Port forwarding (opening ports) allows you to open specific ports in the router's firewall that are needed by some services to communicate to devices on your network. A port has an internal and external value called the port number. Multiple external hosts can use the same external port number, but each internal port must be different. This allows network address translation (NAT) to identify the destination for inbound traffic.
Port forwarding is necessary when you are having issues related to a restricted NAT.
Setting Up Port Forwarding
UPnP allows services to automatically set up port forwarding rules, although you can also manually set up port forwarding. Manual setup can be tedious if you are setting rules for multiple services and multiple devices. You should not enable UPnP and set up port forwarding at the same time.
Because you are opening/forwarding ports in the firewall, this setting must be set in the router. If in Bridge mode, you will need to set up port forwarding rules in your router. If you are in Router mode, port forwarding can be set up in the Wi-Fi Pro app:
- Navigate to the Settings page.
- Tap Advanced Settings near the bottom of the page.
- An IP reservation needs to be set for the device before ports can be opened. Tap Reservations & Port Forwarding. Complete the steps to create a New UP reservation if needed.
- Once your IP reservation is created. From the IP reservation, tap on Open Port.
- Enter a name for the rule. Each name needs to be unique.
- Enter the External port number the service requires.
- Enter the Internal port number to be used on the device.
- Use the same number as the external port to open the port or another number to route the traffic to a different port.
- Choose the required Protocol.
- Tap on Save.
- Repeat these steps for each rule needed.
- If the external port has already been used for one service, it is not necessary to set it again for a different service on the same device.
- The external port number for each rule can be the same, but the internal port number must always be unique. This means you will need to choose another internal port number for each local device.
