What's up with these crappy router firewalls?

Lately, I've been having a lot of weird troulbe opening ports with Router firewalls. I have had the same issues with Linksys, Netgear, and D-Link. Two recent programs I've played with is a game; Command & Conquer: Generals, and Symantec pcAnywhere (as a host).

Both of them clearly explain what ports to open. It's very simple. I know how to open ports, and I even followed the instructions on PortForward.com. I specified the correct type (UPD or TCP), and I set it to the internal netowrk IP of the computer which the port is needed for. (e.g. 192.168.0.105). I also set this IP into the computers TCP/IP properties so that it doesn't change.

For some reason though, none of the programs work as though the ports were open. Connections are still blocked and the ports do not seem to actually open.

When I use DMZ (I guess it opens all ports), it works perfectly fine. But when DMZ is off and I just try to use port forwarding, it never seems to work.

Note: I don't use any other type of firewall, or virus scanner. Windows firewall is even off. It's just the router that seems to be blocking things. I just hate to use DMZ becuase I feel like it's a security risk. Is it?

What gives?

 

 

 

 

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