So my dad has Starband... no firewall (a friend told him it would slow everything down *sigh*). I'm attempting to add one for him. The current setup is starband->his XP machine->internet sharing on->mom's machine.

Now he has a nice d-link DI-604 fw/switch. I set it up, ping tests work, nifty. I notice that the "Starband Control Center" is complaining that the modem isn't there, but no big deal.

Then I try to hit a web site. No go. Nothing works. So I start to investigate.

It turns out that Starband installs a local proxy. This proxy has to be enabled or HTTP doesn't work, because the Starband router blocks access on port 80. The satellite "modem" communicates over what I think is multicast (239.192.19.1, UDP) and since the firewall is blocking things, the ControlFreak Center doesn't think the modem is working, shuts off the HTTP proxy, and bango. No web.

So now I'm trying to get the modem and the CC communicating. No luck so far. Very frustrating. I hate proprietary shit.