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Airport Extreme and port forwarding

#1 User is offline   lyronis Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 10:59 AM

hi to all.
i have the Airport extreme connected and connecting wireless my macbook and imac to the internet.
Just bought the Sling Box AV and it needs port forwarding in order to work.
Airport admin utility sais it doesnt work with this model of Airport Base and advice the cd installer when i try to go to the port forwarding area.
How do i proceed to port forwarding please?
Any suggestions welcome.
Please help.
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#2 User is offline   Damien Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 11:38 AM

Lucky you, I recently ran into this problem with a client's Airport Base Station and figured out the problem.
The Airport Base Stations (all models) like to use the 10.x.x.x subnet class for network address translation (NAT), while the Slingbox likes to use the 192.168.x.x subnet class for NAT. I simply could not get the Airport Base Station to forward its traffic properly to the Slingbox and vice versa. Thet setup wizard on the Slingbox wasn't giving enough feedback to determine the problem.
Finally, I realized that the Slingbox software just doesn't understand a NAT subnet class other than the 192.168.x.x one. Luckily, the last few models of Airport Base Stations (including yours) allows you to any of the three subnet classes reserved for NAT. Just set your Airport Base Station's NAT settings to use the same NAT subnet as your Slingbox (192.168.1.x, if my memory is correct) and your traffic should start forwarding successfully to outside your network...so you can watch TV via the SlingPlayer from anywhere.
Believe it; this was a frustrating problem, made worse because I was doing the troubleshooting remotely from NYC for a client who lives in New Mexico. But I got it and now he's happily watching TV using SlingPlayer on his MacBook Pro from anywhere he travels.
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#3 User is offline   lyronis Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 03:49 PM

please can you tell me how do i do that...?
(Just set your Airport Base Station's NAT settings to use the same NAT subnet as your Slingbox)
or please give some step by step instructions how to make it work.
a little desperate here and spent a lot of time to figure it out.
Thanks a lot man.
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#4 User is offline   Damien Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 04:07 PM

Unfortunately, there's simply too many variables in any network to give step-by-step instructions. And there's also no easy way out; you're going to have to read some documentation and familiarize yourself with the settings in the Airport Base Station router to get this working. Start here by reading the Setup Guide. You might also need to read the "Designing Networks" PDF. (pg 53 discusses portmapping).
http://www.apple.com...anuals/airport/

Mostly, you'll need to spend some time configuring the "Internet" tab in your Airpot Extreme Base Station. This is the section of the ABS's software that controls Network Address Translation (NAT), DHCP, and things like port-forwarding (also called port-mapping).

There's also some good info here, but it tends to be reather PC-specific. However, you should understand that port-forwarding isn't "PC" or a "Mac" thing; it's a "network" thing and it doesn't matter what equipment is behind the router.
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#5 User is offline   lyronis Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 05:03 PM

i have read and read and read.....
cant do it.... i cant accomplish port forwarding.
i tried to put slingboxes ips and subnet mask but then no internet.
if i reverse the action and put computer ip and subnet mask slingbox doesnot connect.
really dissapointed.
tried to connect my previous wireless router NETGEAR and slingbox remembers the airport extreme and sais that it cant connect.
please help...please.
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#6 User is offline   Damien Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 05:28 PM

As I tried to indicate before, this is likely a case where you're going to have to help yourself. For us to determine the problem, you're going to have to provide detailed and specific information about how you're connecting your devices, the type of Internet connection you have, which subnet you're using on your Slingbox, which subnet you're currently using on your Airport Base Station router, which model Airport Base Station model you have, and more.
You can't assign the ABS to having the Slingbox IP info. The Slingbox isn't your router; it's a device behind your router, and as such you need to tell the router to forward traffic on the Slingbox port to the Slingbox.
Please forgive me if this stubs your toe a bit, but it sounds like you're having a conceptual problem with this setup. I think that you're going to need to have a decent comprehension of how your network is working before you're going to able get this. It's why I suggested you review the Airport Setup Guide and the Designing Networks PDF files.
If you were sitting next to me, I could draw you a simple enough diagram explaining your network topology and explain visually how NAT, port-forwarding work, and the difference between LAN and WAN. Unfortunately, you're not sitting here, so you're going to have to try to struggle through.
Don't get too discouraged though. These aren't overly complicated concepts. Go back and review the setup guides. Apple has some well-written literature at their Airport pages on Apple.com to help you begin understanding how networks work.
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#7 User is offline   lyronis Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 05:41 PM

i have the latest model of airport extreme base station.
my networks settings are ip address 172.19.3.2
subnet mask 255.255.0.0router 172.19.3.1
The sling box has
ip address 10.0.1.200
subnet 255.255.255.0
router 10.0.1.1
port number 5001
when i go to port forward on the airport admin utility it sais to go at the airport utility because it doesnot support this base station and put the cd you have with the base station. i put it i run it but nothing again.
cannot forward port.
what else do i have to change? i have put on the sling box the ip,subnet and router numbers but nothing happens again. Slingbox sais cant be reached from the internet. please check your routers forward settings.
WHY I AM HAVING SUCH A HARD TIME???????? why id it too difficult to help...?
apple site and pdf stuff dont write for port forward... i read my manual too..
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#8 User is offline   smax013 Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 06:03 PM

