Youve picked out your hardware and set

up the basics, and configured your

network to perform at its best and
fastest. Now its time to open the gates
to the outside world. In this lesson,
were going to walk you through how to
set up your router so you access your
home computers from anywhereand with
your own friendly, easy-to-remember !".
#etting up remote access to your local
network is one of the coolest things you
can do with your router, as it allows
you to remotely view your screen, access
files, control services like $it%orrent
remotely, and so on. $asically, anything
you can do at home can be made possible
by &ust opening a few ports on your
router. It can seem a little daunting if
youve never done it before, but once
you understand what everything means and
where to find the information you need,
you should have no trouble getting
things to work. 'ere going to go over
basic setup and then talk briefly about
a few bonus options as well.
Port Forwarding and More
$y default, your local network is local
and cut off from the rest of the
internet. In most cases you have &ust
one I( address thats shown to the
world, despite the many that your router
distributes to your individual computers
and devices locally. 'hat port
forwarding does is take a port on that
shared I( address thats available to
the rest of the web and forwards it to
one of your local machines. %his lets
people from outside access services on
your local network.
#etting up port forwarding is pretty
straightforward, but before you get
started, you need to know what ports you
want to open up. )ost of the time,
youll set up port forwarding on an as-
needed basissay after youve set up a
new service on your computer *or
e+ample, if youre trying to run a web
server off your machine youll need to
open up port ,-. If you want to open up
##. access, youll need to open up port
//. %hose are &ust two of many
possibilities, and you probably dont
have every port for every service
memori0ed.
%his is where a site like
(ort*orword.com. can help, as it
provides a handy list of common port for
specific service. You can use this list
to check which ports you need to open
for whatever services you want to make
available from outside your home
network.
1nce youve figured out all the ports
you want to open, &ust head on over to
the port forwarding section of your
router 2if you dont know where it is,
&ust click around a little3. In 44-'!%,
its in the N5% 6 7o# section. 1ther
routers may list it simply as (ort
*orwarding 2all on its own3 or 8irtual
#ervers. "ets take a look at what a
filled-out port forwarding table looks
like9
'hile things may differ slightly
depending on your routers firmware,
this table is pretty standard. .eres
what all of those fields mean9
:. Application - %he name of the
application youre forwarding this port
for. You can use any descriptive te+t
you wantthis field is here to help you
remember why you set this up; like the
name suggests, you normally want to use
the name of the application youre
setting up port forwarding for. I also
include my computers name along with
the service, since I forward ports for
the same applications on different
computers. *or e+ample, youll see 8N<
service set up for both =rey and .unter.
I include their names in the 5pplication
section so I know which port forwarding
rule is for which computer.
/. Port to - >(ort to? is the port on
your local I( address. If you were
setting up 8N< for a local computer,
youd fill this in with @A-- as thats
the port number 8N< uses.
B. Port from - >(ort from? is the port
on your e+ternal I( address. =enerally
youll also enter the same port as you
would in the >(ort to? field. %his works
&ust fine when youre configuring only
one machine for one type of service. $ut
say you wanted to be able to remotely
access two or more computers using 8N<.
If you used @A-- on a single, e+ternal
I( address they would be in conflict.
%he router would see a reCuest for port
@A-- and not know which local I( address
should handle that reCuest since the
port forwarding table has two. %o solve
this problem, you can use the standard
port for one and not for the otherkind
of like an apartment building has a
single address but multiple apartments.
5s you can see in the sample routing
table above, =reys >(ort from? is set
to @A-- while .unters >(ort from? is
set to @A-:. If you try to use 8N<
normally on my e+ternal I( address,
youll be asked to log in to =rey
because it uses the standard port. If
you want to access .unter, however, you
can easily do so by &ust using port @A-:
instead of the default. %his way you can
set up identical services with a single
e+ternal I( address without conflicts.
D. Protocol - %his is where you specify
whether or not your service uses the %<(
protocol, 4( protocol, or both. 'hen
you look up your ports youll also want
to make note of the protocols used. In
most cases it will &ust be %<(.
