Filed under: Freeware, Internet Tools
Port Map: easy UPnP port mapping
One of the nice things about the Airport Extreme Base Station is the Airport Utility application used to manage it. Most other routers these days are managed with a web interface which can sometimes be a little wonky. So it was with some interest that I discovered Port Map, from the Coding Monkeys of SubEthaEdit fame.
Port Map is not a full-fledged management application, but it does bring Cocoa lickability to one standard management task: port mapping, an essential task for iChat or Back to my Mac. If your router supports UPnP / NAT-PNP Port Map provides an iPhone-esque Ui for setting up specific ports, including "presets and URL templates." You can see it working above with my DD-WRT Linksys router (don't worry, I turned it off after the screenshot).
Port Map is a free download from The Coding Monkeys. They've also open-sourced some of the coding goodness that makes this possible and created a framework available to other developers on a Google Code page.
Thanks constantin!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kryptinite said 10:55AM on 4-21-2008
Can I use this to stream content to my PS3 for free? I know the other option but I've already bought Connect360 for the Xbox.
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Dan Dickinson said 11:40AM on 4-21-2008
There's multiple portions to the UPnP spec; this is the port mapping part, not the media sharing part.
So, no.
Kryptinite said 11:52AM on 4-21-2008
Gotcha, thanks :)
DSeaver said 11:27AM on 4-21-2008
Isn't it usually a bad idea to have UPnP on since it could create security problems? If i am wrong, please enlighten me
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mingistech said 11:33AM on 4-21-2008
Everything has an associated risk when you're connected to the internet... you just have to way the benefits to it's potential vulnerabilities. Sure there are UPnP exploits out there... but they are few and far between.
George said 12:17PM on 4-21-2008
I asked this on an "Ask TUAW" post a while back, but here goes again: What if I need to set up iChat (and/or BTMM) with two different Macs behind the Firewall? If the ports are forwarded, then only one machine can use these services, which seems a bit crazy. How exactly is this done with two Macs?
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blinkcowz182 said 12:25PM on 4-21-2008
What router do you have? All the routers I've come across didn't need ports forwarded for iChat video chat to work.
George said 12:33PM on 4-21-2008
I have a Netgear WGR614. The odd thing is that at times, no probs with iChat; other times, no dice. My real question was for the suggestion above (in the article itself) to forward ports for iChat - AFAIK forwarding can only be forwarded to one IP address.
And BTMM seems to be working, although verrrrrrry slow, and I have used it via VNC app SpyMe with very decent speeds. I think Apple still needs to work on BTTM.
Allan said 12:17PM on 4-21-2008
I can see how this would be a great benefit for using the web interfaced routers. Thankfully my Airport Express is decent without this... but boy do I wish I had something like this back when I had my Netgear or working with my aunt/uncle's Belkin. Bleh...
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fabianjaeger said 12:47PM on 4-21-2008
I am more interested in those nice new slider buttons. Does anybody know if there is any available piece of code that creates those sliders? Would be really great to see them in more software projects...
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Ed said 10:10PM on 4-21-2008
I'm no coder, but it's in the OS and I've seen it in other apps so it's probably somewhere in xcode.
tim said 1:18PM on 4-21-2008
my problem with the AirPort Utility is that it has to reboot after every change! even when setting up port forwarding. its insane that i have to lose all of my connections to make simple changes.
or am i doing it wrong?
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tim said 1:18PM on 4-21-2008
my problem with the AirPort Utility is that it has to reboot after every change! even when setting up port forwarding. its insane that i have to lose all of my connections to make simple changes.
or am i doing it wrong?
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tim said 1:19PM on 4-21-2008
my problem with the AirPort Utility is that it has to reboot after every change! even when setting up port forwarding. its insane that i have to lose all of my connections to make simple changes.
or am i doing it wrong?
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tim said 1:20PM on 4-21-2008
OH MAN! my comment didnt work the first time...or so i thought. and i dont even know why it happened a 3rd time! sorry everyone
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Johnny said 1:48PM on 4-21-2008
You can change every aspect of the configuration and only restart once, or you can make one small change and restart once. This is true of every router I've ever used. I've never had a problem with everything reconnecting after a restart. Just don't restart in the middle of a download/stream.
tim said 2:12PM on 4-21-2008
@johnny -
ive never had a router that required a reboot for things like port forwarding. my last router was the linksys wrt54g and you would just set the params, and click save.
i am always working in SSH or something similar, so i constantly have connections open and with the reboot time of the APExtreme it times out all of those connections.
i dont even remember having to reboot every time i made a change on cisco routers back in the day
Jeffrey said 2:40PM on 4-21-2008
It would be nice if this thing can run from the menu bar.
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badtzmaru said 2:48PM on 4-21-2008
OK so maybe this is a BIG request ... but can someone make an Airport Utility app for the iPhone ... please? Pretty please?
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Alexander Krumeich said 3:47PM on 4-21-2008
Looks like a promising app. I'd love to see an iChat preset, though. And please display the protocol type (TCP/UDP) in the main window [comment based on version 1.0 (5)].
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