Open a port in your router
An open port lets a camera, server or game at home be reached from outside. You open the port in your own router, and it requires a static IP address.
Only want to know if your IP address is shared or your own? Does broadband include a static IP address?
Don’t have a static IP yet? Order a static IP for your broadband
Before you start
- You need a static public IP address for your broadband. With the shared address (CGNAT) you can’t open ports.
- Find out which port and protocol (TCP or UDP) the device needs. It’s in the device’s or program’s manual.
How to open the port
- 1
Open this address and check that the address on the page is your static IP address.
If it isn’t, order a static IP first.
- 2
Log in to the router and reserve a fixed local IP address for the device.
Often under LAN or DHCP, as an address reservation.
Without a reservation the address can change, and then the rule stops working.
- 3
Open the Port Forwarding or Virtual Server page.
It’s often under WAN, NAT or Advanced.
- 4
Add a rule with the port, the protocol and the device’s local IP address, and save.
The external and internal port are usually the same.
- 5
Test from outside, for example from your phone with wifi off, against your static IP address and the port.
From inside your own network the test often doesn’t work.
How to know it worked
Done
The device answers on your static IP address and the port when you connect from outside.
If something doesn’t work
You’ve entered the static IP address as a fixed address in the router
Why: The router should get the address automatically.
What to do: Set the router’s WAN back to DHCP and restart the router.
The rule exists, but the port doesn’t answer
Why: The device’s local IP address has changed, or the device’s own firewall is blocking the traffic.
What to do: Check the device’s address in the router, and open the port in the device’s firewall, for example Windows Firewall.
Good to know
- We don’t block any ports. You decide which are open in your router.
- Do you have the router from us (Comfast)? You reach the settings at
http://192.168.0.1.
Related guides
Need more help?
Email [email protected] or call 08-519 70 666.