How To Port Forward Your Router - TheBreakdown.xyz (2024)

Whether you are looking to start a Minecraft server, make gaming connectivity better, or just allowing easier remote access to your computer, there are TONS of different reasons you may need to know how to port forward your router. Luckily, this tutorial is going to walk you through the entire process from start to finish. I am going to be using a Linksys Router. I'm going to try my best to make it as general as possible, but screenshots will be from a Linksys.

Step 1) Login To Your Router

The first step to port forwarding is logging into yourrouter. To do this, open up the start menu, search ‘CMD', and then right click on the ‘CMD' program and click ‘Run As Administrator'. Once the CMD opens, simply type ‘ipconfig' and hit enter. This will then make a bunch of text show up on the screen, and you'll be able to get your ‘Default Gateway'. Take your Default Gateway, and type that into your web address. A login box/screen will appear.

From there, you need to enter your router's username and password. If you don't know what that is, check out this article. It will show you all of the different ways to find your router's password. It's a trial-and-error process, but once you've figured out your router's login info, it's time to move on to step 2!

Step 2) Find Port Forwarding

This step can vary widely depending on the router you're using. What we are looking for here is the words ‘Port Forwarding'. This may be in the advanced tab, it may be in the apps and gaming tab, it may be under the security tab. There are TONS of different options, but click around until you find the words ‘Port Forwarding'. Once you find it, click on it. This will then open up the port forwarding window.

Step 3) Execute The Port Forward

The hardest part of port forwarding is getting to the correct place in your router. Once you're in there, you just need to enter the ports you wanted to forward. For example, when starting a Minecraft server, you are going to forward port 25565. It just depends on what you are needing to port forward for. In regards to TCP or UDP, most of the time, you're going to want both. This may be listed as ‘Both', ‘TCP/UDP', or ‘TCP & UDP'. Whatever it is, you're going to want both of them to be selected 99% of the time.

Step 4) Click Save & Check If It Worked

Now that you've entered the ports and protocol that you want, click ‘Save', ‘Done', or whatever it is on your router. Keep in mind that port forwarding can be a bit tricky, so if it didn't work, try, try again. Be sure to check your firewalls and make sure they are allowing outside connections through the ports you forwarded. If you are confident you did the port forward correctly but it still isn't working, it is most likely a firewall that is getting in the way and causing the issue.

The Wrap-Up

Congratulations! You now know how to port forward your router. If you did have any issues port forwarding, just let us know in the comments below. We are more than happy to help you out, and try to fix/solve any problems you are having. Port forward can be difficult, and we understand. Thus, we are here to help and assist with any issues you may encounter. You can also check out SetupRouter.com to see if they have port forwarding information for your specific router.