When you activate a Fastweb subscription, a Technicolor brand modem router is delivered to your home which must be connected to the telephone socket so that it can then receive the internet connection and provide it via Ethernet cables or via Wifi. The lights of the modem are initially red, but if the subscription is active they turn green and from that moment it is possible to surf the internet freely.
If for some people this may be enough, for others something is missing, in particular the possibility of accessing the router configuration and being able to free the connection from the security limits imposed by Fastweb .
In particular, you may notice problems in reaching certain websites that are obscured by Italian DNS or difficulties in playing online, configuring external network services or even downloading via Torrent client.
For these things it is necessary to configure the Fastweb Technicolor router appropriately .
I did a lot of research on the subject, found many guides now no longer useful, found wrong information etc.
In this article we make the summary on how to solve the problems of Fastweb routers to open them safely and make them work with everything, without having to perform strange tricks.
READ ALSO: Guide to access the Fastweb modem (Fastgate)
First of all let's see how to access the Fastweb router (in my test I used a Technicolor modem model TG789vac v2_MOS but it is the same also for other models).
From your PC, open a page with the web browser at the following address //192.168.1.254/ .
On the login screen write as username:
fastweb or Administrator, depending on the router model you have.
As password leave blank.
NOTE : it would be a good idea, then, to set a password for this main account (it is done from the Toolbox menu)
From the home page you can see the active services, the connected computers and you can click on ipWANVoice to see the network parameters, IP addresses and DNS.
By clicking on Details you can expand the screen and view more information.
From here we understand immediately that changing the DNS is not possible from the Fastweb router .
Although there are many rather complicated guides on the internet, changing DNS to the router is not necessary, since this can be replaced by another directly from your PC or smartphone.
I refer to the guide to change DNS on PC and Mac and how to change DNS on Android and iPhone smartphones for further details.
By setting up Google DNS, you will no longer have problems with blocked or obscured sites.
You can also rest assured that Fastweb cannot intercept DNS searches.
The most important thing to configure on the router are the ports, to be opened for specific programs, games and applications .
The concept of doors in computer networks is quite simple to understand.
The analogy that I often do, (so as to make it simple even if technically improper), is that of a building or condominium: we can imagine the street where the building is located as the IP address and the individual interiors of each apartment as the doors.
The building is our computer, while the apartments are the programs.
Every computer program, if it has to communicate with the outside world, goes out on the internet using a port which is nothing more than a number.
For example, the port of the web browser that we use to surf the internet on sites such as Navigaweb.net, is 80 while that of the email sending protocol (SMTP) is 25.
Well, every program used on the PC that needs to exchange data on the internet must be configured on the Fastweb router to open its communication port.
On programs such as Torrent clients, the port is indicated in the program settings.
To open the ports on the Fastweb Technicolor router, go to the Home network section, click on the PC you are using, press on the top right on configure .
At the bottom, under Connection sharing select the program to be configured and click on Add.
If the program is included in the list, the addition is automatic for TCP and UDP ports.
In this screen, activate the fixed IP option if it isn't already.
If the program is not in the list, go back to Home Network, press on the computer in use and then under where it is written Assign a game or application to a local network device .
On this screen, make sure Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) service is active.
In the drop-down menu it is now possible to select the last item, which is called " user-defined ", and then set the ports that must be opened and indicate whether TCP or UDP or both.
If in the previous screen you clicked on the link "Assign the DMZ to a local network device", all the ports are opened for that computer but it is not recommended.
To verify that a port is open, open the assigned program, for example the Torrent client, download it and then open the Open Ports website to verify that the assigned and configured TCP port is open.
The door remains closed if you don't use that program.
All this configuration, however, is valid if a public IP is used, which Fastweb releases for free on request.
To request a free public IP from Fastweb, it is better to go to Twitter (create an account if it has never been done) and contact Fastweb Help, first with a public tweet and then with a private message to communicate your customer code.
Fastweb Help immediately turns the question over to the support service and within a few days you will receive confirmation that the IP is public.
If you want, you can also contact Fastweb via Facebook, but on Twitter you reply first.
When Fastweb makes this configuration, the internet connection will be lost for an hour or so.
The verification of the IP address can be done from this page of the MyFastPage website.
If all went well, you can now download freely with Torrent applications or other P2P software such as Emule Adunanza and use any network service that requires access from the outside (for example, also IP video surveillance cameras or home automation devices.
In the Fastweb Technicolor router it is also possible to activate some optional tools by clicking on Toolbox .
In particular, you can activate the Firewall, parental control, dynamic DNS, intrusion detection and FTP service for sharing content.
In case of problems or errors with the modem-router configuration, you can always reset .
This is done by pressing the tiny button that is hidden on the back of the Technicolor modem, holding it down for 10 seconds.
Reset resets the modem from scratch, reloading the configuration assigned by Fastweb.
If there are no problems on the line, the reset restores the internet connection if it was lost and resets the access with the Administrator user.
On Fastweb Routers of the latest Technicolor generation, this is all you can do.
