opened within my firewall. Following his advice, I went ahead and followed his instructions to open them in the Windows firewall, which I believe I executed correctly.
However, upon attempting to verify the status using Port Scanner, I was met with rather discouraging news: it indicates that all my ports remain closed, displaying the message "Your port is NOT OPEN or not reachable!"

For those who might be able to assist, here are the technical specifications of my current setup:
Windows XP SP3
Avast Antivirus
A generic Wi-Fi DSL ROUTER "Netgear Nighthawk" provided by my local ISP
I would be immensely grateful for any guidance you could provide.

Look, just find here your router and the manual on how to open ports on it.

You shouldn't have touched anything in the Windows firewall, since those programs usually just add themselves to the exceptions list anyway...

Look, if you actually opened those ports correctly, they won't show up as open unless you're actually running some data through them. Just download something to test it.

Could someone please provide an explanation?
I am asking for a direct, concrete answer here, not just a collection of links.

Man, dustypuma5 already dropped the link to the instructions right there for you.

Is it really all that much trouble to just click through a few links and see how everything functions?

Carl Fowler said:Can someone please explain this?
Just give me a straight answer, not some random links.

Get your $83 ready and I can swing by your place later to check it out for you. 🙂

Look, I sent you a link where you gotta find your router, click it, pick which app needs the ports opened, and then it'll give you a step-by-step guide on how to do it.

So yeah, you can do it that way, or I can just come over and fix it for you based on my rates above.

I could also just type out the tutorial right here, but that’ll cost you about the same amount via Venmo.

Up to you...
🙂

My apologies, truly.
I have been sitting here for well over half an hour attempting to troubleshoot this issue, but I haven't made any headway whatsoever.
I will touch base with you later on once I determine whether I’ve managed to crack it or if I am still stuck in the mud.
Please accept my apologies once again.

Whatever. But if you spent half an hour actually figuring out how ports work, you might actually learn something. I guess since you're always messing around with this stuff, knowing the basics isn't the worst thing in the world.

Just don't be lazy or act like a know-it-all. That'll cost you. If you actually put in some effort, maybe you'll get that feeling of, "yeah, I fixed this myself..."

dustypuma5 said:Look, just go right here, find your router, and follow the manual on how to open the ports.

You shouldn't have messed with the Windows firewall in the first place—those programs usually just add themselves to the exceptions list automatically...

I'm dealing with something pretty much the same.
Our torrent ports are totally blocked, so we can't download a single thing.😳
I have access to the router, so could I use that tutorial above to unblock them?
And if I do manage to unblock them, is there any way to see who actually did the blocking?
Is there some other workaround, like switching the torrent to a different port? I tried messing around in the client settings, but the download still won't budge.
Even using a proxy isn't doing squat.

jadeseal81 said:I've got a similar issue.
Our torrent ports are blocked, so we can't download anything.😳
I have access to the router, so could I unblock them using that tutorial above?
And if I do unblock them, is there any way to find out who did it?
Is there some other method, like switching the torrent to a different port? I tried messing around in the client, but nothing's downloading.
Proxies aren't working either.

Hm, so you basically hopped on someone else's Wi-Fi and now you want to open ports on their router to download stuff via BitTorrent...

If that's what's happening, you gotta realize that torrents can seriously tank the connection speed, plus opening ports on a router just creates potential security holes in their system.

If I'm right, I'd probably rethink if this is even worth doing to someone else.

You can open ports following that guide above, and I guess they might be able to see you in the router logs (not totally sure, but I think it stays logged under which account and local IP made the changes).

Haven't messed with torrents in a while so I don't know if there's another way, but there used to be a tutorial on this forum about torrenting, so maybe ask those guys if there's a way to bypass router ports through the client itself.

dustypuma5 said:So, basically, you picked a fight with someone online and now you want to mess with their router settings to open ports just so you can download torrents...

If that's what's actually happening, you better realize that torrenting can absolutely murder a connection speed. Plus, opening ports on someone else's router is basically handing out keys to their security vulnerabilities.

If I'm reading you right, I’d seriously rethink whether this is even worth doing to someone else in the first place.

You can follow the steps above to open the ports, but honestly, they could probably track you through the router logs—I'm not 100% sure, but usually, it leaves a trail showing which account and local IP address made the changes.

I haven't messed with torrents in ages, so I don't know if there's a workaround, but there used to be a tutorial on this forum about torrenting. You should probably head over there and ask if there's a way to bypass router port forwarding directly within the client itself.

Look, I didn't "pick a fight" with anyone. I just said I have physical access to the router.
The situation is this: at my university, the internet speed is actually pretty solid, but since so many people are using it, they've blocked torrents and all that stuff to stop the bandwidth from getting choked out.
I've got some stuff to take care of over the next few weekends, so I'll be stuck on campus during the weekend when the place is basically a ghost town. I figured I'd take advantage of the empty network to grab some media.😍

It’s like trying to drive a custom rig through a high-security checkpoint... you're hooked up to the NSFNET infrastructure now... and NSFNET only plays nice with the standard, well-known ports and network services...

So, look, you could (theoretically) open those ports on your "local" segment over at the university, but that only works for incoming and outgoing traffic hitting your specific router. Once you hit the very next HOP in the chain, those ports are still slammed shut. The traffic just isn't going to make it past the main gateway to reach your router in the first place.

