[selowitch]

I have a simple wired/wireless LAN at home consisting of a iBook, iMac, an AppleTV, and a Wii, each with fixed IP addresses given out automatically as DHCP reservations (I use a D-Link DIR-655 router). I recently went ahead and configured port forwarding on the router to use BitTorrent with one of the clients, the iMac, and that seems to be working fine great.

What I'm curious about, though, is when I think about my everyday actiivites -- using IMAP (993) and SMTP (587) for e-mail, FTP (21) for uploading to my websites, and HTTP/HTTPS (god knows what port number) for everyday web browsing, I wonder: Does it makes sense to configure QoS or port forwarding on the router for those things? Am I misunderstanding the purpose of those things?

[ibook_steve]

I think your confusion is in not understanding port forwarding. The idea of port forwarding is to send a packet with a particular "signature", i.e. the port number included in the packet, to a specific machine on your network. Thus, torrent packets go to your Mac and if you had a web server, http and https (usually 80 and/or 8080) packets go to the web server. All other types of packets that are not included in the port forwarding list can be received by any machine on the network, not just an assigned machine. So no, you don't have to set up port forwarding for anything else (unless you set up a web server or some other type of server).

Steve

[selowitch]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

I think your confusion is in not understanding port forwarding. The idea of port forwarding is to send a packet with a particular "signature", i.e. the port number included in the packet, to a specific machine on your network. Thus, torrent packets go to your Mac and if you had a web server, http and https (usually 80 and/or 8080) packets go to the web server. All other types of packets that are not included in the port forwarding list can be received by any machine on the network, not just an assigned machine. So no, you don't have to set up port forwarding for anything else (unless you set up a web server or some other type of server).

Steve

So assuming I don't host a webserver (and I don't), port forwarding would only apply to incoming BitTorrent traffic? Now what about QoS? Does that hold any potential benefit for the other ports I use for web surfing, e-mail, FTP, etc.? From what I've read, it seems setting up QoS is a good idea for BitTorrent, so I know at a minimum I'll need to do that, right?

[ibook_steve]

Yes, port forwarding is only for the incoming Bittorrent traffic. I guess you can use QoS for torrents because you want the fastest up and down stream as possible, but it's not required. What's most important is getting the packets to the right machine, and that's what port forwarding is for. I don't know if it would really provide noticeable benefit for the other applications you list. Others may have more insight. Personally, I've never used QoS, only port forwarding.

Steve

[selowitch]

Might port forwarding be beneficial for incoming traffic from the iTunes Music Store?

[ibook_steve]

Originally Posted by selowitch 

Might port forwarding be beneficial for incoming traffic from the iTunes Music Store?

No. Again, port forwarding is for outside machines to be able to access certain machines with certain services inside your LAN. It would not do anything for iTunes unless you're running one of Apple's iTunes store servers.

Steve

[selowitch]

Gotcha. So QoS only applies when 1) some machine on my network is functioning as a server rather than a client, or 2) if I'm uploading files via BitTorrent -- is that right?

[ibook_steve]

QoS and port forwarding are two very different things. I am assuming you meant to say port forwarding in your last post, not QoS.

Steve

[selowitch]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

QoS and port forwarding are two very different things. I am assuming you meant to say port forwarding in your last post, not QoS.

Steve

Yep, that's right. Silly me.