By default, the firewall of your NETGEAR router blocks all incoming connection attempts by devices on the Internet to devices in your local network. If you want devices on the Internet to connect to devices on your local network, you can set up your router with port forwarding rules to do so. For more information, see What is port forwarding?
The router uses port forwarding rules to forward incoming traffic with specific protocols to devices on your local network. For example, you might want to make a local web server, FTP server, or game server visible and available to the Internet. You can specify the servers for applications and you can also specify a default DMZ server to which the router forwards all other incoming protocols.
Your NETGEAR router supports many services without the need to add a custom port forwarding service. For more information, see How do I set up port forwarding to a local server on my NETGEAR router?
If the service that you want to set up is not included in the default settings, you can set up custom port forwarding rules from your router's web interface.
To add a custom port forwarding service on your NETGEAR router:
- Determine which port number or range of numbers the application uses.
You can usually find this information by contacting the publisher of the application or user groups or news groups. - Launch a web browser from a device that is connected to your router's network.
- Enter https://www.routerlogin.net. Your browser might display a security message, which you can ignore.
A login window displays. - Enter your user name and password.
The user name is admin. The password is the one that you specified the first time that you logged in. The user name and password are case-sensitive.
The Dashboard displays. - Select Firewall > Port Forwarding.
- Click the + button to add the custom service
- If the service is not already predefine. You can add a custom service. Click the Service Management button.
- Click + button.
- Scroll down and Name the service in the available file.d
- Select the protocol if you are unsure, you can leave the protocol as TCP & UDP.
- Add the Port Start and Port End range.
- Click Apply to save the settings.
- The service rule is now added, click the Port Frowarding button to go back to the port forwarding page.
- Select the External Service and Internal Service.
- Select the External IP Address. If you are unsure, leave the option as Any.
- Type the IP address in the Internal IP Address field.
- Click the Apply button.
The service is now in the list on the Port Forwarding.
If you create more than one port forwarding rule, the order that they appear on the screen matters. Each inbound packet is checked against the top rule first, followed by the second-from-top, and so on until a rule that matches the packet characteristics is found. This means that if, for example, the top rule forwards all packets to server A, and a later rule forwards some packets to server B, all packets will get forwarded to server A and none to server B.