Although it is true, many of the connection problems that are obtained when using a certain application on the network, are associated with router ports. Since, although many are open, many others remain closed for security reasons.
In this sense, in order for any software or application to communicate over the Internet, it will be necessary to open one or more ports to send and receive data.
Therefore, it is necessary to know everything regarding the fact of opening these ports correctly, what they are and the steps to follow to do so.
What are the ports of a router and why do they need to be opened?
Basically, the ports of a router consist of the “virtual doors” or interfaces used by any computer connected to a network, to facilitate the input and output of data satisfactorily. In this sense, they work as a kind of doors that you can start or close in order to allow the passage of information that is transferred between a network and a computer.
For its part, to understand a bit the need to open these ports, it is worth explaining that when you connect to the Internet, all the applications you use redirect their traffic through these interfaces and while some, by default, are open; the truth is that most of them are closed for security reasons.
In this sense, to allow some unusual applications or games to connect to the network without any problem, it is required to open the ports of a router. Which, ultimately, will be the same as telling said router that all the traffic that arrives through them is automatically forwarded to the IP of the computer that is requesting the information in question.
What are all the ports of a WiFi router and what is each one for?
However, it is also important to know what all the ports of a router are and of course, What functions do they fulfill? around meeting the needs of Internet users.
But, to begin with, we note that technically there are two typesfrom which a large number of specific WiFi router ports are derived.
These are the TCP and UTP ports that we define below:
- TCP ports: This is the acronym “Transmission Control Protocol” which means “Transmission Control Protocol” and it is a registry that provides remarkable flexibility regarding host-to-host connections. As well as simultaneous data transmission in both directions, error checking and security. Which have a main objective that is based on preventing the upper layers or applications from having to perform tasks, thus freeing the system from so much load.
- UPD ports: These are used by the TCP protocol and are defined as a simple data transmission protocol that does not add checks and therefore, they must be executed by the same applications. However, even so, it is very fast.
Given the above, let’s start the listings with each of the existing portsclassified according to their category and indicating the type of technical port they belong to:
Active Worlds
Port
Guy
3000 TCP 5670 TCP 7777 TCP 7000 to 7100 TCP
Hotline Server
Port
Guy
5500 and 5503 TCP 5499 UDP
Messenger (Microsoft)
Port
Guy
1863 TCP 1863 UDP 5190 UDP 6901 TCP 6901 UDP 6891 to 6900 TCP
AIM Talk
Port
Guy
4099 TCP 5190 TCP
Delta Three Pc to Phone
Port
Guy
12053 TCP 12083 TCP 12080, 12120, 12122 UDP 24150 to 24179 UDP
Callista IP Phone
Port
Guy
5190 TCP 3000 UDP
internet phone
Dwyco Video Conferencing
Port
Guy
1024 to 5000 TCP 6700 to 6702 TCP 6880 TCP 12000 to 16090 UDP
ivisit
Port
Guy
9943 and 56768 UDP
Emule / Edonkey
Port
Guy
4661 and 4662 TCP 4665 and 4672 UDP
Laplink Host
Lotus Note Server
NetMeeting
Port
Guy
389 TCP 522 TCP 1503 TCP 1720 TCP 1731 TCP 6987 TCP 6988 TCP
napster
Port
Guy
6699 TCP 6699 UDP
mIRC
Port
Guy
4500 TCP 59 TCP 1080 TCP 6660 to 6669 TCP 113 TCP
pcANYWERE host on network
Port
Guy
5631 TCP 5632 UDP 22 UDP
PeopleCall
Port
Guy
1719, 1720, 20000, 20001 TCP 1719, 1720, 5000, 5100 UDP
NTP (Network Time Protocol)
On the other hand, it is also possible to distinguish the ranges into which all the ports of a router are divided.
Taking into account that there are three in total and are defined as:
- well known ports: These are generally the virtual doors that remain open and range from 0 to 1023. Thus, they are based on those assigned to operating systems and their serviceslike common communication protocols (Like, for example, HTTP).
- registered ports: They include a range between ports 1024 and 49151, they refer to those that are used for apps and games for users and are normally configured automatically during the installation of such applications or games.
- Private or dynamic ports: These contain the ports between 49152 and 65535 and as their name indicates, they are dynamically assigned to client applications whenever they need to connect to a specific server. A clear example of this, are the P2P clients.
Steps to open the ports of a router correctly easy and fast
It should be noted that, depending on the user interface of each router and the differences between these devices of the same brand, it’s complicated cover all the steps to execute to open the ports of a WiFi router, in detail. Reason why, we will not be able to teach you 100% of the router settings.
However, ignoring some distinctions of the identification of each section in the menus and some other less relevant details, the vast majority of these devices agree on various aspects. So, below, we detail the most important clues for carry out proper configuration In order to open the ports of your router successfully:
Access the configuration interface of your router
The first thing you have to do is access the configuration interface of your WiFi device and after that, you have to enter the section “Port Forwarding”, “NAT” or “Advanced Options” of the router in question.
Complete the information boxes
Once you access the section indicated above, you will find several boxes that you must fill in depending on the data of the ports you want to openthe protocol you are going to use and also the IP of the device to which the data should be sent.
It is of great importance to note that the number and type of data may vary and will depend entirely on the router you are about to configure.
Noting that, in general, the most common types of information that will fluctuate are:
Name
At this point, you have to indicate the application that is making use of the port configuration. Which will be extremely useful to identify the use that is being given to the port in question in the future.
In this sense, in certain cases, a list of applications and games will be displayed that preconfigure the rest of the fields correctly, once you select them.
LAN IP address
Orders to which destination device the data that accesses the port that is being used should be redirected. It is important that Enter the IP address of that device in which the specific application is going to be entered.
WAN IP address
At this point, you will have to enter the address from which the information is going to be redirected and, in general, corresponds to the IP address of the router.
Initial WAN Port
Here you will have to specify the number of the port you have to open. Taking into account that you can only open one port for the application you are going to use or even offer you the possibility of opening a range of ports and in the latter case, you have to indicate that range first.
End WAN Port
Yes, you are only going to open one port, in this section you have to indicate the same port as the initial one. But, if it’s a range of ports, you have to specify the last port of the rangebasically.
Start and End LAN Port
At both points, the same data is used as in WAN settings.
TCP/UDP protocol
This data must be indicated by the application or services that require opening the ports, as well as the port number that you must open. Keeping in mind that, the difference between TCP and UDP is the mode of transmission of informationas we explained in the previous section of the post.
Save router settings
Finally, when you enter all this data, you will have to proceed to save the new router configuration and as a recommendation, it is very important that you also restart it. After that, you can check if the port has been opened correctly.
How to check if the port was opened successfully?
Once you carry out the detailed procedure, it is very helpful verify or confirm that the setup was successful and for this, you have to perform some steps on your Windows PC or Mac computer.
What you have to do in Windows:
To confirm such action, you have to run a command in the Windows command prompt. So, press the keyboard shortcut “Win + X” and select “Command Prompt (Admin)” from the menu that drops down.
After completing the above, type the command “netstat –an” and press enter to be able to execute it. With which, you will see a list that lists all the ports to which the device has access and, of course, details the protocol that it is using.
So, you just have to look for the port you just opened to check it’s open and also that the configuration is correct with respect to the protocol and IP address in question.
The steps to follow in MacOS:
For Mac users, this check is much easier. Since, you only have to enter the “Network Utility”and then click on “Port Scan”. Finally, you must enter your IP address and click on “Explore” in order to verify the correct configuration. That’s it.
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