Advanced Help

Virtual Server

The Virtual Server option gives Internet users access to services on your LAN. This feature is useful for hosting online services such as FTP, Web, or game servers. For each Virtual Server, you define a public port on your router for redirection to an internal LAN IP Address and LAN port.

Virtual Server Parameters

Name

Assign a meaningful name to the virtual server, for example Web Server. Several well-known types of virtual server are available from the "Application Name" drop-down list. Selecting one of these entries fills some of the remaining parameters with standard values for that type of server.

IP Address

The IP address of the system on your internal network that will provide the virtual service, for example 192.168.0.50. You can select a computer from the list of DHCP clients in the "Computer Name" drop-down menu, or you can manually enter the IP address of the server computer.

Protocol

Select the protocol used by the service. The common choices -- UDP, TCP, and both UDP and TCP -- can be selected from the drop-down menu. To specify any other protocol, select "Other" from the list, then enter the corresponding protocol number ( as assigned by the IANA) in the Protocol box.

Private Port

The port that will be used on your internal network.

Public Port

The port that will be accessed from the Internet.

Inbound Filter

Select a filter that controls access as needed for this virtual server. If you do not see the filter you need in the list of filters, go to the Advanced → Inbound Filter screen and create a new filter.

Schedule

Select a schedule for when the service will be enabled. If you do not see the schedule you need in the list of schedules, go to the Tools → Schedules screen and create a new schedule.

Add/Edit Virtual Server

In this section you can add an entry to the Virtual Servers List below or edit an existing entry.

Enable

Entries in the list can be either active (enabled) or inactive (disabled).

Save

Saves the new or edited virtual server entry in the following list. When finished updating the virtual server entries, you must still click the Save Settings button at the top of the page to make the changes effective and permanent.

Virtual Servers List

The section shows the currently defined virtual servers. A Virtual Server can be changed by clicking the Edit icon, or deleted by clicking the Delete icon. When you click the Edit icon, the item is highlighted, and the "Edit Virtual Server" section is activated for editing.

Note: You might have trouble accessing a virtual server using its public identity (WAN-side IP-address of the gateway or its dynamic DNS name) from a machine on the LAN. Your requests may not be looped back or you may be redirected to the "Forbidden" page.

This will happen if you have an Access Control Rule configured for this LAN machine.

The requests from the LAN machine will not be looped back if Internet access is blocked at the time of access. To work around this problem, access the LAN machine using its LAN-side identity.

Requests may be redirected to the "Forbidden" page if web access for the LAN machine is restricted by an Access Control Rule. Add the WAN-side identity (WAN-side IP-address of the router or its dynamic DNS name) on the Advanced → Web Filter screen to work around this problem.

Gaming

Multiple connections are required by some applications, such as internet games, video conferencing, Internet telephony, and others. These applications have difficulties working through NAT (Network Address Translation). This section is used to open multiple ports or a range of ports in your router and redirect data through those ports to a single PC on your network. You can enter ports in various formats:

Range (50-100)
Individual (80, 68, 888)
Mixed (1020-5000, 689)

Port Forwarding Fields

Name

Give the rule a name that is meaningful to you, for example Game Server. You can also select from a list of popular games, and many of the remaining configuration values will be filled in accordingly. However, you should check whether the port values have changed since this list was created, and you must fill in the IP address field.

IP Address

Enter the local network IP address of the system hosting the server, for example 192.168.0.50.

TCP Ports To Open

Enter the TCP ports to open (for example 6159-6180, 99).

UDP Ports To Open

Enter the UDP ports to open (for example 6159-6180, 99).

Inbound Filter

Select a filter that controls access as needed for this rule. If you do not see the filter you need in the list of filters, go to the Advanced → Inbound Filter screen and create a new filter.

Schedule

Select a schedule for the times when this rule is in effect. If you do not see the schedule you need in the list of schedules, go to the Tools → Schedules screen and create a new schedule.

With the above example values filled in and this Gaming Rule enabled, all TCP and UDP traffic on ports 6159 through 6180 and port 99 is passed through the router and redirected to the Internal Private IP Address of your Game Server at 192.168.0.50.

Edit/Add Game Rule

Here you can add entries to the Game Rules List below, or edit existing entries.

Enable

Each entry in Game Rules List can be active (enabled) or inactive (disabled)

Save

Saves the new or edited Game Rule in the following list. When finished updating the game rules, you must still click the Save Settings button at the top of the page to make the changes effective and permanent.

