Does anyone have experience running a GPL server behind a NAT box ?

A few friends and myself all in posession of Cable Modems here in poor old broadband-poor England, would like to knock ourselves out GPLing into the early hours of the morning.:-) As I'm the only one with multiple PCs, it makes sense that I set up one of them as a standalone GPL server. I pressed the PII400 into service, tested it here locally on my LAN with the server in "unattended" mode - and it works a treat. I've been reading up on the firewall requirements (BTW, what's up with Alison's site ? I get http 500 errors when I try to access it) and it seems I need to open up a number of ports on my NAT box / firewall (SMC Barricade). 6970,6791 and 32766-32786. Problem is, that makes a total of 22 (23?) ports, and my Barricade only has 20 "slots" for open ports. Questions: 1/ With only a few clients (max 5, only 128K upstream |-( ), will I need all the ports between 32766 and 32786 ? 2/ The Barricade offers a "Special App" mode, where you can specify a range of ports to be open if outgoing traffic is detected on a certain port. So given that 6970 is used to broadcast server status, could I set up a rule that detects outbound stuff on 6970 and then opens 32766-32786 ? Would anyone be willing to assist me in testing this ? What say ye fellow simracers ?

"Mike Fisher" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:2bn0n9.s1g.ln@sonic... > > Questions: > > 1/ With only a few clients (max 5, only 128K upstream |-( ), will I needall > the ports between 32766 and 32786 ? > > 2/ The Barricade offers a "Special App" mode, where you can specify arange > of ports to be open if outgoing traffic is detected on a certain port. So > given that 6970 is used to broadcast server status, could I set up a rule > that detects outbound stuff on 6970 and then opens 32766-32786 ? Would > anyone be willing to assist me in testing this ? You need to open an additional port either side of the list, ie 3765 to 32787 in the special app mode I think. I have a Netgear router in which you can specify port ranges. I initially specified the same range as you and it didn't work. I then changed the range and everything sprang into life. Ali's site is now at http://eaglewoman.simracing.dk/gpl/ Cheers Phil Lee Legends Central Admin http://www.legendscentral.com

Also you may find that a firmware update to your router will increase the number of ports you can open. Check out SMC's website at: http://www.smc.com/smc/pages_html/products.html Cheers Phil Lee Legends Central Admin http://www.legendscentral.com

"Phil Lee" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:OQTk7.38774$%[email hidden]...

Quoted text (12 lines)

> "Mike Fisher" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:2bn0n9.s1g.ln@sonic... > > > > Questions: > > > > 1/ With only a few clients (max 5, only 128K upstream |-( ), will I need > all > > the ports between 32766 and 32786 ? > > > > 2/ The Barricade offers a "Special App" mode, where you can specify a > range > > of ports to be open if outgoing traffic is detected on a certain port.

So > > given that 6970 is used to broadcast server status, could I set up arule > > that detects outbound stuff on 6970 and then opens 32766-32786 ? Would > > anyone be willing to assist me in testing this ? > > > You need to open an additional port either side of the list, ie 3765 to > 32787 in the special app mode I think. I have a Netgear router in whichyou > can specify port ranges. I initially specified the same range as you andit > didn't work. I then changed the range and everything sprang into life. > > Ali's site is now at http://eaglewoman.simracing.dk/gpl/ > Phil, thanks for your help - I'll give this a go, and also thanks for the updated link. Perhaps someone could update the VROC pages.... With regard to your next post about firmware, I do keep it up to date. V1.93e (latest) actually introduced up to 20 open ports. Prior to that it was only 10... Still, I'll see what happens with the special app mode. Thnaks again.

"Mike Fisher" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:2bn0n9.s1g.ln@sonic...

Quoted text (12 lines)

> > A few friends and myself all in posession of Cable Modems here in poor old > broadband-poor England, would like to knock ourselves out GPLing into the > early hours of the morning.:-) > > As I'm the only one with multiple PCs, it makes sense that I set up one of > them as a standalone GPL server. I pressed the PII400 into service, tested > it here locally on my LAN with the server in "unattended" mode - and it > works a treat. > > I've been reading up on the firewall requirements (BTW, what's up with > Alison's site ? I get http 500 errors when I try to access it) and it

seems > I need to open up a number of ports on my NAT box / firewall (SMC > Barricade). > > 6970,6791 and 32766-32786. > > Problem is, that makes a total of 22 (23?) ports, and my Barricade onlyhas > 20 "slots" for open ports. > > Questions: > > 1/ With only a few clients (max 5, only 128K upstream |-( ), will I needall > the ports between 32766 and 32786 ? Not 100% sure, but I think the server assigns the first client 32767, then 32768 and so on. 32766 is the port where every client rings first, then it is redirected to its own port. You need 6970 and 6971 only for Vroc, not if you host directly. > 2/ The Barricade offers a "Special App" mode, where you can specify arange > of ports to be open if outgoing traffic is detected on a certain port. So > given that 6970 is used to broadcast server status, could I set up a rule > that detects outbound stuff on 6970 and then opens 32766-32786 ? Would > anyone be willing to assist me in testing this ? Sounds reasonable. Bart Westra

