Wrt54g and hughesnet hn7000s. firewall fails sheildsup.(help the newbie)

Question

Hello im still new to the networking stuff so here it is, no matter which computer i use(LAPTOP,DESKTOP,IMAC) it fails the sheildup test on grc.com everytime. for some reason when i go to dialup it passes the test.i set up the router again another failure. i have also looked into the hn70000s modem called tech support, no help there.
is my problem the router or the modem, i did find settings page for modem that had a modem disabled box but no way to enable.
thats about alli know, please help!

Answer 1

O.K. First, let's find out what you are doing.
When you run the test, how exactly is your setup:
- if your router is connected to the modem, any port scan service in the internet will always scan the router. It does not matter from which computer inside your LAN you start the scan. You have one internet IP address which is assigned to the internet interface of the router. Therefore, the test must also ways report the identical results regardless from the computer behind the router which starts the scan. Due to the NAT router the computer behind the router is not directly accessible not is it possible to scan the computer behind the router unless you configure a DMZ or port forwarding.
- If the computer is directly connected to the modem and connects to the internet a port scan service in the internet will actually test the open ports on the computer itself.
Thus, if you scan through the router (without DMZ or port forwarding) the firewall on the computer itself is irrelevant.
Second, you don't write what test you do exactly. There is no direct button on grc.com to "test all ports". You can test all service ports which is ports 0-1055.
Third, if the port scan reports most of the ports as "open" this is very unlikely to be true. All ports open would mean that there is some service listening on those ports. Even the fattest server with a lots of services will never listen to all those ports.
You should check what device actually is in the front line, i.e. really connected to the internet directly on the IP level. The internet port scan like grc reports your current IP address. This is usually the IP address assigned by your ISP. Please check the status on your WRT to see what IP address it is actually using. Open http://192.168.1.1/ and go to the Status tab. There you can see the IP address of the router on the internet interface. If this is not the IP address mentioned in the port scan your router is actually not directly connected to the internet. In that case your modem is most likely also a router device. If you see open ports in a port scan those would be on the modem/router and not on the WRT.