Game Rules List

The section shows the currently defined game rules. A game rule can be changed by clicking the Edit icon, or deleted by clicking the Delete icon. When you click the Edit icon, the item is highlighted, and the "Edit Game Rule" section is activated for editing.

Special Applications

An application rule is used to open single or multiple ports on your router when the router senses data sent to the Internet on a "trigger" port or port range. An application rule applies to all computers on your internal network.

Parameters for an Application Rule

Example:

You need to configure your router to allow a software application running on any computer on your network to connect to a web-based server or another user on the Internet.

Name

Enter a name for the Special Application Rule, for example Game App, which will help you identify the rule in the future. Alternatively, you can select from the Application list of common applications.

Application

Instead of entering a name for the Special Application rule, you can select from this list of common applications, and the remaining configuration values will be filled in accordingly.

Trigger Port Range

Enter the outgoing port range used by your application (for example 6500-6700).

Trigger Protocol

Select the outbound protocol used by your application (for example Both).

Input Port Range

Enter the port range that you want to open up to Internet traffic (for example 6000-6200).

Input Protocol

Select the protocol used by the Internet traffic coming back into the router through the opened port range (for example Both).

Schedule

Select a schedule for when this rule is in effect. If you do not see the schedule you need in the list of schedules, go to the Tools → Schedules screen and create a new schedule.

With the above example application rule enabled, the router will open up a range of ports from 6000-6200 for incoming traffic from the Internet, whenever any computer on the internal network opens up an application that sends data to the Internet using a port in the range of 6500-6700.

Add/Edit Special Applications Rule

This section is where you define and edit Special Applications Rules.

Save

Saves the new or edited Special Applications Rule in the following list. When finished updating the special applications rules, you must still click the Save Settings button at the top of the page to make the changes effective and permanent.

Special Applications Rules List

The section shows the currently defined special applications rules. A special applications rule can be changed by clicking the Edit icon, or deleted by clicking the Delete icon. When you click the Edit icon, the item is highlighted, and the "Edit Special Applications Rule" section is activated for editing.

GameFuel

The GameFuel™ feature helps improve your network gaming performance by prioritizing the data flows of network applications.

Traffic Shaping Setup

Enable Traffic Shaping

When this option is enabled, the router restricts the flow of outbound traffic so as not to exceed the WAN uplink bandwidth.

Automatic Uplink Speed

When enabled, this option causes the router to automatically measure the useful uplink bandwidth each time the WAN interface is re-established (after a reboot, for example).

Measured Uplink Speed

This is the uplink speed measured when the WAN interface was last re-established. The value may be lower than that reported by your ISP as it does not include all of the network protocol overheads associated with your ISP's network. Typically, this figure will be between 87% and 91% of the stated uplink speed for xDSL connections and around 5 kbps lower for cable network connections.

Manual Uplink Speed

If Automatic Uplink Speed is disabled, this options allows you to set the uplink speed manually. Uplink speed is the speed at which data can be transferred from the router to your ISP. This is determined by your ISP. ISPs often specify speed as a downlink/uplink pair; for example, 1.5Mbps/284kbps. For this example, you would enter "284". Alternatively you can test your uplink speed with a service such as http://www.dslreports.com/. Note however that sites such as DSL Reports, because they do not consider as many network protocol overheads, will generally note speeds slightly lower than the Measured Uplink Speed or the ISP rated speed.

Connection Type

By default, the router automatically determines whether the underlying connection is an xDSL/Frame-relay network or some other connection type (such as cable modem or Ethernet), and it displays the result as Detected xDSL or Frame Relay Network. If you have an unusual network connection in which you are actually connected via xDSL but for which you configure either "Static" or "DHCP" in the WAN settings, setting this option to xDSL or Other Frame Relay Network ensures that the router will recognize that it needs to shape traffic slightly differently in order to give the best performance. Choosing xDSL or Other Frame Relay Network causes the measured uplink speed to be reported slightly lower than before on such connections, but gives much better results.

Detected xDSL or Frame Relay Network

When Connection Type is set to Auto-detect, the automatically detected connection type is displayed here.

GameFuel Setup

Enable GameFuel

Enable this option for better performance and experience with online games and other interactive applications, such as VoIP.

