Help: PCAnywhere via DSL modem [dsl modem] [passthru]
Q: I can connect through NAT pass through ports 5631 and 5632 thru, but I need a second machine behind that is accessible. I tried creating a custom definition and use of other ports, 5633 and 5634 respectively, but no dice. Any chance I can do?
Westell A09-210 030 DSL modem Bellsouth.net
Thanks,
B
Re:Great to see that you got it going. Proper software configuration does help.
When I first setup my PC Anywhere, I changed my port setup also.
This is because I looked at my firewall log and saw the daily port scans that would hit the normal PC Anywhere ports of 5631 and 5632.
Since I changed to my own custom port numbers, I haven't seen one port scan against my PC Anywhere ports. Makes me feel a little safer, and PC Anywhere works just as good.
Re:And I have figure out my error:
Symantec FAQ (http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/pca.nsf/docid/2001021417112312)
You CAN change ports in Host, just in different place. Not very intuitive or consistent.
Re:Thank you for your help and info. When I said I configured both sides, I meant that I configured the DSL modem/router with a custom config to open 5633TCP/5634UDP to second comps static private IP address. I know I'm doing custom config right, as I did so with first computer using 5631/5632, even though there is a nice quick setup, for my own piece of mind. On the PCAnywhere Host, I cannot seem to configure the ports, but Remote side can, so I did that. I think it may be a limitation of PCAnywhere combined with single outside IP address attempting to be forwarded to 2 private addresses. Am contacting Symantec as well.
Re:I see that the particular Westell modem you have functions also as a router and firewall.
I know this might sound like basic stuff, but here goes:
You said:
You opened up ports 5631 and 5632 in your modem/firewall/router and forwarded them to the IP address of your first computer. This configuration worked you said. You also said that you correctly configured both client and server sides of PC anywhere for use on the second computer with the second set of ports (5633 and 5634) However this did not work.
Some questions and some information:
Did you also open up ports 5633 and 5634 in the modem/firewall/router and forward them to the IP address of the 2nd computer that had it's PC anywhere server set to use these ports?
It sounds like you attempted to do this by creating a custom firewall rule in your modem. It also sounds like it has a built in option that once selected, allows ports 5631 TCP and 5632 UDP to be forwarded to you first computer. So your modem made it easy for you the first time by having to only select a button to get the first two ports forwarded. But now for the 2nd set of ports…it sounds like you are having difficulty in understanding how to configure your modem to forward the second set of ports to you second computer. I'm guessing that this is where your problem lies. I wish I could help you with this, but I am not familiar with this modem/router. My best advice is to RTFM of your modem/router to be sure you are doing port forwarding correctly in your modem/router. Also, know which IP address your modem starts dishing out IP addresses, so that you can port forward to the correct IP address for each computer.
Here's also a little bit of info:
I do not know how your Westell modem/router configuration works in that some low end routers force you to forward both TCP and UDP if you choose to open a port. Others let you forward a port and then make you choose TCP or UDP or Both. Others may make you forward the same port twice…once for TCP and once for UDP….instead of having a forward both option like I just mentioned.
Keep in mind that for the first port 5631 (and 5633 for your 2nd computer) you need only forward TCP and not UDP. For the second port 5632 (and 5634 for your 2nd computer) you need only forward UDP and not TCP. This ties in with just above in that why would you open both TCP and UDP for a specific port, if only TCP was necessary. In summary, my preference would be to make sure that ports 5631 and 5633 forward TCP only, and that ports 5632 and 5634 forward only UDP. This is only my preference though, and PC anywhere will work just fine if you forward both TCP and UDP for both sets of ports. It's just that I am concerned about security and don't like to leave any port(s) open that don't need to be.
One last thing to watch out for is if your modem/router doles out it's NAT IP addresses by DHCP. The problem with this is that if you turn off both PC's, the first computer that you start back up will get the first IP address. (i.e. if you start up the 2nd computer first, it will get the IP address that you meant for the 1st computer to always have. Thus when you start the 1st computer, it will get the IP address you meant for the 2nd computer to have ) This will cause problems in that your modem/router will be forwarding the wrong ports to each of your computers. Of course, this means that PC anywhere will not work with either computer. Each computer will be listening to the wrong ports…….and even if by some miracle you did get it to work…..you would be accessing the wrong computer.
Some routers let you tie a certain MAC address to a certain IP address so that IP address is reserved for that computer only. This would eliminate the problem above……but I would bet your modem/router doesn't have this feature.
Again, I apologize if it sounds like I'm going over the basics that you may know already. I really do hope you get this to work, because it's really cool to able to control your computers and get files and stuff off of it when you are a thousand miles away on the road. Good luck! 
Re:Buddy mentioned using a Firewall and VPN to make them on network. Recommended Smoothwall (http://www.smoothwall.org). Anybody experienced with this?
Re:I did set up both sides, using ports 5633/5634 (default is 5631/5632); and the latter.
Re:when you set up the second computer to access out, the host computer on the other end also has to use the secondary set of ports. You have to configure both ends. Are you talking about simultaneous connections to different places, or just being able to use either computer at your house for pcanywhere?
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Tags: dsl modem, passthru