@. IP Address - %his is where you
specify the "5N 2local area network3 I(
address of the computer you want to use
for this port forwarding rule. You can
easily find this information in your
computers network settings. %he I(
address will generally be in the
:A/.:E,.+.+ or :-.-.+.+ format. $ecause
these I( address are generally dynamic
2meaning they can change3, youll want
to either set up static I( addresses or
4.<( reservations. )ore information on
that is available below.
E. Enable - You need to check this bo+
to enable the port forwarding rule. If
you dont check it, youll still be able
to save the rule but it wont be active
or function in any way.
ort Range Forwarding
#ometimes you want to open a range of
ports on a particular machine and not
&ust one at a time. #ome routers offer
the option of port range forwarding in
addition to regular old port forwarding
2like we &ust discussed3. %his works in
the same way, e+cept you specify a range
2e.g. ports /: F ,-3.
The DMZ
4)G stands for 4e-)ilitari0ed Gone and
is a simple way to open up every port on
a single computer. If your router has
this feature, &ust visit the 4)G page
and enter that computers I( address.
'hile convenient if you only have one
computer you want available for remote
access, this isnt very secure. Youre
essentially allowing any kind of traffic
to be forwarded to this machine. Hven if
you only have one computer, youre still
better off manually entering each
service you want to open. 1nly use this
if you really have a good reason to do
so.
DHCP Reserations
1ne of the annoying aspects of port
forwarding is that your router
dynamically assigns I( addresses to your
computers. %hat means the local I(
addresses of you computers may change,
which can render that port forwarding
you did incorrect or non-functional.
'hile setting up static I( addresses on
your local machine is one option, 4.<(
reservations are better if youve got
the option in your router. %his is
common in "inksys and 4-"ink routers but
generally not included in $elkin. Its
also available in 44-'!% in the #ervices
section, but its easy to miss.
4.<( reservations let you specify static
local I( addresses on the routers side
so that when your computer connects to
your network, your router will always
assign it the same local I( address. %o
set it up, decide what local I( address
you want for a given computer 2or other
device3 and find its )5< address. Your
)5< address is a :/-digit alphanumeric
string separated by two digits at a
time. It generally looks like :5-/$-B<-
D4-@H-E* or :59/$9B<9D49@H9E*. %o locate
it on 'indows, click the #tart menu and
choose run. %hen type ipconfigIall. %he
>(hysical 5ddress? is your )5< address.
1n )ac 1# J, &ust open #ystem
(references, choose Network, click )ore
Info, and then the .ardware tab. Your
)5< address should be the first thing
displayed. 1nce youve got that you can
&ust enter it in the reservation list
with the local I( address you want and
youre also set. Kust be sure to save
and enable it. You may need to restart
your router to see the changes take
effect, but once you do the computers
and devices in the reservations table
will retain the same local I( addresses.
%his solves pretty much every kind of
problem.
Assign a Friendl! Domain "ame to #o$r
Ro$ter with D!namic D"%
4N# is a service that lets you access
your home computers using a nice doman
name 2e.g. myfancyrouter.net3 instead of
a numeric I( address 2e.g. L/.@D.BD.A-3.
4epending on your internet provider,
however, your e+ternal I( address may
periodically change. %hats why you
need Dynamic 4N#. It points a friendlier
domain name to your numeric I( address
&ust like regular 4N#, but compensates
for that I( address proclivity to
change. #o, rather than typing in
LE.+++.++.++ every time you want to
remotely access your home computer,
You can accomplish this task in a couple
of ways. *irst, you can download some
software from your dynamic 4N# provider
that will automatically check and update
your e+ternal I( address at a set
interval. #econd, your router may
already support some dynamic 4N#
providers and can perform this update
for you automatically 2which is the
easier method3. %wo of the most popular
providers of dynamic 4N# services are
4yn4N# and No I(, but there are others.
%hese services are generally free but
offer perks at a cost. #ome routers only
support one of these services, but
custom firmware like 44-'!% support both
and more.
%o set up dynamic 4N#, you &ust need to
sign up for an account with one of these
services and enter your account
credentials into the dynamic 4N# section
on your router. If your router doesnt
support your service of choice, you can
&ust download software from your service
provider like we mentioned earlier.
Youll need to keep this software
running pretty much /DIL, so its
definitely better if you can leave the
task of dynamic 4N# to your router.