Wankerfx

Hey guys, I'm going to bring up a question that has been asked several times. I will aide you step by step on how to forward your ports.

1) What the hell is port forwarding?!?!

Port forwarding (sometimes referred to as tunneling) is the act of forwarding a network port from one network node to another. This technique can allow an external user to reach a port on a private IP address (inside a LAN) from the outside via a NAT-enabled router. (Straight from Wikipedia)

In short, it means that you can do things that your router blocks off by assigning specific ports to your applications. (Example: Warcraft 3 TFT requires you to have ports 6113-6119 open to be able to host games.)


I will now show you the steps of port forwarding, for this example I will be showing you how to forward ports on the Linksys router WRT54G for the game Warcraft 3, running on Windows XP: (If you are using a different router, please follow the steps on this site: Here (Thanks NipDar)


1) Find your static IP address.
-Open the start menu and click Run.


-Write down CMD or command to open up the black command prompt window.

-Write down "ipconfig/all" without the quotations and you should get a bunch of information on your internet settings.


-Write down the IP address, Subnet mask, Default gateway and the DNS servers.

-Click Start and get into your Control Panel and Double-Click Network Settings/Connections.

-There are several internet connections, right click the one you use and click properties.

-Click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and double-click it or click the properties button.

-You should then see the following screen.


-Click "use following IP address"

-Before you make any changes, write down your current properties so that you can go back if something goes wrong.

-Fill in the info you wrote down early sees in command prompt.

-Click "ok" and you're done!

-Remember your static IP that you just made, you should find it here:



2) Accessing your router.

-Open up your web browser like Internet Explorer and enter the IP address of your router in the address bar. The IP by default should be set to 192.168.1.1


-Hit enter and a window should come up. The user name is usually blank and the password by default should be "admin" without the quotations.


-You should now be in your router setup page.


-Click advanced and then the "Port Forwarding" tab.

-You should now see a page similar to this:


-Fill in the exact information in this picture, except the IP address. Put in your Static IP you made earlier. (Just the last 2 or 3 numbers).


-Click apply or save changes depending on your router and then your done! You have successfully forwarded your ports.

-Now you may Create custom games online in Warcraft 3 where people will actually join, because they're not blocked off by your router!

-You can apply the same steps to about any other program such as bit torrent, azureus, steam etc...

I hope my guide was noob-friendly, because I had to find out how to port forward the hard way. Thanks for reading this and good luck. (If you have any questions, please PM me.)

CyberDruid

Rocking FAQ--great visual aides for us Prot n00bs! Killah.

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rabidgnome229

this only really applies to linksys routers - might want to put that in the title. others wont work the same way (even the router ip will be different)

NipDar

This site gives you information on how to forward ports in particular programs depending on the router that you have. Maybe you could link to it in the FAQ or something.

http://www.portforward.com/english/r...outerindex.htm

Wankerfx

Thanks for all the comments so far, keep em' comming.

ELmo1989

I still think That UPnP Is better than port forward.
Also you didn't discuss at all about NAT which is huge for port fowarding.

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KoSoVaR

Well UPnP is great for port forwarding but has to be the least secure of anything... It allows all IPs to open any port anytime they want or when it's called upon. I believe opening needed ports to certain IP addresses would be much more secure.

theonlyzane

If your struggling to configure your router for any reason, then this link will help


http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm

Hope this helps