DHCP reservation

[berrywise]

Doing a little bit of forum research tonight and came along the suggestion to assign a range of IPs for my BCS-460. I've always had issues when turning my panel on having it relocate to a different address and I need to go in and find it etc. I also would like to accomplish port forwarding so that I can access my BCS from work.

In regards to DHCP reservation I have a DLINK DIR-632 router. I found directions on how to setup DHCP reservations here:
http://files.dlink.com.au/Products/DIR- ... vation.pdf

It states "Before proceeding, you will need to know the actual Ports that your application requires"

It goes on to state "You will also need to know the IP Address of the computer/laptop that you would like the
Ports to be binded to". Would this, instead of a computer be the BCS-460 (the IP address I get when using the BCS finder? Along with the MAC address?)

Which would result in me putting in something like this?



Once I've saved that do I need to do anything to the settings in the BCS settings section? These are my current settings



Lastly, once I have that all setup should I be using Port 8080 for the BCS?

[JonW]

For the DHCP portion, it looks like you've set it up properly and should now always be able to access your BCS on 192.168.0.118. For the port forwarding portion, you'll need to setup a forwarding rule in the appropriate config area of the router.

[berrywise]

Thanks for the quick response Jon. I just hit save on everything that I've shown above so I believe I've configured DHCP reservation. Once I add a port (should it be 8080?) to my router's port forwarding do I alos then need to unplug the BCS to let it restart?

[JonW]

There's two ports to deal with here. There's the external router port and the internal device (BCS) port. You can leave the BCS on its default port and map external (router) 80 to internal (BCS) 80, but I don't suggest that. Chinese hackers and others scan public IP's continuously trying to break in and you'll likely have several sessions trying to connect regularly. I've seen performance degradation having my BCS exposed, so I would suggest using a different external port number that is not "well known". e.g. select something like 8123 or 10111, etc.

Most routers will let you leave the BCS at port 80 and then forward the chosen external port to the BCS on port 80. e.g. go to your external IP at xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:10111 and forward to internal 192.168.0.118:80.

You can also change the BCS port if you wish and forward xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:10111 to 192.168.0.118:10111. If you change the BCS port, that means that you need to also access the BCS on the port even when you are on the local network. e.g. enter into your browser http://192.168.0.118:10111.

Does that all make sense?

[berrywise]

When utlizing D-Link they show TCP and UDP. This is how I have it setup and saved.



I then did a restart of my BCS

Lastly I log onto:

xxx.xx.xx.xx:8123 (using whatismyip.com to figure that out).

When I visit http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ and enter in 8123 I get that my port is still closed.

[JonW]

Looks like your router doesn't support port mapping, but only straight port forwarding. In this case, you'll need to change the BCS to also use port 8123. You don't need to do the UDP forwarding.

[berrywise]

I just tried changing the port in the BCS settings section to 8123 as well and though I do now need to add that when getting on the local network I'm still struggling to get the port open. Yarghh! i'll try changing the UDP to zero.

p.s Thanks for your time tonight!

[JonW]

Some routers will not let you access the internal device from the local network using the external IP. You must actually be on an external internet device to test it. You can do that with your smart phone if you turn your WiFi off (so it is on your carriers network, not your LAN).

[berrywise]

Some routers will not let you access the internal device from the local network using the external IP. You must actually be on an external internet device to test it. You can do that with your smart phone if you turn your WiFi off (so it is on your carriers network, not your LAN).

Random question but do I need to be doing a hard reset to the BCS when making changes? As in physically unplugging it? Or can I use the reset button within the network settings page?

[JonW]

You can either use the "system reset" option at the bottom of the settings page or you can just power cycle it. Don't use the reset button, it's not needed.