How to Forward Ports on Your Router

 

If you have a router at home or your office, you will need to forward ports in order for outside traffic to get into your network. Think of your router as being a huge electric fence or wall, with a few doors or openings. This electric fence or wall serves as your barrier and security blanket from the scary outside Internet world. Your router comes preconfigured with a few of those doors (or ports) open to let you access the internet, but the others are closed tight. So, in order to run a mail server, game server, access your computer remotely, etc you will need to open an extra door or two in your router in order for the outside traffic to get inside. This is called Port Forwarding. To configure port forward rules:

Step 1: Login to your router via the default gateway address.

Step 2: Enter your router credentials into the login page.

Step 3: Next, locate the port forwarding settings. Typically this will be under Advanced and then Port Forwarding or Virtual Server.

Step 4: On the Port Forwarding page enter in a name for your device like, “Camera”. Then enter the port you are forwarding in the port field. Select “TCP/UDP” or “Both” under Protocol if you are unsure which protocol you are using. Next, enter the internal IP address of the device you are port forwarding to and click “Apply” or “Save” to store the changes.

Take Tplink router as an example：

1. Log in to the router as admin. You need to know the router's IP address, username, and password.

2. Locate the port forwarding options. These are different for every router but might be called something like Port Forwarding, Port Triggering, Applications & Gaming, or Port Range Forwarding. These might be buried within other categories of settings like Network, Wireless, or Advanced.

3. Type the port number or port range that you want to forward. If you're forwarding one port, type the same number under both the Internal and External boxes. For port ranges, use the Start and End boxes.

4. Choose a protocol, either TCP or UDP. Choose both, if needed. This information should be available from the program or game that explains the port number.

5. Type the static IP address you chose.

6.Enable the port forwarding rule with an Enable or On option.

Reference linking: https://youtu.be/CLunOJZqmc0