Port is stealth on Transmission...How do I solve this?

[stateofmind]

I'm new to torrents so I'm going to give a brief overview on some of the things you might find necessary to find the solution.

I am running on OS X 10.5.1

Transmission is version 1.05

Linksys wrt54g router (connected wireless)

When I go to the advanced tab on Transmission it shows my port is stealth, is this hindering my torrent download speed? I only average around 14kbps, but it does sometimes shoot up to like 150.

I read I need to port forward but have no clue, someone gave me instructions that I had to create a static ip, but the direction they gave me did not match the interface on my OS X network panel on system preferences.

So basically, my question is does having a stealth port downgrade my download speed? If so how can I solve this?

 

[sfs]

It can, but only through hindering your upload speed. It will depend on the tracker how much your download speed will be cut if you're not uploading. To port forward, you'll need to access your router's control panel (probably available by entering 192.168.1.1 in your browser's address bar) and go to the port forward page. You'll need your computer's local IP address, available from Applications>Utilities>Network Utility (on my Macbook, adapter en1 is the wireless). Set up the forward to go to your machine, and you should be able to upload properly. Again, this may or may not increase your download bandwidth, depending on the tracker you use.

And remember, BitTorrent is a great distribution protocol for legal content. Don't use it to illegally acquire stuff, because that makes it very hard for those of us who do use it for legal purposes.

 

[richard.mac]

also add transmission to Leopard's firewall. forwarding a port in your router to your IP address like sfs explained and opening the firewall for transmission should be all you have to do.

 

[stateofmind]

I just dont get it, I went on portforward.com and followed their static ip directions (whichare for tiger, not leopard) and use logical reasoning to put the info needed, but when I put in an address for the router and ipv6 fields it says "Invalid address" saying it need the address in hexadecimal digits

 

[sfs]

Hex? That's odd. I don't have a copy of Leopard to play with just yet, so I can't advise you there, but if you need to convert Arabic to hex you can use the Firefox extension LeetKey. Just type in the IP address, highlight it, and right-click (or Ctrl-click for the elitists). Select LeetKey, then go to text transformers, then select Hex encode. 192.168.1.100 is 31 39 32 2e 31 36 38 2e 31 2e 31 30 30; 192.168.1.2 is 31 39 32 2e 31 36 38 2e 31 2e 32. (If it wants the periods, it would be 192.168.1.2=31 39 32<.>31 36 38<.>31<.>32.)

Again, without Leopard myself, I can't be sure, but I've never heard of anything asking for IPs in hex, so you might be looking at the wrong place. Anyone with networking skills and Leopard know what's up here?

 

[richard.mac]

I just dont get it, I went on portforward.com and followed their static ip directions (whichare for tiger, not leopard) and use logical reasoning to put the info needed, but when I put in an address for the router and ipv6 fields it says "Invalid address" saying it need the address in hexadecimal digits

configure a static IP in Airport/Ethernet's advanced settings under TCP/IP. select Configure IPv4 as "DHCP with manual address" and type in your IP you were using.

or configure a static IP using your MAC address in your routers browser UI. you can find you MAC address by option clicking the Airport menu.

then open a port in your router for that IP address.

 

[sfs]

Ah, of course. That's what I get for browsing forums late at night... It's asking for your MAC address (Media Access Control, not related to branding). That's also listed in the Network Utility, under "hardware address." You should see a set of six hex pairs separated by colons.

BTW, you shouldn't need a static external IP unless you're hosting something commercially. It can be convenient, but to get a static IP from your ISP is usually a fair bit more expensive than normal dynamic ones.

However, if you keep getting assigned new IPs from your router (local network's internal IP) then the port forward won't work. You will need to use that MAC address with your router and pick an IP address that isn't being used at the moment (or is assigned to your Torrent computer) to become your permanent IP on the local network. That should be available in the router configuration like richthomas says. I generally prefer to have the router assign static IPs rather than have individual computers request certain ones, but with a small network you could run either way without too much difficulty.