Difference between revisions of "Get HighID"

Revision as of 09:45, 19 April 2006

Description

aMule uses three ports to transfer data with other clients and servers.

• Standard client TCP port
• Extended client UDP port
• Extended server requests UDP port

The ideal is that all three ports are accessible, however:

• For the ED2K network, you will still be able to connect even if none of these are accessible. But
  • LowID: If the Standard client TCP port is not accessible, you will get a Low ID and suffer from severe transfer speeds decrease.
  • High ID: Only the Standard client TCP port is required to be accessible to get a High ID. With High ID you will get the highest transfer speeds the ED2K network can provide you.
• For the Kademlia network, both the standard client TCP port and the Extended client UDP port must be accessible. If they aren't, you will not be able to connect to the Kademlia network

It is highly recommended to make the Extended server requests UDP port accessible too, since it will provide you with very useful statistics and information about files on the ed2k network.

Similarly, the Extended client UDP port on the ED2K network, though not required, when accessible it will provide you with highly useful statistics and information about other clients and files, so it is also highly recommended

Determining which ports to forward

Start aMule and open the Preferences -> Connection window. See the Standard client TCP port box, the Extended client UDP port box and the number by the UDP port for extended server requests (TCP+3). Those three are the ports aMule uses.

As said before, it is recommended to make all three ports accessible (even if not all are required).

Making ports accessible

You can check if a port is "accessible" (also known as "open") by visiting aMule's Test Port page.

So what does "not accessible" mean? It means that:

• You are behind a router which is blocking incoming connections to your port
• You are behind a firewall (actually, when routers block ports it is because they are acting as a firewall) which is blocking some of your ports:
  • The firewall can be on your computer, for example, the iptables daemon
  • The firewall can be somewhere outside your computer, probably some gateway through which you connect to the internet

If you have a firewall, then you should ask your administrator to open the ports there (or read the manual if you can access the firewall's configuration). There are too many firewalls to describe, however, check the Firewall article.

If you are behind a router ask your administrator to forward the ports to your computer (see above to know which ports to forward). However, if you have access to your router's configuration, you can do that yourself:

1. Disable DHCP in your computer (not in router!) to get a static IP address in the LAN. This is done through the /etc/interfaces configuration file (see man interfaces)
2. In the router's configuration, forward the ports aMule should use to your IP (you static IP in the LAN, as described above) and apply changes in the router (you might have to restart the router)

The router's configuration is usually available through http://192.168.1.1 from the webbrowser. The exact place where ports can be forwarded in your router's configuration system varies greatly from one router to another. And there are hundreds of different router models, so this can't be explained here. However, as a general rule, you should search for some section called "LAN configuration", "NAT configuration", "Firewall", "Ports" or "Security" (remember, this is just a general rule. Your router could be very different). See the Routers article to see how different routers are set up, maybe you are lucky and your router is listed there :-)

Also, if you think the router is what is blocking the ports, you can go check " http://portforward.com/ ". This site offers a kind of walkthrough for a lot of routers, and it works most of the times. Some routersettings also are mentioned in Diesel´s router-database (rem.: german).

Notes

No, there's no easier way. That's how port forwarding goes :) Same for eMule, Shareaza, lphant, Napster, Morpheus, Kazaa, Apache, FTP Server, ...