Limited Network Connectivity

[rdunhill]

Hi all! I was very happy to stumble upon your software ... it looks exactly like what I need to share files with, and occassionally help out, my 84 year old father.

I have the basics all setup ... software installed on both his and my machine, signed him up at GMail, defined each other as friends, etc. But now I am playing with the software at home so I can fully understand it and configure it properly before I try to instruct my father in it's use.

The problem is that whenever I login to GBridge I get that message "Due to firewall blocking, all communications might have to be relayed." And then of course on the main GBridge screen it describes my internet connectivity as limited.

I know the problem is mine (because if I turn the firewall completely off and restart GBridge everything is fine) but try as I might I can't seem to be able to solve the problem. I feel like I am overlooking something simple and obvious but just can't put my finger on what it is.

Here's my basic setup ....

I am running WinXP Home (fully updated to SP3), Windows Firewall is not running (I have disabled the service) but I am running a software firewall and A/V package provided free by my ISP. The package is essentially a customized and repackaged subset of the F-Secure suite of software. There is no router etc involved, just a straight connection from my ethernet card to a Motorola SB5101 Surfboard cable-modem. Dad's setup is exactly the same except he's running Windows Vista Home Basic SP1.

This is my current config for GBridge ...

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/3922/gbridgeconfigvm2.jpg

and I think I have all the necessary programs setup to be allowed to run in my firewall setup ...

http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/4287/firewallem5.jpg

so I can't figure out what is wrong. I even tried the alternative in the GBridge config and my firewall software -- to manually open up TCP and UDP ports 61888 but with no luck. Here is what netstat shows if that is any help in diagnosing the problem ...

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/4042/netstatrn8.jpg


One last thing .... prior to installation of your software I was trying to run a very lean and mean machine with no networking or other Windows services running except what was absolutely necessary for me to connect to the Internet. I had a LOT of Windows services disabled. Since then I have selectively turned back on some services but maybe I am missing something there. Perhaps you can have a look and spot something I am unaware of.

List of services currently disabled ...

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/7676/servicesdisabledhl4.jpg


Thanks for any help you can provide!

[admin]

Does your firewall allow incoming/outgoing udp traffic? Likely the udp packets were filtered out.

[rdunhill]

Likely the udp packets were filtered out.

OK! After doing some more checking it turns out you are right. I thought having the programs added to the "allowed" list would allow them to use whatever resources were necessary, but it seems adding a program to the "allowed" list in my firewall software only creates what is called a "dynamic" rule, and all dynamic rules are superseded by the specific rules defined to allow or disallow specific traffic.

Of course one of the defined rules is essentially "deny rest" so that anything that isn't specifically allowed is filtered.

Can you please give me specific port ranges and directions (in or out) for both TCP and UDP, as well as a specific IP range or subnet that I need to allow in my firewall software? I think that might be good information to add to your FAQ -- I can't seem to find it there.

Thanks again!

[admin]

Can you please give me specific port ranges and directions (in or out) for both TCP and UDP, as well as a specific IP range or subnet that I need to allow in my firewall software? I think that might be good information to add to your FAQ -- I can't seem to find it there.

You can customize fixed port in the advance configure window. Then you can set your firewall rule accordingly. If you really want to set specific IP addresses for the port, please be sure to include 209.40.204.87, 209.40.204.128, 209.40.204.244 and all IP that your own computers and your friends computer that may use.

[rdunhill]

Thank You! Will try that and let you know results.

[rdunhill]

Well, try as I might I could not get things to work ... in fact in the attempt to try different things, I managed to make things even worse and break some parts that were working earlier.

I got so frustrated I decided to start all over again. Uninstalled your software, cleaned up the registry, etc. Then rebooted and reinstalled your software once again.

Lo and behold everything is working fine with all default settings! No need to manually punch holes in the firewall (other than adding the programs to the allowed list) or anything. I now seem to have reliable and consistent "EXCELLENT Network Connectivity". I also went to my dad's place and set him up as well with similarly good results. We set up and successfully tested an auto-synch of a secure file share and that worked wonderfully. Then I was able to login as me on his machine and was able to run a VNC session and access my machine and read my e-mail from his machine.

So, in the end ... I don't know what the original problem was, but everything seems to be humming along now.

Thank-you very much for what seems to be a great piece of software! I will spread the news in newgroups where I can.