Bart Westra wrote in news:9n3c02$f6$[email hidden]:

Quoted text (46 lines)

> > "Mike Fisher" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:2bn0n9.s1g.ln@sonic... >> >> A few friends and myself all in posession of Cable Modems here in >> poor old broadband-poor England, would like to knock ourselves out >> GPLing into the early hours of the morning.:-) >> >> As I'm the only one with multiple PCs, it makes sense that I set >> up one of them as a standalone GPL server. I pressed the PII400 >> into service, tested it here locally on my LAN with the server in >> "unattended" mode - and it works a treat. >> >> I've been reading up on the firewall requirements (BTW, what's up >> with Alison's site ? I get http 500 errors when I try to access >> it) and it seems I need to open up a number of ports on my NAT box >> / firewall (SMC Barricade). >> >> 6970,6791 and 32766-32786. >> >> Problem is, that makes a total of 22 (23?) ports, and my Barricade >> only has 20 "slots" for open ports. >> >> Questions: >> >> 1/ With only a few clients (max 5, only 128K upstream |-( ), will >> I need all the ports between 32766 and 32786 ? > > Not 100% sure, but I think the server assigns the first client > 32767, then 32768 and so on. 32766 is the port where every client > rings first, then it is redirected to its own port. > You need 6970 and 6971 only for Vroc, not if you host directly. > >> 2/ The Barricade offers a "Special App" mode, where you can >> specify a range of ports to be open if outgoing traffic is >> detected on a certain port. So given that 6970 is used to >> broadcast server status, could I set up a rule that detects >> outbound stuff on 6970 and then opens 32766-32786 ? Would anyone >> be willing to assist me in testing this ? > > Sounds reasonable. > > Bart Westra > > >

I was told that each additional driver/computer connected required 1 port for its exclusive use. So if you only have half a dozen drivers competing, you could get away with only opening up 6 or 8 ports in the 32766 and up range instead of all 20 ports. Taht would get you in under your 20 port limit. And if Bart is correct about the 6970 & '71 ports being only used for VROC, then you'll have loads of room. HTH, -- Darryl

"Darryl Johnson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:IMbl7.14253$[email hidden]...

Quoted text (58 lines)

> Bart Westra wrote in news:9n3c02$f6$[email hidden]: > > > > > "Mike Fisher" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > > news:2bn0n9.s1g.ln@sonic... > >> > >> A few friends and myself all in posession of Cable Modems here in > >> poor old broadband-poor England, would like to knock ourselves out > >> GPLing into the early hours of the morning.:-) > >> > >> As I'm the only one with multiple PCs, it makes sense that I set > >> up one of them as a standalone GPL server. I pressed the PII400 > >> into service, tested it here locally on my LAN with the server in > >> "unattended" mode - and it works a treat. > >> > >> I've been reading up on the firewall requirements (BTW, what's up > >> with Alison's site ? I get http 500 errors when I try to access > >> it) and it seems I need to open up a number of ports on my NAT box > >> / firewall (SMC Barricade). > >> > >> 6970,6791 and 32766-32786. > >> > >> Problem is, that makes a total of 22 (23?) ports, and my Barricade > >> only has 20 "slots" for open ports. > >> > >> Questions: > >> > >> 1/ With only a few clients (max 5, only 128K upstream |-( ), will > >> I need all the ports between 32766 and 32786 ? > > > > Not 100% sure, but I think the server assigns the first client > > 32767, then 32768 and so on. 32766 is the port where every client > > rings first, then it is redirected to its own port. > > You need 6970 and 6971 only for Vroc, not if you host directly. > > > >> 2/ The Barricade offers a "Special App" mode, where you can > >> specify a range of ports to be open if outgoing traffic is > >> detected on a certain port. So given that 6970 is used to > >> broadcast server status, could I set up a rule that detects > >> outbound stuff on 6970 and then opens 32766-32786 ? Would anyone > >> be willing to assist me in testing this ? > > > > Sounds reasonable. > > > > Bart Westra > > > > > > > > I was told that each additional driver/computer connected required 1 > port for its exclusive use. So if you only have half a dozen drivers > competing, you could get away with only opening up 6 or 8 ports in the > 32766 and up range instead of all 20 ports. Taht would get you in under > your 20 port limit. > > And if Bart is correct about the 6970 & '71 ports being only used for > VROC, then you'll have loads of room. >

This is looking good ! I'm going to be testing this evening, at around 8:00pm (BST, GMT+1) onwards. If anyone feels like joining, there'll be a server.ini race running at the IP that posted this article. BTW despite having run GPL since 1999 I'm still a little slow (1:31 @ Monza), so please bear with me if you join.