How do I find my router?

I have a home built PC, motherboard and collection of bits etc. IS there somewhere on my computer which will tell me what my router is? And once I find it how to access it?

Obviously I want to check my port is forwarded. all the user guides on this don't say how to find your router they just say "look on manufacturers website" Which manufacturer? The motherboard manufacturer? The cable modem manufacturer? The processor manufacturer? can I for example press esc at boot up and go into bios will it say in there?

In utorrent I usually have a green tick but today I have an '!' mark and I asked it to check the port and it says there is an error it automatically links to this website to run the check
http://www.utorrent.com:16000/testport2.php?port=32000
The webpage says there is an error with the port today. my download is currently about 25Kb/s mostly poor speed connections and one ok at 13 Kb/s so it is working but if there is a port problem, I want to know about it.

The online guides to port forwarding are awfully complicated. Especially as I can't even begin to get started because I don't know my router.

some advice please.

incidentally on the link above you will see this message at the bottom
"Please make absolutely sure that PeerGuardian2 or Protowall is allowing utorrent.com (72.20.34.145) in either of those programs. Those of you using ipfilter.dat should make sure the list does not include the website's IP. After making sure of this, re-run this test by refreshing the page (F5). "

I don't even understand that I don't think I have any of those 3 programs running I have zonealarm (if that helps)

Edit: As it happens I just rebooted my computer and randomised the port for good measure, and now I have a green tick again (speed is the same as before) and the link is saying my port is ok, however I still would like to know how to do this.

Your router is usually 192.168.0.1, if not check the the manual

Luckily I have read (or tried to) some online guides on this otherwise I would have no idea what you are talking about.

I presume you mean I should go to the webpage
http://192.168.0.1/

And I just get a 404 error on that address. So did I do the right thing or did I get that wrong?

Edit: What manual?

your router should be in the progam list, mine is anyway

what manual - the instruction booklet that came with the router

I presume you mean in the add/remove programs there is only 1 I don't recognise...is this it?

SiS 900 PCI fast internet adapter driver

How about you start by telling us how your computer is connected to the internet.

Do you have high speed?
Is your connection cable or dsl?
What devices are between the internet line and your PC?
External modem/router?
Do any of those devices have markings or manuals?

I have 2Mbit cable internet

I usually have a green tick (in utorrent means my port is forwarded) I usually have crap speed between5 - 40 kB/s sometimes I get full speed 230kB/s. The reason I am asking this is because today I saw for the first time a port not forward error, which I did resolve (as already mentioned) but I wanted to know how to check it..........I might also mention I quite often have people (peers/seeds) showing but I never connect to them, now for instance there are 7 seeds I am only dl'ing from 2 of them.

Device between internet and my PC = A cable modem, nothing else.

Cable modem has "ntl 250" written on it. Only small installation guide, mentions nothing about router.

I was just about to ask do I necessarily have a router? So how does one forward a port without a router?

You don't have a router.

Read this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308127

Also don't have two firewall's switched on.

If you are using a commercial one switch the XP one off.

I just us the XP one, as M$ know how windows works.

utorrent randomizes the port used for incoming connections each time it starts. Maybe this confused your firewall a bit? You can alter this setting under Preferences-->Connection