WooHoo!

After 2 years.. and all the grey-matter ache.. I finally solved it. I’m not sure what took me so long to realize such a simple truth. Hah..

I FINALLY FINALLY managed to get the darn port forwarding to work on my net connection.

You see, it all started with me doing some simple maths 2 yrs ago when I finally graduated from the 56kbps class and joined the Broadband gang.. I figured it’s waaay cheaper to get a wired modem from Singnet, and then buy a wireless router to route the internet connection around my house..

The math tells me that if I had chosen Singnet’s wireless dsl modem+router combo device thingy, with the additional amount I pay every month, for the 2 year contract period, I’ll be paying an extra 150 bucks compared to using their wired (‘single user’) modem.. and since a wireless router only costs me 70. so technically, I can afford to buy another one, even if it breaks down.

And the pros of getting a separate router clearly outweighs getting a modem+router combo device. Cos even if I should choose to hop over to the Starhub Cable bandwagon in the future, I won’t need to much housekeeping or helping mum/dad/sis to sort out their connection issues. Just plug in the new modem to the old router and I’m good to go.

So anyway, all these while I’ve been blind-sighted by the router. I’ve followed all the procedures on countless port-forwarding website to the punctuation, but still, I can never get it to work. And therefore, I rarely get a decent download speed. And with the linux distros getting bigger and bigger, and available every 6 months, it’s quite irritating to keep waiting really.

Only now did it suddenly hit me that the modem that Singnet provides acts somewhat like a router too.. a ‘smart’ modem as they called it. Mine’s the Thomson SpeedTouch one. And so after hooking up straight into the modem, I get to enter the holy-grail which is the elusive modem’s setup page to forward the modem’s port.

So now, the modem’s port is forwarded to the router, which is then forwarded to my computer and everyone’s happy.

AWESOME.. .. but only after 2 years. Bummer..