Difficulty forwarding listening ports with Zone Alarm

[scotty0019]

I use Bit Comet v.1.19. I utilize a DSL connection with a modem but no router. I am currently running Windows XP Pro with service pack 3. My firewall and anti-virus software is provided by Zone Alarm 10. The problem that I am having is not being able to forward my listening port. During my attempt to do so I discovered the following message under the statistics tab on the lower half of the screen. "UPnP NAT port mapping: Failed [Windows version Not Supported!]" I have no idea how to remedy this. Please provide some insight into my dilemma. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration in getting my problem resolved.

Scott...

Edited February 12, 2010 by scotty0019 (see edit history)

[kluelos]

I strongly discommend Zonealarm, as it has a long history of really fundamental misbehavior, and there are free products which are far better behaved -- if you feel that you simply *must* have a third-party firewall. If you do, then you will run into issues like this which are completely unnecessary.

UPnP is a protocol, of middling success, for external device control. If it works, great, but when it doesn't, it's about impossible to troubleshoot or fix. Too much of it is hidden and the rest is unalterable, but note its basic purpose: control of external devices. External device. As in, a router. Which you don't have.

So yes, it failed. Your (nonexistent) router just refused to respond to ZoneAlarm's UPnP messages, and ZA is advising you of this failure. (Please insert a "doh!" anywhere in here that you feel is appropriate.) You need to check your (nonexistent) router. Because, you see, Windows XP, which is the first version of Windows to fully support UPnP, doesn't support UPnP. According to ZoneAlarm.

I strongly discommend Zonealarm. For any purpose at all. (BTW, you can't turn the sucker off. You have to uninstall it to get it to quit filtering.) There are free products that are far better behaved, though the built-in Windows Firewall is really all that you need and all that most people should have. BitComet will automatically configure the Windows firewall for you, opening and closing your listen port as needed.

[greywizard]

Wow, I've never thought that in my lifetime I'll get to know somebody who traveled back from the future. Is it nice there? :D

To the rest of us, who live in the present, the last released version of BitComet is v.1.18.

Leaving all that aside, if you have only a modem you can't/don't need to forward your port. You don't have where to forward it.

That message is merely stating that a UPnP port mapping could not be performed. Either because UPnP is disabled in BitComet or in Windows. Or in both.

But as I said, since you don't have a router, I don't see how any of this is your concern.