Automatic Classification

This option is enabled by default so that your router will automatically determine which programs should have network priority. For best performance, use the Automatic Classification option to automatically set the priority for your applications.

Dynamic Fragmentation

This option should be enabled when you have a slow Internet uplink. It helps to reduce the impact that large low priority network packets can have on more urgent ones by breaking the large packets into several smaller packets.

GameFuel Rules

A GameFuel Rule identifies a specific message flow and assigns a priority to that flow. For most applications, automatic classification will be adequate, and specific GameFuel Rules will not be required.

Conflicting rules are not permitted. Conflicting rules are those that share any combination of source address/port, destination address/port, and protocol. Rejecting conflicting rules ensures the that every flow defined in a rule receives the expected priority and avoids indeterminate prioritization that could reduce QoS effectiveness.

Name

Create a name for the rule that is meaningful to you.

Priority

The priority of the message flow is entered here -- 1 receives the highest priority (most urgent) and 255 receives the lowest priority (least urgent). Priority 0 is reserved. Flows that are not prioritized by any rule receive lowest priority.

Protocol

The protocol used by the messages. The common choices can be selected from the drop-down menu. To specify any other protocol, enter its protocol number (as assigned by the IANA) in the Protocol box.

Source IP Range

The rule applies to a flow of messages whose LAN-side IP address falls within the range set here.

Source Port Range

The rule applies to a flow of messages whose LAN-side port number is within the range set here.

Destination IP Range

The rule applies to a flow of messages whose WAN-side IP address falls within the range set here.

Destination Port Range

The rule applies to a flow of messages whose WAN-side port number is within the range set here.

Add/Edit GameFuel Rule

Enable

Each entry in GameFuel Rules List can be active (enabled) or inactive (disabled)

Save

Saves the new or edited GameFuel Rule in the following list. When finished updating the GameFuel rules, you must still click the Save Settings button at the top of the page to make the changes effective and permanent.

GameFuel Rules List

The section shows the currently defined GameFuel rules. A GameFuel rule can be changed by clicking the Edit icon, or deleted by clicking the Delete icon. When you click the Edit icon, the item is highlighted, and the "Edit GameFuel Rule" section is activated for editing.

Routing

Add/Edit Route

Adds a new route to the IP routing table or edits an existing route.

Enable: Specifies whether the entry will be enabled or disabled.

Destination IP: The IP address of packets that will take this route.

Netmask: One bits in the mask specify which bits of the IP address must match.

Gateway: Specifies the next hop to be taken if this route is used. A gateway of 0.0.0.0 implies there is no next hop, and the IP address matched is directly connected to the router on the interface specified: LAN or WAN.

Interface: Specifies the interface -- LAN or WAN -- that the IP packet must use to transit out of the router, when this route is used.

Metric: The route metric is a value from 1 to 16 that indicates the cost of using this route. A value of 1 is the lowest cost, and 15 is the highest cost. A value of 16 indicates that the route is not reachable from this router. When trying to reach a particular destination, computers on your network will select the best route, ignoring unreachable routes.

Save: Saves the new or edited route in the following list. When finished updating the routing table, you must still click the Save Settings button at the top of the page to make the changes effective and permanent.

Routes List

The section shows the current routing table entries. Certain required routes are predefined and cannot be changed. Routes that you add can be changed by clicking the Edit icon, or deleted by clicking the Delete icon. When you click the Edit icon, the item is highlighted, and the "Edit Route" section is activated for editing.

Access Control

The Access Control section allows you to control access in and out of devices on your network. Use this feature as Parental Controls to only grant access to approved sites, limit web access based on time or dates, and/or block access from applications such as peer-to-peer utilities or games.

Enable

By default, the Access Control feature is disabled. If you need Access Control, check this option.

Note: When Access Control is disabled, every device on the LAN has unrestricted access to the Internet. However, if you enable Access Control, Internet access is restricted for those devices that have an Access Control Policy configured for them. All other devices have unrestricted access to the Internet.

Policy Wizard

The Policy Wizard guides you through the steps of defining each access control policy. A policy is the "Who, What, When, and How" of access control -- whose computer will be affected by the control, what internet addresses are controlled, when will the control be in effect, and how is the control implemented. You can define multiple policies. The Policy Wizard starts when you click the button below and also when you edit an existing policy.

Add Policy

Click this button to start creating a new access control policy.

