Routing Options Page

This dialog helps you specify how other users can connect to the server component of this program. Many of these settings are set automatically (as far as possible) by a Routing Wizard that runs on start-up. There may be changes that you should make based on your knowledge of your network environment. This help page attempts to describe the issues and to help you make any necessary changes.

It should be emphasised that you may not need to be concerned with these settings. You may be happy to access the program via a web browser from your local machine (especially if you are evaluating the program). Also, access from your local network is also likely to work without issues. You need only be concerned with these settings if you also require access from the public Internet.

A discussion of networking terms and routing issues can be found here

The Routing Wizard is run each time the program starts up and can be run manually by clicking "Run Routing Wizard" on this settings page. The Routing Wizard detects as much as possible about your networking environment and tries to set the options on this page appropriately.

The top section shows the result of selecting various network options and port numbers.

The computer's network addresses are displayed as a set of three Universal Resource Locators (URLs). These URLs show the users the URL they should use to connect to your server from each of:

  1. General Internet
  2. Local network
  3. This computer
Depending on your network hardware and set-up, all three URLs may work from your local computer, and the top two may work from other computers in your local network. Access by users from outside your local network (ie. the Internet) is offen the most problematic and the main focus of the program's attempt to automatically probe and set options so that outside users can connect successfully. This is also the area that will require the most input from you if you don't have an Universal Plug'n'play (UPnP) network router.

The next section allows you to specify exactly how clients should connect, both for the Local network and from the Public Internet.

The Local Internet options are:

  1. Automatic
  2. Static IP
  3. Computer Host
  4. Host FQDN
  5. Use Public IP

In Automatic mode, the Routing Wizard will select "Use Public IP" if the computer appears to be directly connected to the Internet, i.e. there is no NAT router.  Alternatively it will use the Computer Host name if the address was assigned by DHCP (assuming that the host name will be most stable) or, if no DHCP, the Static IP address will be used since it must have been manually assigned. NOTE that, even in the last case, using "Computer Host" may work - try it and see.

The Public Internet options are:

  1. Static IP (not sure)
  2. Static IP (confirmed)
  3. Use Domain Name
  4. Don't care

The first two options require a valid IP address to be entered in (the wizard will fill in the IP address if possible). In addition the "not sure" option tells the wizard to check if the public IP address changes. If a change is detected the IP Address Changed dialog box appears. "Use Domain Name" requires that a valid domain name is entered in "Public host name or IP address". Use this option if you have a domain name and a fixed IP or a Dynamic DNS service. "Don't care" will also prevent the Routing Wizard from running and prompting you for action. Use this option if you don't intend to allow (or need) users to access your server from the Internet.

The "Run Routing Wizard" button allows you to run the wizard manually if you have made changes to your network (such as enabling UPnP) and want to test if the settings can be made automatically now.

The last section is where you specify the local port to be used by the server program. The port will be checked to ensure it is not already in use but other programs may not do so. It is best to choose a port that won't be used by other programs that may be installed later. Certainly avoid well known ports like the standard HTTP port "80". You can choose to make the public port used the same as the private one or specify the public port explicitly (because you expect a port clash on the public interface).