Getting Back to My Mac working with your ADSL modem

Written by Darryn Lowe | 15 May 2009
Posted in How To...

One of the coolest features of Mobile Me is one of the trickiest to get up and running. This is not because Apple dropped the ball on this but because everyone's ADSL modems are not set up by default to run it. The purpose of this document is to explain how to setup your ADSL modem in order to get Back to My Mac working. Most of the information relates to a Dynalink modem, but there are also screen shots of the Linksys modem (untested) to give you an understanding of the generic concepts and settings.

Note: This document is based around using the modem supplied by Orcon. The basics are more or less the same for every ADSL modem that supports UPnP however the screen shots will differ if you use another brand of modem to Dynalink or Linksys.

First start up your web browser and connect to your modem via the web interface. The default address is 192.168.1.1 (this differs with some ADSL modems). Enter in the username and password of your modem to get to the initial screen.

Click on the "Advanced" button to give you access to the more in-depth features of the modem.

On the side menu click "Local Network" to provide a drop down menu and click on the "UPnP" link.

On the Linksys modem, this setting is in the "Administration" section, as you can see here...

Ensure that "Enable UPnP" is ticked. If not tick it and click "Apply" or "Save Settings".

On the Dynalink, click "Firewall" in the left menu to reveal a sub-menu and click the "IP Filtering" link.

Ensure "IP Filtering" is set to "Enabled". If not select "Enabled" and click "Apply".

Now you need to set the packets to filter. Click the "Add" button.

Enter the details as follows:

Click "Apply". Repeat the process with these details:

On the Linksys, the settings are tucked away a bit more. You need to go to the menu option "Applications & Gaming" and then choose the sub-menu option "QoS". What we are going to do on the Linksys is add Mobile Me in as an application that has special access to your modem. First, set "Internet Access Priority" to "Enable" and then in the "Category" Section, we are going to add a new application...

Call the application "MobileMe" and add two sets of port ranges.....

...and you should be good to go after you click the "Add" button and save your changes.

Admittedly you don't really need to do such a broad IP range. You only need TCP port 443 and UDP port 4500 but an address range gives a better ability to catch traffic. And believe it or not that is all there is to it.

The caveat though is that this process needs to be done at both ends (i.e., where you are connecting from and where you are connecting to)...however I've connected by Vodafone Express Card modem to Mobile Me with no issues because it doesn't require packet filtering etc as it works over PPP (dial-up) not PPoE (ADSL).

Once again, I reiterate that these screens are not indicative of all modems but these options are in similar places. For a full list of ports common to Macs I suggest reading the following article from the Apple Knowledge Base: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1629?viewlocale=en_US

Comments (8)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/hide comments

SteelBlades said: May 15, 2009  

Mobile Me or Back to My Mac Dude, I think you've got Mobile Me confused with Back to My Mac. The only thing you need to do the above for is Back to My Mac (and it's cool to see the instructions). But the rest of Mobile Me works perfectly fine without changing any ADSL modem settings.

Philip Roy said: May 15, 2009  

Not confused, just probably not well headed....my fault in editing. As Darryn states in the first sentence "One of the coolest features of Mobile Me is one of the trickiest to get up and running."....and that's what the article is about. I'll change the title so that's it's clear this is about one feature of Mobile Me....namely, Back to my Mac and not the Mobile Me service in general. Phil

Darryn Lowe said: May 15, 2009  

Woops, I titled the document wrong. Back To My Mac requires a Mobile Me account and it DOES need the modem to be edited.

Philip Roy said: May 15, 2009  

Guys, you're getting into semantics. Mobile Me doesn't require any alteration to your modem, unless you want to use the Back to my Mac feature. Back to my Mac is one feature that is part of Mobile Me that requires alteration to your modem. That's two ways to say the same thing...as you can see, the title of the article has been changed to make it clearer. Phil

SteelBlades said: May 15, 2009  

Thanks for the correction - it makes a heck of a lot more sense now. As for arguing semantics, this was nothing of the sort. It was about making the article's introduction actually make sense and become useful. I'm an advanced user yet almost dismissed the article as it was originally so muddled at the start. To say, "The purpose of this document is to explain how to setup your ADSL modem in order to get MobileMe working" when it demonstrably works with no modem change, was plain wrong - not a semantic issue at all. Correcting the wording means I'll direct others to read this as it now makes sense. The detail in the article is excellent (great work Darryn) but I'd have had to copy it for my own use and put in the corrections myself if you hadn't. Thanks again.

Philip Roy said: May 15, 2009  

Sorry, can we stop please!? You're basically starting the argument again. It doesn't demonstrably work, hence the excellent tutorial by Darryn for one aspect of Mobile Me that has been a challenge to many people. See the excellent form thread that he also started where people are also appreciate of his efforts. As mentioned, I chose the article heading in editing and only changed this and one use of the of the term "Mobile Me". I think many people understood what Darryn was trying to say, but thank you for pointing out the need for further clarity for those that didn't understand.

Isaac Hohaia said: September 17, 2009  

What about the dlink 502T ADSL modem that telecom xtra gives out? It comes with firmware set by telecom - and cant update this I've set the IP filters (incoming and outgoing) for the above port range but I still cant get back to my mac running - keeps saying that I need to enable NAT or uPnP both of which are enabled already. Cheers, Isaac

SteelBlades said: September 17, 2009  

You can update the DLink 502T ADSL modem that Xtra gives out, but you need a) Windows and b) nerves of steel, because things may go awry and you'll have a stuffed ADSL modem. I didn't have the courage.

Show/hide comment form