Replace your old router with Bubba|Two! Using Bubba|Two as your Router and Firewall is the best and simplest way for you to reach your content on Bubba|Two from the Internet. The firewall is pre configured to fit most peoples needs, but is easy reconfigured.
The Router functionality in Bubba|Two determines the next network point to which a packet should be forwarded toward. Network devices on the LAN side of Bubba|Two will be given IP-addresses from the built in DHCP server. Connect a switch in Bubba|Twos LAN port to be able to connect several computers or other network devices via cable. A description about the router settings is found in chapter Administrator section Network-LAN.
Network Address Translation (NAT) is the process of modifying network address information while the traffic is passing through the router. The purpose is to remap a given address space into another. By doing this the internal network devices (LAN) are hidden from the external network (WAN).
A firewall protects your home computers from attacks from the outside, by blocking traffic that is not directly requested from the inside. Bubba|Two has this functionality. You find a description of Bubba|Two's firewall features in chapter Administrator section Network-Firewall.
By enabling and disabling these settings when logged in as administrator, you are able to open standard ports in an convenient way.
A device connected on the internet has at least one IP address. The IP address is a unique number that is used to identify a device. Every IP address is divided up into many ports.
When one device (for example a computer on the Internet) sends data to another device (for example your computer at home), it sends the data from a port on the external computers IP address to a port on your local computers IP address. Computers on the Internet can not see the IP address on your local computer at home, they only see your routers external IP address (that is Bubba|Two's external IP address).
Some programs run on your local computer needs to have an "gate" exposed to the Internet to function correctly: you need to use the function Port forward in your firewall.
The Port forward tells your router in Bubba|Two which computer on the LAN to send the data to. When you have set up the port forwarding rules, your router takes the data from the external IP-address:port number (for example 93.122.158.30:551, where 93.122.158.30 is the IP address and 551 is the port number) and sends that data to an internal IP-address:port number (for example 192.168.10.10:551).
In Bubba|Two Port forwarding rules are created per port or per a range of ports. A rule set up for port 551 will only work for port 551. Rules set up for the port range 550-552 will open the three ports 550, 551, 552.