I have recently installed a wireless LAN at home, using the D-link
wireless router (DI-713P wireless gateway). After installation of the
router, I am unable to send files in IRC. I am also unable to send or
receive files in ICQ.

In case you are wondering, I do have a firewall programme installed on
my computer (ZoneAlarm). However, this is not a factor as file
transfers have worked previously.

My question is: how do I enable file transfers (both ways) on all
computer programmes, such as IRC and ICQ?

Please provide a solution that preferably does not require me to
purchase any commercial software (freeware is ok, but best if I can
simply change settings on my computer).

Please provide direct, step-by-step instructions. I have read many web
sites that hint on a solution, but do not provide specific
instructions on how to go about it.

Thank you for your help.

---

Request for Question Clarification by funkywizard-ga on 13 Nov 2002 00:24 PST

Have you tried setting up port forwarding on your router or placing
your main pc in the "dmz zone" that your router probably provides
(either of these terms may go by a different name on your particular
router). Do you need these features enabled for more than one
computer, or does only one computer on your network need to be able to
do all these things at once?

Hello,

One of the easiest solutions is to make your computer the DMZ or
demilitarized-zone computer. From the DI-713P product page (linked
below) D-Link states:

"
A DMZ setting can be applied to a single client behind the DI-713P to
expose it to the Internet and ensure complete Internet application
compatibility even if specific ports are not known.
"

While the emphasis is on compatibility, there is also the risk of full
and uncompromised exposure of your computer to the internet, although,
as you stated, you are already running a software firewall protection,
ZoneAlarm which is very good.

By enabling DMZ on your router and setting up your computer to a
static IP address 192.168.0.XXX (where XXX is a number between 2 and
254) you can ensure that all programs will work as if the router isn't
there, because for all intents and purposes, it won't be. If you take
a look at the manual (linked below) on page 18, they go over how to
set up the DMZ IP address (I usually use 254 to be sure that it won't
conflict ip addresses with other computers that wirelessly connect up
to the router in the future). Once DMZ is set up for the address
192.168.0.254, all you have to do is set your computer to be
statically addressed to 192.168.0.254. Appendix A in the manual tell
you how to set up your computer to take advantage of a static IP.
Please make sure that you also set the gateway to 192.168.0.1. This
should resolve any and all firewall/port issues you are having with
any application, not just ICQ/IRC. I myself use a Linksys cable/dsl
router and had to do the same thing in order to get my computer
working flawlessly with special internet applications. Glad I could be
of service and help to you.


Search Strategy:

DI-713P dmz on google:
://www.google.com/search?q=DI-713P+dmz


Additional Links:

DI-713P product page:
http://www.dlink.com/products/broadband/di713p/

DI-713P online manual:
ftp://ftp2.dlink.com/Gateway/di713/Manual/DI-713_manual.pdf

Adobe Acrobat Reader (in case you need it for the manual):
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html


Thank you for the opportunity to answer your question, if you require
more information, please clarify the question, or if you find this
answer satisfactory, please feel free to rate it. Thank you!

skermit-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by hanwen-ga on 13 Nov 2002 01:13 PST

Hello, 

thanks for the reply. I have not tried this DMZ thing yet. Would this
enable file transfers for all computers in the LAN?

After I switch on DMZ, would I need to change the configuration for my
irc, icq programs etc?

Also, could you provide step-by-step instructions on how to switch on
the DMZ? I don't really understand what the manual is trying to say.

cheers,
hanwen

---

Clarification of Answer by skermit-ga on 13 Nov 2002 08:39 PST

The instructions in the manual are pretty straightforward, but I'll
try to walk you through them.

From page 9 in the manual:
"
Activate your browser. Then, type the DI-713’s IP address in the
Location (for Netscape) or Address (for IE) field and press ENTER. For
example: http://192.168.0.1.

After the connection is established, you will see the web user
interface of the DI-713. There are two appearances of web user
interface: for general users and for system administrator.

To log in as an administrator, enter the system password (the factory
setting is ”admin”) in the System Password field and click on the Log
in button. If the password is correct, the web appearance will be
changed into administrator configure mode. As listed in its main menu,
there are several options for system administration.
"

Then click on advanced at the bottom of the screen. That will open the
window shown on page 18 of the manual.

