NOTE: WHS Port Forward should work with any router that supports UPnP and Windows Home Server is able to configure automatically for Remote Access . If Windows Home Server is NOT able to automatically configure your router for Remote Access then this Add-In will likely NOT work for you.

Title: WHS Port Forward
Version: 1.0.0.10 Beta
Date: 8/2/2009
Download: Click here to download the Add-In.
Author: Alex "Big Al" Kuretz
http://www.mediasmartserver.net

Copyright (c) 2009 Alex Kuretz


CHANGELOG
=========
1.0.0.10
- Fixed bug where user couldn't remove a port they had added in
certain router config failure cases.
- Fixed bug where Server Console would crash when Add button was
clicked, due to missing Interop dll on non-HP servers.
- Improved README
1.0.0.9
- Initial release


WHAT IS WHS Port Forward
===========================
WHS Port Forward is an Add-In for the Microsoft Windows Home Server
operating system. It allows the user to utilize the UPnP feature of Windows
Home Server to open forwarded ports from your router to your Home Server. This
is useful if you have installed a 3rd party application that requires incoming
access from the internet. This Add-In removes the need to assign a static IP
address to your server or manually forward ports on your router. Simply
configure the port you would like forwarded, and let Windows Home Server handle
it for you.


FEATURES
========
WHS Port Forward should work with any router that supports UPnP and Windows
Home Server is able to configure automatically for Remote Access . If Windows
Home Server is NOT able to automatically configure your router for Remote
Access then this Add-In will likely NOT work for you.

WHS Port Forward will present red text warning you if your router does not
appear to support UPnP, or if your Home Server has Remote Access disabled.
In these cases, you will be presented with a "Test router again" button
that will allow you test if UPnP is enabled after making changes to the
configuration of your router.

WHS Port Forward will also add an exception for your configured port to the
Windows Firewall on your Home Server, and remove the exception when you
remove the forwarded port from the configuration.


LICENSE
=======
WHS Port Forward is protected by copyright law.

WHS Port Forward is free for personal use but may not be redistributed
without written permission from the author. Commercial users, distributors,
or manufacturers should contact me for a license.

This software is provided "as is" with no implied or expressed warranties.


INSTALLATION
============
Install WHS Port Forward by copying the WHSPortForward.msi file to the
Software\Addins share of your Windows Home Server.

Start the Windows Home Server Console, select Settings, then Add-Ins. Select
WHS Port Forward from the Available tab, and click "Install".


UPGRADING
==========
To upgrade from a previous version of WHS Port Forward, please uninstall
the previous version via the Add-Ins settings tab of the WHS Console, then
follow the normal Installation instructions.

Your settings will have been saved in the registry, simply review that they
are accurate, then apply your changes.


CONFIGURATION
=============
WHS Port Forward requires no setup or configuration, it will list all known
port forwards that are actively set up by Windows Home Server. To create a
new port forward, simply click the "Add" button and enter the appropriate
values for the port you wish to forward. The Remove button will stop the port
from being forwarded by Windows Home Server and will remove it from the list.


KNOWN ISSUES
============
* While this software has been tested by myself and a small group of volunteer
beta testers, please be aware there may still be bugs. If you find a problem
with WHS Port Forward, please report it to me.
* When adding or removing a port forward or testing your router, the Server
Console may slow down or even appear to freeze for a short period of time.
* A bug exists in Windows Home Server (Connect Feedback ID 451292) such that
OpenRedirectedPort uses short type for max port of 32767 and should instead
be an unsigned int. This limits the max port able to be forwarded to 32767.
* English is currently the only supported language, though WHS Port Forward
should install and work correctly on non-English versions of WHS.


FUTURE PLANS
============
* None planned at this time.

New to the forum. What a timely post. I'd just finished doing the research and was about to set a static IP address to fix the "remote access/port forwarding settings won't hold" problem. There was a very detailed tutorial on myhomeserver.com that looked like it would do the trick, but from what I see here that won't be necessary. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Thanks
Spike

Great Add-In
Thanks Alex!!!

Green checks on all boxes.

I was not able to check the connection from within my network, but will try from work tommorrow.

Thanks CBick!

Spike, it's not clear to me what the problem is you are experiencing with remote access, but I doubt this Add-In will resolve it. However if you start a Troubleshooting forum post we can investigate there and try to get things working well for you.

The only issue I see is the lack of a both option as a protocol choice(TCP/UDP) or allowing another port be added with the same number but the other protocol. Other than that and the 32767 port number limit already mentioned it looks pretty good.

Chris Hyche

Thanks for the comments, CMHyche. The WHS API only allows you to have a single protocol per port, so I kept that limitation in the UI. Realistically I don't think this is an issue, but would be interesting in hearing of an example where this would indeed be a problem so I can submit a bug report to MS.

In my case I had static port configured for my DirecTV HD-DVR. All of the info I have found so far says to open both UDP and TCP.
I have it set for TCP for now and I will test to see if that is sufficient.

Before this add-in I had UPnP turned off on the router since WHS wanted to unset some of my settings.

CMHyche

Hi Alex,

I installed your add-in a few hours ago. Brought it up and it displays the ports I have open on my router.

I started to play with it a bit and clicked on the Add button. The "Adding port, please wait..." message came up and about 10 seconds later, the console closed. It is repeatable...

I have a Linksys WRT110 router. WHS reports it as UPnP, but WHS cannot configure the router, so I opened the ports manually.

I am not surprised that the add-in will not work with the Linksys router, but I did not expect the console to close. Is there any log files I can send you to help debug?

Jim Clark

I have a simular problem, when adding port 8089, it was accepted but says Created By Unknown, when adding another entry, port 3389 got this error. My router is a Belkin N1 and supports uPnP.

When I log back in and try to remove port 8089 & 9998, it say it can't . I added a test port of 5000, it was accepted with Unknown as a return, if I try to remove port 5000 I get this 2nd error.

Very interesting! I log any errors and debug info in the Event Viewer Application logs on the server, please check there first. I'd also like you to look for exceptions in the HomeServerConsole log in the WHS logs.

Here's a screen shot,

I am getting a .NET runtime 2.0 error per the pix.

Thanks Diehard, that helps, I have an idea of what's going on. Is WHS able to configure your router for Remote Access, or do you have to manually forward ports?

Jim, when you re-open the console do the ports show up in the list?

Both of you, an exception from the ServerConsole log would be the most helpful to determine the cause of the console crash.

Edit: As a note, it's been hard to test the negative cases, as my Tomato powered WRT-54G works awesome with UPnP and WHS, which is why you two are hitting these cases. Thanks for your debug help.

No, Remote Access does not configure my Belkin N1 properly, I get the red x see image.If I ever get the yellow port forwarding error in the connector, it clears up on it's own after about 2 minutes.

Sorry, where do I find the ServerConsole log ?

Thanks for the quick response.

Ok, so this Add-In works via the WHS UPnP infrastructure, can you help me come up with some informational warnings that inform users that if WHS won't configure their router, this Add-In will not work?

Server logs are located in c:\documents and settings\all users\application data\microsoft\windows home server\logs