Cannot host on DSL, help

[Tomoose]

Hi,
My system = Win98, AMD Athlon 1.8, 512M RAM, Geforce4 and Speedstream USB DSL Modem. My 'provider' is the phone company (Bell Canada, Sympatico).
When I had dial-up I had no problem hosting/joining online games or using voice software such as Roger Wilco or Teamsound.
Since switching to DSL (aka High Speed), I can JOIN any online game or Roger Wilco etc but I simply cannot HOST same. It is very frustrating. I would like to HOST once in a while but noone can connect to me when I setup as HOST.
I can join and play online any of the following;
Call of Duty
IL-2, Forgotten Battles
Rainbow Six 3
Rise of Nations
Roger Wilco
Teamsound
I CANNOT however HOST any of these games. I don't have problems connecting to the Internet, only this hosting issue. Please advise and thanks.

[TropicalBound]

Are you using a software firewall or a router?

[Tomoose]

I have a firewall but that is always shut off whenever I'm "playing" online. As to a router, I'm not sure, I don't believe so unless it's built into the modem. The USB modem was supplied as part of the high speed "package" (DSL) from my phone company which is the provider. At no point in setting this up was the term router used.

[TropicalBound]

Did you see the term 'Port Forwarding' or 'Natting'? I know some users that have DSL and their modem has built in nat (network address translation) capabilities. If this is the case, you'll need to find out what port your game transfers its information on, and forward that port to your PCs IP address.

[Tomoose]

TropicalBound;
you got me, I don't know. For example: IL-2 Forgotten Battles which I most frequently play displays the port of :21000. Is that the number you are referring to? If so how would I incorporate that into my Network settings (I assume through Control Panel etc but where exactly).
Thanks for your time.

[TropicalBound]

You would perform the port forwarding on your modem, not your computer. They (your ISP) should have given you instructions on how to manage your modem (either web based, or an application that was installed on your computer).

Find the IP Address that the modem assigned to your pc (for Win98, click on Start-Run and type winipcfg and select your network card from the drop down list). Once you have your IP address (which should be something like 192.168.1.x), open the modem management program. From here, I cannot tell you exectly where to go since I do not have DSL, but you need to look for port forwarding. Enter 21000 as the port number, and your IP Address as the target computer.

[Tomoose]

OK, thanks for that. I'll give it a shot. My ISP (Bell Canada) is telling me that this falls into the category of issues they DO NOT support (can you believe that?) so my annoyance is fast becoming anger. If I can find another DSL provider they're toast.
Thanks again, I'll post any results.

[Tomoose]

OK, I did as you suggested but now I'm into an area where I have little knowledge.
I run winipcfg which gives me a pop up window. I have a couple of options here;
first the ethernet adapter says NTS PPPoE Adapter and gives me an IP address (i.e. 67.69.108.8) and this is the IP which is indicated when I place my cursor over the two little PC connection icons in the bottom right hand corner.
However, I am using a Speedstream Ethernet USB Adapter (my modem) and that is also on the list and when selected gives me an "IP Autoconfiguration Address" (i.e. 169.254.28.189).
On the bottom are some buttons "Release"; "Renew"; "Release All"; "Renew All" and "OK"
I am reluctant to click on any of these buttons as I don't know what they do.
Can you point me in the right direction?

[TropicalBound]

Did Bell Canada give you any instructions on how to access the configuration of your modem? Without that......

[Tomoose]

Short answer? Nope. I'll continue to bug them. Thanks anyway.