Policy Table

This section shows the currently defined access control policies. A policy can be changed by clicking the Edit icon, or deleted by clicking the Delete icon. When you click the Edit icon, the Policy Wizard starts and guides you through the process of changing a policy. You can enable or disable specific policies in the list by clicking the "Enable" checkbox.

Web Filter

This section is where you add the Web sites to be used for Access Control. The Web sites listed here are used when the Web Filter option is enabled in Access Control.

The Web Filter section is one of two means by which you can specify the web sites you want to allow. You also have the alternative of using the Sentinel Parental Controls Service, which allows you to specify broad categories of web sites and saves you the trouble of entering specific web site URLs. For more information about the Sentinel service, refer to Tools → Sentinel.

Web Filter Parameters

Web Site

Enter the address of the web site that you want to allow; for example: google.com. Do not enter the http:// preceding the address. Enter the most inclusive domain; for example, enter dlink.com and access will be permitted to both www.dlink.com and support.dlink.com.

Note: Many web sites construct pages with images and content from other web sites. Access will be forbidden if you do not enable all the web sites used to construct a page. For example, to access my.yahoo.com, you need to enable access to yahoo.com, yimg.com, and doubleclick.net.

Add/Edit Web Site

This is where you can add Web sites to the Allowed Web Site List or change entries in the Allowed Web Site List.

Enable

Entries in the Allowed Web Site List can be activated or deactivated with this checkbox. New entries are activated by default.

Save

Saves the new or edited Allowed Web Site in the following list. When finished updating the Allowed Web Site List, you must still click the Save Settings button at the top of the page to make the changes effective and permanent.

Allowed Web Site List

The section lists the currently allowed web sites. An allowed web site can be changed by clicking the Edit icon, or deleted by clicking the Delete icon. When you click the Edit icon, the item is highlighted, and the "Edit Web Site" section is activated for editing.

MAC Address Filter

The MAC address filter section can be used to filter network access by machines based on the unique MAC addresses of their network adapter(s). It is most useful to prevent unauthorized wireless devices from connecting to your network. A MAC address is a unique ID assigned by the manufacturer of the network adapter.

Enable MAC Address Filter

When this is enabled, computers are granted or denied network access depending on the mode of the filter.

Note: Misconfiguration of this feature can prevent any machine from accessing the network. In such a situation, you can regain access by activating the factory defaults button on the router itself.

Filter Settings

Mode

When "only allow listed machines" is selected, only computers with MAC addresses listed in the MAC Address List are granted network access. When "only deny listed machines" is selected, any computer with a MAC address listed in the MAC Address List is refused access to the network.

Filter Wireless Clients

When this is selected, the MAC address filters will be applied to wireless network clients.

Filter Wired Clients

When this is selected, the MAC address filters will be applied to wired network clients.

Add/Edit MAC Address

In this section, you can add entries to the MAC Address List below, or edit existing entries.

Enable

MAC address entries can be activated or deactivated with this checkbox.

MAC Address

Enter the MAC address of the desired computer or connect to the router from the desired computer and click the Copy Your PC's MAC Address button.

Save

Saves the new or edited MAC Address entry in the following list. When finished updating the MAC Address List, you must still click the Save Settings button at the top of the page to make the changes effective and permanent.

MAC Address List

The section lists the current MAC Address filters. A MAC Address entry can be changed by clicking the Edit icon, or deleted by clicking the Delete icon. When you click the Edit icon, the item is highlighted, and the "Edit MAC Address" section is activated for editing.

Firewall

The router provides a tight firewall by virtue of the way NAT works. Unless you configure the router to the contrary, the NAT does not respond to unsolicited incoming requests on any port, thereby making your LAN invisible to Internet cyberattackers. However, some network applications cannot run with a tight firewall. Those applications need to selectively open ports in the firewall to function correctly. The options on this page control several ways of opening the firewall to address the needs of specific types of applications. See also Virtual Server, Port Forwarding, Application Rules, and UPnP for related options.

Firewall Settings

Enable SPI

SPI ("stateful packet inspection" also known as "dynamic packet filtering") helps to prevent cyberattacks by tracking more state per session. It validates that the traffic passing through that session conforms to the protocol. When the protocol is TCP, SPI checks that packet sequence numbers are within the valid range for the session, discarding those packets that do not have valid sequence numbers.

Whether SPI is enabled or not, the router always tracks TCP connection states and ensures that each TCP packet's flags are valid for the current state.

