To preface: I’ve checked AIM’s “Help” option, its website, and asked some tech-savvy friends. None of them have helped so far.
I want to send a friend of mine some files I’ve made on my computer. However, the files are too big for mail.com (my email provider) to send. So, I wanted to send them over AOL Instant Messenger. However, my friend and I are both on Linksys routers, which split our cable modems to several computers and double as firewalls. So, when we try to exchange files, we block eachother. I’m sure the router is the problem, since we can send files when it’s disconnected (which is annoying, and sometimes not an option when others are using the modem too.)
So, is there a way that I can arrange AIM to bypass our routers firewall so that we can send eachother files? I’m pretty sure it has to do with the ports that AIM uses, but I don’t know which ones, or what to do to fix this. Thanks.
The quickest thing I do, for situations like that is to put the computer in question into the DMZ for the time period you need it, then move it back out again.
To do that: log into your router (192.168.1.1 I belive is standard for Linksys: just tap it into your browser like you would for a web address), click the ‘advanced’ tab, then ‘DMZ’ and then change the last part of the IP address there to match up with the IP address of the computer in question. Hit ‘apply’, and you should be good to go.
Sounds good, thanks a lot. Just one more question: How do I find out what number I should enter there? (I’m using Windows XP Professional and running winipcfg isn’t working.)
Try opening the command prompt and typing ipconfig. If you use Run instead of the command prompt, the window will close before you can read anything. Thats how it is in Win 2k anyway.
I would suggest giving your main PC a static address to make things easier in the future.
I did the DMZ thing, and I still can’t direct-connect to people, or send/recieve files. I also tried forwarding the port for AOL pictures (4443) to my computer, which allowed me to direct to connect to one person a few times but now doesn’t work at all.