Recently I made the jump to broadband and because of the wireless capability of my laptop I chose the D-Link DSL-604T wireless ADSL router/modem. When configuring the router the instructions highly recommend that other firewalls should be disabled to avoid any conflicts. My computer is running the Windows XP Internet Connection Firewall and the Norton Internet Security firewall. If I disable these firewalls, will the ADSL firewall be enough? What are the possible conflict problems they mention? The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)

In one of your recent columns, you answered a question about whether or not an ADSL modem should be turned off when the computer is turned off. I had been wondering about the same thing, but your answer didn’t really answer my particular circumstances. My ADSL modem router is a D-Link DSL-302G which establishes the connection automatically and the only way I can disconnect is by turning it off at the router. I do not have an ADSL icon on the taskbar, and I currently turn my computer off overnight, but leave the modem on. Does it matter whether I leave the modem on or off and which would be the better way to go? (more…)

I am running a home LAN, with ADSL internet access through a D-Link 604+ ADSL wireless router/modem which is connected by Ethernet to a Windows XP computer, and at various times by wireless to another Windows 98 computer and three laptops (running XP and 98). I have allocated fixed IP addresses for each computer with MAC address security implemented on the router. All computers have antivirus software and Zone Alarm firewall. Frequently, one or more of the computers encounters a problem connecting to the internet (using Internet Explorer or Outlook). In each instance the computer transmits packets to the router/modem, but there seems to be few received packets. The problem often arises after being connected for a period of an hour or so. I am able to ping the router, and also have a successful response using ‘net view’. To temporarily fix the problem I must reboot the ADSL router/modem, or restart the affected computer, but this is not successful in all cases. The greatest number of instances of this problem occur when one or more other users in the LAN are running MSN Messenger. I suspect the LAN is somehow being put behind a firewall at the ADSL router/modem, but I have no firewall settings manually selected at the router/modem. (more…)

I recently subscribed to a Faktortel Internet Telephony service. Every time I attempt to connect a network timeout message appears. The diagnostic log says the following: ‘Discovered Single Mapped Port Symmetric NAT Firewall. SIP: 10.0.0.1:5060, RTP: 10.0.0.1:8000, NAT: 139.168.153.145. Discovering external SIP port on symmetric firewall. PROXY#0: 67.19.30.130:5060′. How can I successfully connect to the service? My ISP is Bigpond. (more…)

I have an Apple iBook running OS 10.3.5 and a Sharp GX-30 mobile phone (connected to Vodafone). I am trying to configure my laptop to establish a GPRS connection through my mobile via a USB cable. I downloaded a shareware program called GPRS Script Generator to generate a generic modem script, but the script did not work. The generic modem init string that I have is: AT&FE0V1&C1S0=0. The APN is: vfinternet.au. CID is set at 1. The number the computer is set to dial is *99#. Vodafone data support suggested the init string: AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”vfinternet.au”, but this doesn’t work either. The computer starts to connect, but before the authentication stage the connection drops out saying a modem error has occurred. (more…)