NAT Endpoint Filtering

The NAT Endpoint Filtering options control how the router's NAT manages incoming connection requests to ports that are already being used.

Endpoint Independent

Once a LAN-side application has created a connection through a specific port, the NAT will forward any incoming connection requests with the same port to the LAN-side application regardless of their origin. This is the least restrictive option, giving the best connectivity and allowing some applications (P2P applications in particular) to behave almost as if they are directly connected to the Internet.

Address Restricted

The NAT forwards incoming connection requests to a LAN-side host only when they come from the same IP address with which a connection was established. This allows the remote application to send data back through a port different from the one used when the outgoing session was created.

Port And Address Restricted

The NAT does not forward any incoming connection requests with the same port address as an already establish connection.

Note that some of these options can interact with other port restrictions. Endpoint Independent Filtering takes priority over inbound filters or schedules, so it is possible for an incoming session request related to an outgoing session to enter through a port in spite of an active inbound filter on that port. However, packets will be rejected as expected when sent to blocked ports (whether blocked by schedule or by inbound filter) for which there are no active sessions. Port and Address Restricted Filtering ensures that inbound filters and schedules work precisely, but prevents some level of connectivity, and therefore might require the use of port triggers, virtual servers, or port forwarding to open the ports needed by the application. Address Restricted Filtering gives a compromise position, which avoids problems when communicating with certain other types of NAT router (symmetric NATs in particular) but leaves inbound filters and scheduled access working as expected.

UDP Endpoint Filtering

Controls endpoint filtering for packets of the UDP protocol.

TCP Endpoint Filtering

Controls endpoint filtering for packets of the TCP protocol.

DMZ Host

DMZ means "Demilitarized Zone." If an application has trouble working from behind the router, you can expose one computer to the Internet and run the application on that computer.

When a LAN host is configured as a DMZ host, it becomes the destination for all incoming packets that do not match some other incoming session or rule. If any other ingress rule is in place, that will be used instead of sending packets to the DMZ host; so, an active session, virtual server, active port trigger, or port forwarding rule will take priority over sending a packet to the DMZ host. (The DMZ policy resembles a default port forwarding rule that forwards every port that is not specifically sent anywhere else.)

The router provides only limited firewall protection for the DMZ host. The router does not forward a TCP packet that does not match an active DMZ session, unless it is a connection establishment packet (SYN). Except for this limited protection, the DMZ host is effectively "outside the firewall". Anyone considering using a DMZ host should also consider running a firewall on that DMZ host system to provide additional protection.

Packets received by the DMZ host have their IP addresses translated from the WAN-side IP address of the router to the LAN-side IP address of the DMZ host. However, port numbers are not translated; so applications on the DMZ host can depend on specific port numbers.

The DMZ capability is just one of several means for allowing incoming requests that might appear unsolicited to the NAT. In general, the DMZ host should be used only if there are no other alternatives, because it is much more exposed to cyberattacks than any other system on the LAN. Thought should be given to using other configurations instead: a virtual server, a port forwarding rule, or a port trigger. Virtual servers open one port for incoming sessions bound for a specific application (and also allow port redirection and the use of ALGs). Port forwarding is rather like a selective DMZ, where incoming traffic targeted at one or more ports is forwarded to a specific LAN host (thereby not exposing as many ports as a DMZ host). Port triggering is a special form of port forwarding, which is activated by outgoing traffic, and for which ports are only forwarded while the trigger is active.

Few applications truly require the use of the DMZ host. Following are examples of when a DMZ host might be required:

• A host needs to support several applications that might use overlapping ingress ports such that two port forwarding rules cannot be used because they would potentially be in conflict.
• To handle incoming connections that use a protocol other than ICMP, TCP, UDP, and IGMP (also GRE and ESP, when these protocols are enabled by the PPTP and IPSec ALGs ).

Enable DMZ

Note: Putting a computer in the DMZ may expose that computer to a variety of security risks. Use of this option is only recommended as a last resort.

DMZ IP Address

Specify the LAN IP address of the LAN computer that you want to have unrestricted Internet communication. If this computer obtains its address Automatically using DHCP, then you may want to make a static reservation on the Basic → Network Settings page so that the IP address of the DMZ computer does not change.

Non-UDP/TCP/ICMP LAN Sessions

When a LAN application that uses a protocol other than UDP, TCP, or ICMP initiates a session to the Internet, the router's NAT can track such a session, even though it does not recognize the protocol. This feature is useful because it enables certain applications (most importantly a single VPN connection to a remote host) without the need for an ALG.

