FAQ: WHAT IS PORT FORWARDING AND WHY DO I NEED A STATIC IP?
Source-Connect makes a certain type of connection over the internet which requires
both ends of the connection, i.e. you and the person you are connecting to, to
be able to see each other directly. Think of it like line of sight: You may have
a firewall or anti-virus software, which is blocking the view from your computer
to your connection partners. So, what we encourage you to do is configure your
network to specifically create a direct line-of-sight to Source-Connect on your
computer.
Here's an example of what how Source-Connect traffic works when port forwarding
is properly configured:
The Source-Connect traffic gets to the router, where it is redirected to the computer
running Source-Connect. Below is what is happening when Source-Connect can't make a connection:
WHY CAN'T I MAKE A CONNECTION WITH SOURCE-CONNECT?
When you try to make a connection, the internet needs to
know what computer to send the data to. With most networks, we implement methods
to try and make this work automatically, however it's not always guaranteed.
WHY DOES PORT FORWARDING GUARANTEE A CONNECTION?
Port forwarding is a way of gauranteeing that Source-Connect can make a connection.
Think about your network: you have a Cable or DSL modem/router which connects to the
internet, and one or more computers connected to that modem/router. The router
gives has a PUBLIC IP address which any computer on the internet can see. Your computers
connect internally to that router and have a PRIVATE IP address. Your internal network
is protected and hidden from the public internet, which means that other computers
usually can't find you. So, port forwarding is a way of specifically letting the
internet find certain services on your computer, for example Source-Connect, while
protecting your computer from the internet in general.
HOW DOES PORT FORWARDING WORK?
On your router you can specify what happens when traffic comes in directed to a
specific port and type of protocol. Source-Connect uses the UDP protocol and by
default is listening on ports 6000 and 6001. So we tell your router that whenever
traffic comes in on these ports, send the data directly to the IP address of
your Source-Connect computer.
WHY DO I NEED A STATIC IP?
Most DSL and Cable connections are through a single router. You probably connect
to this router via Ethernet cable, and you don't have to worry about making
any network settings manually. Your router is automatically giving you an IP
address every time you restart your computer or disconnect the network. What
generally happens is that the IP address your computer gives you will change,
so one day you have an IP of 192.168.1.100, and the next it might be 192.68.1.101.
Any port forwarding configuration you make on your router needs to be fixed to
a certain IP address, so it's important that it doesn't change. That's why
we walk you through the steps of configuring a Static IP address.
