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[Spiffy McBang]

Firstly, I should mention I have a 4100, not a 4500.  However, that forum is more dead than Michael Jackson's career, and the question relates to something not specific to the hardware, so I'm hoping the setup is similar on the 4500 and can be asked here.

On our old router (a Linksys), I would sometimes set it up to open all ports (1-65535) to a certain IP address.  Yes, I understand that essentially removes firewall protection, but it was useful for testing whether or not a program I was having issues with needed some ports opened up, especially if I couldn't find an answer for what ports it needed online.

On this one, in an attempt to do the same thing, I gave the settings the name "Any", didn't specify an application to go along with it (the games I have aren't on the list anyway), picked my computer, and set it to 1-65535.  However, Trillian still disconnects from AIM with some regularity, and my roommate has had minor hiccups since I installed the router as well.  To try and fix her problem, I did the same setup for her IP.  When I save it, I get a message that says the ports I've set to be forwarded conflict with the ones set for myself.  Because I have all ports forwarded on mine, that means I get the message regardless of what I try to forward for her. Obviously I could remove the rule for mine and just open the ports each of us needs, but this will presumably remain a problem should we ever require that the same ports be available to us.

My questions are twofold:

As regards the conflicting forwarded ports, is this actually an issue, or is the router in fact opening all ports to all computers on the network, despite the appearance to the contrary?  If this is an issue, what can we do to resolve it so we can have the same ports forwarded to each of us?

As regards the problems with certain programs- if my method of forwarding all ports works with this router, why are our non-gaming applications running into problems?  She occasionally can't get Hulu to load videos, and like I said, I keep losing connection to AIM.  I turned off Gamefuel, although that seems like it shouldn't cause a hassle unless I'm playing something.  I'm not really sure where the problem is.

[rockyriver]

I think all the admins are off today, maybe Monday before you get a reply from the regulars. Thats funny as a Linksys on a top rated router "Router Fourm", Remember D-Link rules. Oh by the way sorry but I have not an answer to your question. I am a trial and error kind of guy.

[Reinvented]

Here's the deal on how Port Forwarding works..

Ports can ONLY be forwarded to one IP at a time.  So, if you are having problems with connections, and loading...you may have an actual connection problem.  Non-router related.  UPnP solves a lot of things in this case.  It makes it so you don't need to open ports or anything.  It'll automatically forward itself. 

You do sound like you have a DNS problem though or an actual connection problem.  You don't need to do whole ranges like that.  If you want to do that, then just put your computer in the DMZ.  Otherwise, you are just exposing yourself and doing something completely useless. 

Just because the application name isn't in the list, doesn't mean that you can't type one out, and manually put in ports.  And again opening all those ports up, aren't very safe at all.

[Spiffy McBang]

Yeah, like I said, I only do it for testing purposes, to make sure any problems cannot possibly be due to a certain port not being forwarded.  Also, for what it's worth, the problems described above did not exist with the Linksys, so it's highly unlikely- though not impossible- the connection is the culprit.  (Still glad I got this one- these are minor annoyances, whereas TF2 was largely unplayable due to rubber-banding.  Wouldn't mind being issue-free, though.)

I'm not overly familiar with UPnP, but I've seen other people mention that it can make port forwarding unnecessary.  Should I take that to mean, if my roommate and I both wanted to play the same game which required specific ports open, UPnP would keep it the fact I can't manually forward the same ports to each of our computers from being a problem?

[Reinvented]

Yes, of course.

The reason I mentioned the connection was because if you are playing TF2 or something via Steam, you will have issues with bandwidth.  That can easily cause rubber-banding and huge lag spikes.  Makes the damn scout look like he's running in place for a really long time.  :-P  Or heck!  Even the pyro!

GameFuel doesn't really need rules.  Just set it to automatic.  The ONLY things you need to set in there is the manual uplink speed.  Just so it doesn't cross a certain threshold. 

If you forward the ports for just Steam in the list, to one IP, and then also have UPnP on, it will forward it, and you will run into minimal problems. 

You didn't mention what kind of connection you had, or even the speed of it.  This is a big factor for gaming, and can compromise it badly if not setup properly.

[Spiffy McBang]

We were bumping into issues when no gaming was going on, which is why I had ruled out that possibility (I also turned off Gamefuel).  It seemed too strange that the games ran perfectly but Hulu wouldn't load videos.  But neither of us has had issues for a couple of days, so it may really have been a coincidence.  I'll turn Gamefuel back on and see if anything happens, but so far so good.

I'm on cable, for what it's worth.  Comcast, but as much as people complain about them, the speed where I live is fantastic.

Thanks for the help.

[lotacus]

turn off uPnP in the router and see what happens if you have all those ports fowarded anyways.