How Do I Set Up Port Forwarding To A Local Server On My NETGEAR ...

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.

You can set up port forwarding from your router's web interface.

To set up port forwarding to a local server on your NETGEAR router:

1. Decide which type of service, application, or game you want to set up.
2. Find the local IP address of the device on your network that will provide the service. The server device must always have the same IP address.
3. Assign the server device a reserved IP address. For more information, see How do I reserve an IP address on my NETGEAR router?
4. Launch a web browser from a device that is connected to your router's network.
5. Enter www.routerlogin.net. A login window displays.
6. 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 BASIC Home page or Dashboard displays.
7. Select ADVANCED > Advanced Setup > Port Forwarding/Port Triggering.
8. Leave the Port Forwarding radio button selected as the service type.
9. From the Service Name menu, select the service name. If the service that you want to add is not in the list, create a custom service. For more information, see How do I add a custom port forwarding service on my NETGEAR router?.
10. In the Server IP Address field, enter the IP address of the device that will provide the service.
11. Click the Add button. The service displays in the menu.

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.

For more information:

• How do I delete a port forwarding service entry on my NETGEAR router?

Last Updated:07/07/2025 | Article ID: 24289 Was this article helpful? Yes No