Ichat Port Settings

Question

Hi,
I work in an office with about 26 people who all use iChat, I have been trying to open the iChat Incoming Ports on our Router as outlined in the Apple Doc #93208. But when I contacted Netgear the Manufacturer of our Router, they said that you can only open up the Ports for one IP Address and that IP Address couldn't be the router.
Is it possible to open the iChat Ports so that everyone in the building can access them or do I really have to specifically Open the Ports for each Machine that uses iChat.
It seems like there should be a way to open the iChat Ports so everyone in the office can benefit, without having to open each Port for every machine.
Any thoughts would be great.
Thanks
Kalagan

Answer 1

Hi Kalagan,
If it has UPnP it is normally shown as an item on the left hand menu near the bottom of the list.
Your device is not mentioned here http://portforward.com/routers.htm
There are other FVS models that might provide some help.
On some Netgears the Services item is where Port Forwarding is normally done. On some this specifies the IP the port is forwarded to. On My DG834GUK this IP specifying is not done and it appears that the port is open to anyone's IP.
Other devices have specific places for Port Triggering.
Again this is table like in formulation.
It can specify the Trigger port, the Protocol that is going to be on and then the port or ports triggered.
At this point there can be some variance. On some the ports can be listed with commas or dashes separating them such as: -
Port 5678 on UDP triggers ports 5060,16384-16403 on UDP
On others only the dash is allowed.
So we end up with a table that looks like this for the single ports
5190 (Both or Any for the Protocol or add tow entries) to trigger port 5190 (Again Both/Any or two entries)
For the Bonjour side.
5297 UDP to trigger 5297 on UDP
5298 (Both/Any) to trigger 5298 (Both/Any)
5353 UDP to trigger port 5353
For Jabber.
5220 on TCP to trigger 5220 on TCP
5222 TCP to trigger 5222 TCP
5223 TCP to trigger 5223 TCP
The AV ports are different in that they are the ones where one port opens others.
On those that allow commas and dashes then like this
5678 on UDP to Trigger ports 5060,5678,16384-16403 (Note the lack of Spaces) On UDP (Some will not like the 5678 restated although it seems to work for single ports)
On those that will not mix single ports and groups then it takes two lines: -
port 5678 on UDP to trigger port 5060 on UDP
Port 5606 to Trigger ports 16384-16403 (All on UDP)
I hope this gives you enough info to work your device out.
11:52 AM Wednesday; June 13, 2007