opening new network ports for bittorrent use

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opening new network ports for bittorrent use

I would like to use bittorrent and require ports 6881-6889 to be open. Reading the back issues, I see that others are using Bittorrent with out a problem. To open the ports I went to system preferences>sharing>firewall and added and checked marked those ports via the new button. I then restarted and checked to make sure the ports were still in the firewall allow box. I then went to the network utility and did a port scan on 127.0.0.1. The new ports did not show up. To check my process I went through the same procedure with web sharing (port 80) and it did show up in a port scan. Just as a fluke I also tried adding them from the unix side in /etc/services as well with out success. The unix inetd function seems to have been taken over by OSX and maybe the services file function as well.

Am I correct in thinking that checking the ports on “localhost” (127.0.0.1) effectively bypasses any router / DSL modem / network problems?

Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong or what else I might try?

Thanks in advance

G5 dual 2.0 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

G5 dual 2.0 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Feb 24, 2007 9:17 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 24, 2007 9:32 AM in response to myplace

Here's a thought, since I am not 100% sure why you're not getting this...

Do you have a router that's between you and the outside (big, bad internet?)
Have you checked on what firewall settings are available on that device?

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Answer 2

myplace Author

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Feb 26, 2007 5:30 AM in response to Rick Van Vliet

Rick

Thanks for responding.

I did a port scan. Isn’t that independent of all external connections?

Mike

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Answer 3

Feb 26, 2007 5:40 AM in response to myplace

Good question. You are bypassing external devices/ports, but I'm not sure why you're looking there.

yes:
127.0.0.1 is your internal device. Your scan scanned itself from within, if that makes sense. This doesn't really tell us whether your bittorrent settings are reaching the outside world (isn't your objective to get bittorrent working?)

You didn't answer my question about the router.
Try an external port scan from one of the many online tools out there.
Try turning OFF your mac firewall for a while during the test.
Follow the instructions that BitTorrent gives you for solving problems.
Try a different P2P sharing software (Azureus also uses bittorrent technology)

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Answer 4

myplace Author

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Mar 1, 2007 7:32 AM in response to Rick Van Vliet

Rick

The external port scan is what started the investigation. When that failed, I went looking for the reason(s). In an archive post to this group, someone suggested using the port scan program because it accessed your network connection directly and effectively removed any outside causes from the list of culprits. I did try turning off my firewall and restarting, but that didn’t help either. If this were a UNIX platform I would probably have a better handle on it but I am afraid I am at a loss for a next step of investigation on a Mac. I did download Azureus the other night but have been too busy to give it a try. Things will lighten up for me next week and I will be trying that and other things. In the mean time, I will be happy to try any suggestions you may offer.

Mike

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Answer 5

Mar 1, 2007 7:56 AM in response to myplace

OK.
So BitTorrent is failing because of "a firewall".
If you have a router, you probably have port management on that device that you need to look at. (Admin console)
If you don't have router, your modem may be filling that role and assigning NAT.
Your ISP may be blocking those ports (unlikely).
Are you running this behind a personal network, or a business firewall (at work or at home?)

Mac OS is UNIX (based on Free BSD, I think)...what's your point? IPFilters, or similar? Those are configured using the SysemPreferences?Sharing?Firewall panel.

Have you investigated for any help out at BitTorrent user groups?
Otherwise, I'm not sure what else to try. If you want to get into heavy UNIX firewall configuration, I'm not your guy. sorry...

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