Jason Harris5 said:That Bandić-style nonsense... it just wouldn't fly... you're hooked up to the NSFNET infrastructure... and NSFNET only plays nice with well-known ports and network services...

Look, you could (theoretically) open those ports on your "local" segment at the university, sure. But that only works for incoming and outgoing traffic on *your* specific router. Once you hit the very next HOP to the next router in the network, those ports are still slammed shut. Traffic on those ports isn't even going to make it to your router in the first place.

Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that comes down to whatever the sysadmin at the college decides, because it's actually enabled over at some other campuses (and student dorms).

jadeseal81 said:Yeah, but I think it really just comes down to whatever the IT admin at the university decides, because at some other colleges—and even the dorms—it’s totally wide open.

Sure, it might be "allowed," but that doesn't mean they aren't watching or keeping tabs on who's doing what. That's exactly why you see THESE KIND OF posts, and honestly, it's why people use apps that authenticate you on the network so your identity is tied to your activity.

Just stick to torrents if you want. But hey, when you eventually lose your campus internet access or end up getting a formal reprimand, you can ask yourself HOW and WHY.

You can't hide torrenting at the network level, not even with packet encryption. And hiding your identity is basically impossible once you're on an NSFNET-connected campus network. NSFNET is the backbone here, and they're the ones running the show for CERT in the US.

I mean, if you're willing to risk your enrollment or deal with legal headaches over a few gigs of movies or adult content... well, go for it. But NSFNET monitors all its networks and affiliated institutions. It's not like they're jumping on every little thing immediately, but... man, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't play games like that. Especially not using someone else's hardware that you just happen to have access to. Plus, doing it on a weekend when "nobody's around" just makes it easier to blame the cleaning crew or some random glitch instead of you.

Cheers!

jadeseal81 said:I didn't say I was hooked up to anyone's net, I just said I have access to the router (physically).

My bad, totally misunderstood you. 🙂
When I say I have access to the router, I mean I can get into the settings. Mine is two floors away and I haven't actually seen the thing in ages—so no physical access, but I've got what matters. 🙂

As for this whole mess, Jason Harris5 pretty much nailed it. I guess don't mess around with it.

dustypuma5 said:My bad, I totally misread you there. 🙂
When I talk about having access to the router, I mean being able to jump into the settings. My gear is two floors away from me and I haven't laid eyes on it in ages—so yeah, no physical access, but I can still get into the guts of it remotely. 🙂

As for this whole situation, Jason Harris5 pretty much nailed it. Don't go messing around with it.

Total injustice, absolute robbery 😛
Bella is blocked, my torrents are dead, and basically, I'm only allowed to use the internet for "academic purposes" now. 👎😂
Does anyone have a clue how Playtoy got blocked? I seriously doubt NSFNET is behind this.

jadeseal81 said:It’s such a joke, seriously. 😛
Bella got blocked, my torrents are dead, and I can basically only use the web for "school stuff" now.👎😂
Anyone know how they even block Playtoy? I doubt it's because of NSFNET.

I'm pretty sure it is. They're just blocking specific URLs at the router level.

Maybe try grabbing a high-power wireless antenna (like an Air Live 1700) to snag a signal from someone outside the school network so you can play Playtoy.
But then you're back to square one with the torrent situation I mentioned earlier. 😁

dustypuma5 said:I’ve got a bad feeling about that. They’re likely blocking specific URLs right at the router level.

Just imagine if you tried picking up some high-power wireless antenna—like an Air Live 1700, for instance—to snag a signal from someone outside the university network just to mess around.
But even then, you’d run straight into the same issues I mentioned earlier regarding torrents. 😁

I really don't buy the idea that they're just blocking by DNS name... I mean... I wouldn't set it up that way because you could easily bypass it just by typing in the IP address instead of the domain in your browser.

Then you've got SPI firewalls—honestly, most of them nowadays are SPI anyway.

And it works like this: the firewall just takes one look at the MIME-TYPE info inside the packet and goes... "Whoa, hold up! Flash? Absolutely not!"... so it just kills the packet right there and refuses to deliver it. Boom! Gone! Tossed straight into the trash!

dustypuma5 said:I'm pretty sure it is. They block specific URLs right at the router level.

Just try buying some high-powered wireless antenna (like a Boeing 747) and see if you can snag someone outside that academic bubble to mess around with Playtoy.
But then you run into the exact issue I mentioned earlier regarding torrents. 😁

Look, I’m not some massive torrent addict, I just wanted to experiment a bit and see what kind of speeds I could pull.
I spent some time messing around with BackTrack and WEP keys, plus tinkering with Linksys modems, but Playtoy isn't even an issue for me because I don't know how to play anything like Spades anyway. 😁

Jason Harris5 said:I don't buy that it's just a simple DNS block... I mean, I wouldn't set it up that way because you could easily bypass that by just using the IP address instead of the domain name in your browser.

We have SPI firewalls now—actually, most modern ones are SPI.

So basically, the firewall just checks the File Extension info in the packet and sees... boom—FLASH! Flash is a hard NO... so they kill the packet and it goes nowhere. Bam! Toss it in the trash!

It's totally plausible that Flash is being blocked, since any card games are essentially disabled; it lets you log into Playtoy just fine, but it won't load the rooms or let the actual game start.