Lighthouse
Lighthouse is a dynamic port forwarding utility, allowing you to enable and disable port forwardings with just a single click. Both NAT/PMP (Apple Airport base stations) and UPnP (D-Link, Linksys, Netgear) protocols are supported.
Port forwardings are frequently necessary for tools such as instant messengers, file-sharing utilities and other networked applications that are run from behind a NAT gateway (read: a home network router). Being able to dynamically manage your port forwardings saves you from all the hassles of having to deal with cumbersome static forwardings.
- Start and stop port forwardings with a single click
- Lives in your menu bar - always easily accessible
- Automatically start port forwardings when applications are launched
- Automatically start Lighthouse when you log into MacOS X
- Supports NAT/PMP routers (such as Apple Airport base stations)
- Supports UPnP routers (such as D-Link, Linksys or Netgear branded routers)
- Support for Growl notifications
- Comes with pre-made port mapping profiles for popular applications
Requirements
MacOS X 10.4 or later (Leopard-compatible)
A NAT/PMP or UPnP compatible router
Tags: network , portforwarding , system , internet
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5 Opinions:
Works like a charm.
I was having a hard time to configure my d-link router to forward the ports for Nicecast, even though I was following the instructions by the letter..then I decided to give Lighthouse a try and voila, problem solved in 20 seconds :)
Another good thing is that it is very easy to close those ports when I am not using them, instead of leaving them open all the time which is usually the case when we have to go through router configuration.
Security risk maybe-many would say Javascript is just as much-but this program is quite convenient nonetheless. The genius of Lighthouse is that it configures routers that you don't have administrative access to (Apple routers with NAT-PMP and others with UPnP) or don't want to bother configuring. I keep it running all the time, it never crashes, and uses up 0% CPU. Great price, and really responsive developer. It has Sparkle auto-updating built-in too.
Can someone please help me configure it?
UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) is a Microsoft technology that (surprise, surprise) is a huge security risk. Having these features enabled on your router allows any process running on your computer to open holes in your router security completely behind your back. Sure, idea sounds convenient but you have to consider that such software could be malicious. It's not limited to OS-specific programs either, because it's even possible with such things as JavaScript. I highly recommend keeping such router features turned off.
Great idea, nice implementation.