Three questions: I'm on a network with a DSL modem and netgear router, I'm behind a firewall, but how do I find out what kind it is to configure it? It's preventing me from doing things such as file transfer with AIM, MSN -- also NetMeeting won't connect, you get the idea. Or how would I disable it? Or at least, how do I find port numbers?

Try here this site is for Internet connection sharing but, the port settings are the same http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/ics/icsconfig_maps.htm Short Extract, the .ICS files are in plain-text format, so if you don't have ICS Configuration, you can always open the .ICS file with Notepad, read the information in the file, and set the mapping manually. Cheers HC

Help with the icsconfig program? I downloaded it...Basically right now, I want to be able to direct connect with AIM, the port number is 5190. or any other options. :-/

the firewall you are behind is the netgear router. it will be a firewall router. it will have a web interface. RTFM... it will explicitly tell you how to setup the required allow rules to open ports. In short i'll take a guess at it though and say that if you went to 192.168.0.1 in a web browser you'd be prompted for a username and password to login to the router.. configure from there. if you don't know what you're doing and screw something up, you're on your own though - don't say you weren't warned.