Port forwarding...

This seems to be a such a hit and miss affair!  I'm currently running two routers.  One that filters straight off the DSL (Virgin Media) modem and a second in line with the first in my hallway.  I put in a second as my kitchen is in an extension meaning there's a bloody great external wall between my kitchen and the rest of the flat.  The second router is setup to act as an access point thus enabling a nice strong signal throughout the flat.

I use www.portforward.com for a lot of my router info, its very well put together and the people/person who hosts it writes in an easy to understand way.  I won't go into how I setup the routers to work together other than to say you need to switch of DHCP on the second and assign it an IP address.   The previously mentioned website will explain this far better than I can.  (s/he also includes a downloadable port tester)

The only discrepancy I've noticed so far is when it comes to port forwarding.  Having setup remote desktop and an FTP server I've had a bit of experience of port forwarding and have found it to be a little temperaMENTAL to setup.  The site suggests that port forwarding through 2 routers involved pointing the port from the first router to the second, then from the second router to your intended recipient PC.  I tried this and it didn't/wouldn't work.  Then I skipped the routing from first to second router and just directed from the first router to the intended PC.  This worked?... I left the port forward settings on the second router so maybe thats playing its part in some way... I would have to say that this is the most human part of computing that I've found so far.  Some bits work in some ways... and other bits don't.  There does not seem to be a clear cut "this will definatley work" method, so don't give up if you're trying it.  Just remember to be mythodical in your efforts, otherwise its very easy to end up going round and around in circles.

Other other thing I've noticed is that opening your desired port in the Windows Firewall won't always open it straight away.  I've often found that you need to allow the port to open, close the firewall, test the connection, then restart the firewall...

I get the sence the TCP section of a computer has its own trade union.