For each NAT routing program I'll show you how to set up port mapping by way of 2 examples - Napster (a program that requires a single port) and ICQ (requiring multiple ports).

To map ports in Windows 2000/XP ICS, open your "Network and Dial-up connections" Control Panel. Right-click on the network card that's connected to the internet and choose "Properties". Click on the "Sharing" tab. Click on "Settings". Click on the "Services" tab. Here you can add port mappings.

The first example is Napster - let's say you want the computer 192.168.0.2 to receive connections on port 6699 so that it can share files. You would click "Add...". Call this port map "Napster6699", choose service port number 6699, TCP, and enter 192.168.0.2 as the IP address. Click "OK" to add this port mapping to Windows ICS. If you wanted 192.168.0.3 to receive Napster connections as well, you could do the same thing but with port 7000, and so on.

Now for ICQ. Later you'll need to configure the ICQ program on the client computer and tell it exactly which ports it should use to accept connections. I recommend using ports 20000-20009 for the first computer running ICQ, 20010-20019 for the second one and so on. Thus, to enable ICQ to receive files on the computer 192.168.0.2, add port maps for ports 20000-20009. Click "Add...". Call this port map "ICQ20000", choose service port number 20000, TCP, and enter 192.168.0.2 as the IP address.

Now do the same for ports 20001 to 20009. You should see something like this:

You now know how to add port mappings for applications that need to accept connections on 1, or multiple, ports. You should now be able to add port mappings for any other applications that need to accept connections. Good luck!

However, these port mappings won't work unless the relevant applications on the client computer/s are set up properly. To learn how to do this, continue...

Coming soon!

Coming soon!

Coming soon!