Note that this feature does not apply to the DMZ host (if one is enabled). The DMZ host always handles these kinds of sessions.

Enable

Enabling this option (the default setting) enables single VPN connections to a remote host. (But, for multiple VPN connections, the appropriate VPN ALG must be used.) Disabling this option, however, only disables VPN if the appropriate VPN ALG is also disabled.

Application Level Gateway (ALG) Configuration

Here you can enable or disable ALGs. Some protocols and applications require special handling of the IP payload to make them work with network address translation (NAT). Each ALG provides special handling for a specific protocol or application. A number of ALGs for common applications are enabled by default.

PPTP

Allows multiple machines on the LAN to connect to their corporate networks using PPTP protocol. When the PPTP ALG is enabled, LAN computers can establish PPTP VPN connections either with the same or with different VPN servers. When the PPTP ALG is disabled, the router allows VPN operation in a restricted way -- LAN computers are typically able to establish VPN tunnels to different VPN Internet servers but not to the same server. The advantage of disabling the PPTP ALG is to increase VPN performance. Enabling the PPTP ALG also allows incoming VPN connections to a LAN side VPN server (refer to Virtual Server).

IPSec (VPN)

Allows multiple VPN clients to connect to their corporate networks using IPSec. Some VPN clients support traversal of IPSec through NAT. This option may interfere with the operation of such VPN clients. If you are having trouble connecting with your corporate network, try disabling this option.

Check with the system adminstrator of your corporate network whether your VPN client supports NAT traversal.

Note that L2TP VPN connections typically use IPSec to secure the connection. To achieve multiple VPN pass-through in this case, the IPSec ALG must be enabled.

RTSP

Allows applications that use Real Time Streaming Protocol to receive streaming media from the internet. QuickTime and Real Player are some of the common applications using this protocol.

Windows/MSN Messenger

Supports use on LAN computers of Microsoft Windows Messenger (the Internet messaging client that ships with Microsoft Windows) and MSN Messenger. The SIP ALG must also be enabled when the Windows Messenger ALG is enabled.

FTP

Allows FTP clients and servers to transfer data across NAT. Refer to the Advanced → Virtual Server page if you want to host an FTP server.

H.323 (Netmeeting)

Allows H.323 (specifically Microsoft Netmeeting) clients to communicate across NAT. Note that if you want your buddies to call you, you should also set up a virtual server for NetMeeting. Refer to the Advanced → Virtual Server page for information on how to set up a virtual server.

SIP

Allows devices and applications using VoIP (Voice over IP) to communicate across NAT. Some VoIP applications and devices have the ability to discover NAT devices and work around them. This ALG may interfere with the operation of such devices. If you are having trouble making VoIP calls, try turning this ALG off.

Wake-On-LAN

This feature enables forwarding of "magic packets" (that is, specially formatted wake-up packets) from the WAN to a LAN computer or other device that is "Wake on LAN" (WOL) capable. The WOL device must be defined as such on the Advanced → Virtual Server page. The LAN IP address for the virtual server is typically set to the broadcast address 192.168.0.255. The computer on the LAN whose MAC address is contained in the magic packet will be awakened.

MMS

Allows Windows Media Player, using MMS protocol, to receive streaming media from the internet.

Inbound Filter

When you use the Virtual Server, Gaming, or Remote Administration features to open specific ports to traffic from the Internet, you could be increasing the exposure of your LAN to cyberattacks from the Internet. In these cases, you can use Inbound Filters to limit that exposure by specifying the IP addresses of internet hosts that you trust to access your LAN through the ports that you have opened. You might, for example, only allow access to a game server on your home LAN from the computers of friends whom you have invited to play the games on that server.

Inbound Filters can be used for limiting access to a server on your network to a system or group of systems. Filter rules can be used with Virtual Server, Gaming, or Remote Administration features. Each filter can be used for several functions; for example a "Game Clan" filter might allow all of the members of a particular gaming group to play several different games for which gaming entries have been created. At the same time an "Admin" filter might only allows systems from your office network to access the WAN admin pages and an FTP server you use at home. If you add an IP address to a filter, the change is effected in all of the places where the filter is used.

Add/Edit Inbound Filter Rule

Here you can add entries to the Inbound Filter Rules List below, or edit existing entries.

