This article continues an overview of the functionality provided by the Tomato OpenSource router firmware. The previous article can be found at: Tomato Firmware on the Asus RT-N16 Router – Part 4, Advanced Configuration Options.
The previous article dealt with the different Advanced-Level Configuration options available, whereas this article will detail the Port Forwarding and QoS configuration options available.
The goal is to understand the different options provided by the Tomato OpenSource router firmware and compare it with the firmware provided by Asus when you purchase the RT-N16 device. Also, another popular OpenSource router firmware distribution from the DD-WRT group has been reviewed.
Port Forwarding
Port Forwarding – Basic
The basic port forwarding involves you creating rules one at a time. This does require that the computer inside your LAN has a static IP address. Otherwise the rule you create at this time will become invalid in the future when the computer is assigned a new IP address from the DHCP server.
Port Forwarding – DMZ
Enabling DMZ essentially opens the computer you specify here, using the IP address, to the Internet. All ports are opened. This is the most risky method of opening your home network to the Internet.
Port Forwarding – Triggered
This is similar to the Basic Port Forwarding where you open up a specific port or port range. The difference with triggering though is that the router tracks your computers IP address when you initiate the connection with the remote system. It then lets the remote system back into your home network to the same internet IP address.
A couple of benefits is that the port is not open indefinitely. At some point a timeout setting would close the port and the internal computer would have to reestablish the connection. Also, this method does not require the internal computer to have a static IP address.
Port Forwarding – UPnP / NAT-PMP
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and NAT Port Mapping Protocol (NAT-PMP) are similar protocols which allow computer devices inside your home network to automatically connect with your router and configure it as needed.
QoS
Quality of Service (QoS) allows you to configure certain protocols or applications to have a higher priority than others when sharing the bandwidth to the Internet. For example, voice applications (VoIP) would need a more responsive connection to the Internet than a computer doing file downloads.
For more information visit the following tutorials: Using Tomato’s QOS System or Easy Toastman QoS setup.
QoS – Basic Settings
QoS – Classification
QoS – View Graphs
QoS – View Details
Next Step
Return to the Firmware Overview: Asus RT-N16 Router Firmware Overview