"
IP Address of DMZ Host: DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) Host is a host
without the protection of firewall. It allows a computer to be exposed
to unrestricted 2-way communication. Note that, this feature should be
used only when needed.
"

Set the little box that's blank after 192.168.0.[] to 254 so the
finished ip address looks like 192.168.0.254. Then click save. Then
you're set, all you need to do is set your computer's ip address to
192.168.0.254. And unfortunately this is a one computer fix, because
you're splitting a network connection between different computers
through your router, you have to think of your network as a mailbox.
Data and traffic know how to get to your router (through the street
address) and your router looks at the name on the letter to deliver
that packet of information to the correct computer. This is easy for
many different supported data types (web pages, e-mail, etc.) but file
transfers and the like have problems because the outside world can
only see as far as your router. This is a security feature though it
may be a logistics problem. Please clarify if you need more help.

skermit-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by hanwen-ga on 15 Nov 2002 19:35 PST

hello,

is what i did correct? I clicked on Advanced. In the first line ID1,
entered 254 into box, and clicked Enable. Then Save and Reboot. Next,
changed IP to 192.168.0.254.

Before I could test the file transfers, I noticed that my net
connection was gone. I could not connect to icq server, nor surf the
web anymore. Am I doing anything wrong here?

Thanks for clarifying.

---

Clarification of Answer by skermit-ga on 17 Nov 2002 03:00 PST

Please make sure that you also set the gateway to 192.168.0.1. That's
probably the problem.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by hanwen-ga on 18 Nov 2002 17:01 PST

Where do I change the IP address to 192.168.0.254? I changed it at the
LAN IP address under 'Setup', but that's the same as the gateway IP
right? So where's the right place?

I'm confused, please tell me the correct procedure. Thanks.

---

Clarification of Answer by skermit-ga on 19 Nov 2002 05:39 PST

I'm sorry, but I cannot help you with the specifics of your computer /
cable router. I will however restate what you must do in order to
accomplish this task. You must change the IP address of your router
back to 192.168.0.1 (don't change the IP of your router this is the
default) if you changed it otherwise. Using the DMZ Host option (refer
to the manual page I referenced above to make sure you are on the
right configuration screen) change the DMZ host to 192.168.0.254.
Then, you must change the IP address of your computer to match. If you
are unconfortable with following any of these steps, and mucking
around the network configuration settings of your router and/or
computer, you should call d-link's customer support helpline which can
be found on the webpage here:
http://support.dlink.com/

skermit-ga

Hello. Although I was not the person who answered your question, I
provided a request for clarification earlier which tried to see if you
needed this to happen on more than one computer. I'd love for the
researcher who answered your question to prove me wrong, but it is my
understanding that the dmz zone can only be applied to one computer at
a time. To get the stated programs working with more than one computer
behind the router at the same time would require some crafty
reconfiguration of the software on each computer and the router. I
wish you the best of luck with your problem.

hello, thanks for chipping in. Right now, I'm not even sure if the DMZ
solution can work, still waiting for his clarification.

It'd be great if all the computers can work, but if it's really as
tricky as you said (but it is possible right??), then I suppose I'd
have to be satisfied with just one computer then.. But I'm still
hoping for a perfect solution. =P

cheers,
hanwen

if you want just one computer to work, setting up the dmz (as im
expecting you will be able to do after skermit clarifies) should make
that work without a hitch. getting all the pcs to work would require
you to set up port forwards on your router. basically it would tell
the router "all incoming requests to port number x goes to this
computer". Now the problem here is that whatever program you are
using, say icq, by default expects certain actions such as file
transfers to occur over a specific single port. This way, you can only
forward that port to one of your computers at a time. The dmz zone
just says "go ahead and forward all the ports to this computer over
here", which allows that one pc to access everything you would
normally expect. In order to get it working on more than one pc, you
would have to configure icq on one computer to expect a different port
than on your other computers. For instance, say file transfers over
icq normally go on port 1000 (im pretty sure they don't this is just
an example). You would then tell your router "forward all port 1000
requests to pc 1". On the second pc, you would have to modify the
settings of icq to be expecting a connection on a different port, such
as 1001. you would then go into your router settings and say "all
requests to port 1001 get sent to pc2".

Obviously, this is a bit involved, and would require you to
reconfigure every application you use in order for them to work right.
That's why dmz zone has been mentioned, it would make every
application work as expected, but only for one computer at a time.

hello, that's very interesting information you provided. Considering
that I have problem even configuring my DMZ, I think I'll be happy
just to enable file transfers on one computer. Thanks for taking the
time to explain. cheers!