port forwarding

Have you ever wondered what this was? Or have you ever tried downloading something through a program, but no matter how you fiddled with your firewall, you couldn’t seem to get through? Sometimes your ISP or your own router can be stopping you, since they’re set up to shut out harmful ‘traffic.’

Well, through my use of Utorrent, the bittorrent client I use now, I have figured out how to work this magic, or just forward a port that I want open. PortForward.com is the one-stop shop to set up your router how you want it. They have step-by-step guides according to what software you are using, and what router you have. They teach you how to set up a static ISP for your computer, among other things.
Following their guides, I found a seemingly complex subject to be actually quite simple.

Now if you are feeling especially adventurous, you can even try lifehacker’s guide to basically pimp your router (for which they have a subsequent guide posted for further expansion), or their simple special on creating a wireless network. I personally have embarked on none of that yet (I don’t even own the routers I’ve had to manipulate), but I am glad to have the info on hand for when I need it.