Go into the Airport Utility. Click on the Internet icon/button. Select the DHCP tab. On the resulting screen, you should see a pull down menu for the DHCP range. Since the Slingbox is currently set to use the 10.0.x.x range, you will want to set the pull down menu to 10.0. That should setup the AE to use 10.0.x.x IP range for the DNS server.
Then to do the port forwarding (what Apple calls port mapping), select the Advanced icon/button. Then the Port Mapping tab. You should now be able to map/forward the appropriate port to the Slingbox IP (you will probably want to make sure to setup the Slingbox with a static IP address, which kind of appears to be the case.
This document should help:
Ariport Extreme Networks
Takes a look at page 53 for port mapping and page 30 for the DHCP options.
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#9 User is offline   Damien Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 06:37 PM

Also...go back and read my preveious post.
Did you miss the part where I talked about the Slingbox not understanding subnet classes other than 192.168.1.x ?
Trust me. Set both your Slingbox and Aiport Base Station to the 192.168.1.x subnet class and you'll have better luck. Get the port forwarding set up in the Airport Base Station settings and then run the assistant/wizard on the Slingbox and pick "Advanced' or "Manual" setup (not automatic, which uses PlugNPlay config which won't work). Enter the correct values and it should work.
I've already been down the road trying to get the Slingbox to use the 10.x.x.x subnet class (didn't try 172.16.x.x). It just didn't work; the software on the Slingbox doesn't understand how to foward anything but the 192.168.x.x subnet class).
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#10 User is offline   lyronis Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 07:05 PM

sorry. i cant understand and i am too new to follow all this information.
if i knew that it was so complicated would never bought a sling box. waste of money. will not make it to make it work if someone wont help me.
too bad. never mind.
i am no expert at this kind of technology and cant understand the terms.
if anyone likes to help please do so...
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#11 User is offline   smax013 Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 07:41 PM

Quote:

Also...go back and read my preveious post.
Did you miss the part where I talked about the Slingbox not understanding subnet classes other than 192.168.1.x ?
Trust me. Set both your Slingbox and Aiport Base Station to the 192.168.1.x subnet class and you'll have better luck. Get the port forwarding set up in the Airport Base Station settings and then run the assistant/wizard on the Slingbox and pick "Advanced' or "Manual" setup (not automatic, which uses PlugNPlay config which won't work). Enter the correct values and it should work.
I've already been down the road trying to get the Slingbox to use the 10.x.x.x subnet class (didn't try 172.16.x.x). It just didn't work; the software on the Slingbox doesn't understand how to foward anything but the 192.168.x.x subnet class).


Deep breaths...deep breaths...chill.
So, modify my instructions to select the 192.168.x.x from the pull down menu. It has been SO long since I set up my Slingbox that I could not remember if I had any issues with the IP. Likely did not as my router is already set to use 192.168.x.x. I will note that are at least WRONG about Slingbox not "...understanding subnet classes other than 192.168.1.x" as my Slingbox IP is set to a 192.168.123.x address...all my IPs are. And it works just fine, thank you...port forwarding and all.
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#12 User is offline   smax013 Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 07:44 PM

Quote:

sorry. i cant understand and i am too new to follow all this information.
if i knew that it was so complicated would never bought a sling box. waste of money. will not make it to make it work if someone wont help me.
too bad. never mind.
i am no expert at this kind of technology and cant understand the terms.
if anyone likes to help please do so...


I don't know what else to do other than to do it myself. I provided step by step instructions. I cannot think of a way to make much simplier or easier.
Have you looked at the pages that I referred to in the PDF that I linked to? They have pictures that should help.
Not much more that I think to do to help. If you really cannot figure it out, then you might want to see if you can hire a local computer type to come set it up for you.
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#13 User is offline   Damien Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 08:56 PM

I made a slight error in my previous post. I meant to imply that the Slingbox doesn't like NAT subnets other than the 192.168.x.x one, not specifically 192.168.1.x, which is perhaps the most common iteration of the 192.168.x.x NAT subnet class.
Trying to get the Slingbox to accept port-forwarding traffic through a router using a 10.x.x.x or 172.16.x.x subnet class is an excercise in frustration. Just trust me that it won't work, or at least this was the issue I ran into a few months ago in configuring my client's Slingbox.
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#14 User is offline   smax013 Icon

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Posted 08 August 2007 - 09:23 PM

I believe you. Fortunately, I did not have to mess with the frustration as every router I have own is setup by default to use 192.168.x.x. So, I have not had to cross that bridge. I seem to recall reading about some folks having similar problems when I got my Slingbox a year or more ago.
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