[Geobunny]

Hi, I just bought a Belkin 4-port cable/dsl gateway router to share my cable internet connection between 2 Macs. The reason I bought it is because software routing isn't very secure, but mainly because software routing (which uses NAT) doesn't support UDP.

There are a number of reasons why I need UDP which I won't go into right now, but the router doesn't seem to support it (despite it claiming so in the sys spec before I bought it). If I put my main machine in the "Demilitarised zone" (ie, no protection by inbuilt firewall) then UDP works perfectly. However, I can only have 1machine there at a time and both need to use UDP accross the net.

If I turn NAT off in the router's settings, then nothing works at all! Can anyone offer any help please?

I bought the router on mail order and it arrived today. Should I send it back while I still can?

Thanks

[ghporter]

What you need to do is open the UDP ports you need and forward them to the IP of the computer that needs them. This is done through whatever setup Belkin uses-I'm assuming it's a browser-based feature. Look through the documentation that came with it to find out how to do this (I don't know any details about Belkin's products). With most similar routers, you have the option of forwarding specific ports for TCP, UDP, and both protocols. In Linksys' setup for the BEFSR41, you find these settings under the Forwarding sub-tab of the Advanced tab. Stir around in the setup to see what other settings are available; you may need them eventually.