Getting netChimes to work behind a router is the most common problem faced by netChimes users. The source of the issue is that netChimes acts as a server on your computer, that your website will access to send notifications. Here is a walkthrough for the most common scenario:

The first thing to realize is that there are actually two levels of 'connecting' -- first is inbound. This is signified by the icon next to "Connections" in the main netChimes window. When this goes from a dot to a 'beacon', netChimes has successfully created an inbound server for the connection. Next is logging in to the server, this is indicated by the icon next to the connection name in the list in the netChimes window. This is an outbound connection, and is used to log in to your website. During typical router connection problems, the inbound icon is a beacon, while all outbound icons are dots.

If your computer is on a network where multiple computers share the same internet connection, then your system is using a router. A router sorts internet traffic like a post office sorts mail for delivery, by routing the correct incoming data to the right computer. It happens transparently for requests -- like when a computer asks for a webpage -- because the router can match request results with the recent requests, and will direct the results to the originating computer. But for systems like netChimes, where the communication originates from outside of your system, and your local computer is the server, it gets more complicated.

In cases like this, the router needs to be specifically told what to look for to determine if the incoming data is part of a netChimes message, and then where to send it. What to look for is easy -- any traffic on port 14242. Inside the router configuration (see your router's manual for details on how to access and adjust the configuration) a rule (sometimes called a filter) needs to be created to send anything coming into your network on port 14242 to the computer that you have installed netChimes on.

In order to tell the router what computer that is, though, you also need to find out where your computer is on your network. The IP address that your internet service provider (ISP) assigns to you -- the IP address that is seen by other computers outside of your network, such as if you visit www.whatismyip.com -- is really only used by the router when it sends requests out to the public network. Inside your network, the router assigns its own local IP addresses to each computer. These IP addresses usually start with 192.168. You can determine your computer's local IP address from the command prompt -- this can be done by clicking on the Start button, going to "Run", typing in "cmd" and hitting ok -- and then typing "ipconfig" and hitting the enter key. Among the information that is provided is the computer's IP address.

Once your router knows where to send 14242 traffic, you should be in much better shape! If you need information on how to configure your router, please take a look at PortForward.com!