Name

Enter a name for the rule that is meaningful to you.

Action

The rule can either Allow or Deny messages.

Source IP Range

Define the ranges of Internet addresses this rule applies to. For a single IP address, enter the same address in both the Start and End boxes. Up to eight ranges can be entered. The Enable checkbox allows you to turn on or off specific entries in the list of ranges.

Save

Saves the new or edited Inbound Filter Rule in the following list. When finished updating the Inbound Filter Rules List, you must still click the Save Settings button at the top of the page to make the changes effective and permanent.

Inbound Filter Rules List

The section lists the current Inbound Filter Rules. An Inbound Filter Rule can be changed by clicking the Edit icon, or deleted by clicking the Delete icon. When you click the Edit icon, the item is highlighted, and the "Edit Inbound Filter Rule" section is activated for editing.

In addition to the filters listed here, two predefined filters are available wherever inbound filters can be applied:

Allow All

Permit any WAN user to access the related capability.

Deny All

Prevent all WAN users from accessing the related capability. (LAN users are not affected by Inbound Filter Rules.)

Advanced Wireless

Transmit Power

Normally the wireless transmitter operates at 100% power. In some circumstances, however, there might be a need to isolate specific frequencies to a smaller area. By reducing the power of the radio, you can prevent transmissions from reaching beyond your corporate/home office or designated wireless area.

Beacon Period

Beacons are packets sent by a wireless router to synchronize wireless devices. Specify a Beacon Period value between 20 and 1000. The default value is set to 100 milliseconds.

RTS Threshold

This setting should remain at its default value of 2346. If you encounter inconsistent data flow, only minor modifications to the value are recommended.

Fragmentation Threshold

This setting should remain at its default value of 2346. Setting the Fragmentation value too low may result in poor performance.

DTIM Interval

A DTIM is a countdown informing clients of the next window for listening to broadcast and multicast messages. When the wireless router has buffered broadcast or multicast messages for associated clients, it sends the next DTIM with a DTIM Interval value. Wireless clients detect the beacons and awaken to receive the broadcast and multicast messages. The default value is 1. Valid settings are between 1 and 255.

802.11d Enable

Enables 802.11d operation. 802.11d is a wireless specification for operation in additional regulatory domains. This supplement to the 802.11 specifications defines the physical layer requirements (channelization, hopping patterns, new values for current MIB attributes, and other requirements to extend the operation of 802.11 WLANs to new regulatory domains (countries). The current 802.11 standard defines operation in only a few regulatory domains (countries). This supplement adds the requirements and definitions necessary to allow 802.11 WLAN equipment to operate in markets not served by the current standard. Enable this option if you are operating in one of these "additional regulatory domains".

WMM Enable

Enabling WMM can help control latency and jitter when transmitting multimedia content over a wireless connection.

WDS Enable

When WDS is enabled, this access point functions as a wireless repeater and is able to wirelessly communicate with other APs via WDS links. Note that WDS is incompatible with WPA -- both features cannot be used at the same time. A WDS link is bidirectional; so this AP must know the MAC Address (creates the WDS link) of the other AP, and the other AP must have a WDS link back to this AP. Make sure the APs are configured with same channel number.

WDS AP MAC Address

Specifies one-half of the WDS link. The other AP must also have the MAC address of this AP to create the WDS link back to this AP. Enter a MAC address for each of the other APs that you want to connect with WDS.

Advanced Network

UPnP

UPnP is short for Universal Plug and Play, which is a networking architecture that provides compatibility among networking equipment, software, and peripherals. This router has optional UPnP capability, and can work with other UPnP devices and software.

Enable UPnP

If you need to use the UPnP functionality, you can enable it here.

WAN Ping

Pinging public WAN IP addresses is a common method used by hackers to test whether your WAN IP address is valid.

Enable WAN Ping Respond

If you leave this option unchecked, you are causing the router to ignore ping commands for the public WAN IP address of the router.

WAN Port Speed

Normally, this is set to "auto". If you have trouble connecting to the WAN, try the other settings.

Multicast Streams

The router uses the IGMP protocol to support efficient multicasting -- transmission of identical content, such as multimedia, from a source to a number of recipients.

Enable Multicast Streams

This option must be enabled if any applications on the LAN participate in a multicast group. If you have a multimedia LAN application that is not receiving content as expected, try enabling this option.