What is port forwarding? Why do I need to do it? (2024)

The internet is a series of devices all connected to each other at once, and for the most part, it's easy to know where traffic is supposed to go. If I request XDA in my web browser, my router knows who to contact, and the devices it contacts know who else to contact along the chain in order to eventually fetch me the home page of the site.

However, this is done through a series of IP addresses. If, for example, you hosted a Minecraft server on your home internet, how does your public IP address identify which specific device on your network is the one hosting it? All the devices connected to your router will have the same IP, and that's why port forwarding is so important.

What is port forwarding? When do I need it?

You may have even come across it before

For the uninitiated, port forwarding is a networking technique used to direct incoming internet traffic to specific devices on a local network. It acts like a traffic management system for your home or office network, ensuring that data packets from the internet reach the correct destination. When you set up port forwarding, you're essentially configuring your router to listen for incoming traffic on specified ports and then forward that traffic to a particular device, such as a computer or other device.

For example, I host a ton of applications on my NAS. Every application or service on the internet communicates through specific ports, which are like doors that data uses to enter and leave your network. Web traffic typically uses port 80 for HTTP or port 443 for HTTPS, and Minecraft will use port 25565. By setting up port forwarding rules, you tell your router to send incoming requests on these ports to the appropriate device. Otherwise, applications like Minecraft won't be able to see your server, as it will contact your router and your router won't understand where to send the traffic.

If you've ever heard of port forwarding, that's exactly what it means. It tells your router "Hey, if any traffic comes in looking for port X on our IP address, send it to this device." This ensures that the data goes to the right place and that people outside of your home internet can connect to the devices inside of it.

If you're not hosting stuff on your own network though, then chances are that you won't ever need to even think of port forwarding. Some older games may require you to mess around with it, but it's no longer a modern problem that some games need to be port-forwarded. Back in the day, it was a requirement to play some games online like Saints Row 3. Nowadays, games can use UPNP to tell the router where in the network to send that specific type of traffic.

Rest assured that if you're a gamer and you're not doing anything crazy on your network, then you won't ever need to port forward. It's only when you're hosting stuff on your network at home that you may need to do that, and even then, if you're hosting stuff on your network then you should be able to figure it out as well.