NETGEAR RangeMax™ Wireless-N Gigabit Router WNR3500v2 User Manual

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Customizing Your Network Settings

v1.0, May 2009

Configuring Port Forwarding to Local Servers

Using the port forwarding feature, you can allow certain types of incoming traffic to reach servers

on your local network. For example, you might make a local Web server, FTP server, or game

server visible and available to the Internet.

Use the Port Forwarding screen to configure the router to forward specific incoming protocols to

computers on your local network. In addition to servers for specific applications, you can also

specify a default DMZ server to which all other incoming protocols are forwarded. The DMZ

server is configured in the WAN Setup screen, as discussed in

“Setting Up a Default DMZ Server”

on page 5-8

.

Before starting, you need to determine which type of service, application, or game you will

provide, and the local IP address of the computer that will provide the service. Be sure the

computer’s IP address never changes.

To configure port forwarding to a local server:

1.

Select

Port Forwarding/Port Triggering

under Advanced in the main menu.

Tip:

To ensure that your server computer always has the same IP address, use the

reserved IP address feature of your WNR3500v2 router. See

“Using Address

Reservation” on page 5-4

for instructions on how to use reserved IP addresses.

Figure 5-6

NETGEAR RangeMax™ Wireless-N Gigabit Router WNR3500v2 User Manual

Customizing Your Network Settings

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v1.0, May 2009

2.

From the

Service Name

list, select the service or game that you will host on your network.

If the service does not appear in the list, see the following section,

“Adding a Custom

Service

.”

3.

In the corresponding

Server IP Address

box, enter the last digit of the IP address of your local

computer that will provide this service.

4.

Click

Add

. The service appears in the list in the screen.

Adding a Custom Service

To define a service, game, or application that does not appear in the Service Name list, you must

first determine which port number or range of numbers is used by the application. You can usually

determine this information by contacting the publisher of the application or user groups or

newsgroups. When you have the port number information, follow these steps:

1.

Select

Port Forwarding/Port Triggering

under Advanced in the main menu.

2.

Click

Add Custom Service

.

3.

In the

Service Name

field, enter a descriptive name.

4.

In the

Service Type

field, select the protocol. If you are unsure, select

TCP/UDP

.

5.

In the

Starting Port

field, enter the beginning port number.

•

If the application uses only a single port, enter the same port number in the

Ending Port

field.

•

If the application uses a range of ports, enter the ending port number of the range in the

Ending Port

field.

6.

In the

Server IP Address

field, enter the IP address of your local computer that will provide

this service.

7.

Click

Apply

. The service appears in the list in the Port Forwarding/Port Triggering screen.

Figure 5-7

NETGEAR RangeMax™ Wireless-N Gigabit Router WNR3500v2 User Manual

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Customizing Your Network Settings

v1.0, May 2009

Editing or Deleting a Port Forwarding Entry

To edit or delete a port forwarding entry:

1.

In the table, select the button next to the service name.

2.

Click

Edit Service

or

Delete Service

.

Application Example: Making a Local Web Server Public

If you host a Web server on your local network, you can use port forwarding to allow Web requests

from anyone on the Internet to reach your Web server.

To make a local Web server public:

1.

Assign your Web server either a fixed IP address or a dynamic IP address using DHCP address

reservation, as explained in

“Using Address Reservation” on page 5-4

. In this example, your

router will always give your Web server an IP address of 192.168.1.33.

2.

In the Port Forwarding screen, configure the router to forward the HTTP service to the local

address of your Web server at

192.168.1.33

.

HTTP (port 80) is the standard protocol for Web servers.

3.

(Optional) Register a host name with a Dynamic DNS service, and configure your router to

use the name as described in

“Using a Dynamic DNS Service” on page 5-5

.

To access your Web server from the Internet, a remote user must know the IP address that has

been assigned by your ISP. However, if you use a Dynamic DNS service, the remote user can

reach your server by a user-friendly Internet name, such as mynetgear.dyndns.org.

Configuring Port Triggering

Port triggering is a dynamic extension of port forwarding that is useful in these cases:

•

More than one local computer needs port forwarding for the same application (but not

simultaneously).

•

An application needs to open incoming ports that are different from the outgoing port.

When port triggering is enabled, the router monitors outbound traffic looking for a specified

outbound “trigger” port. When the router detects outbound traffic on that port, it remembers the IP

address of the local computer that sent the data. The router then temporarily opens the specified

incoming port or ports, and forwards incoming traffic on the triggered ports to the triggering

computer.

NETGEAR RangeMax™ Wireless-N Gigabit Router WNR3500v2 User Manual

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While port forwarding creates a static mapping of a port number or range to a single local

computer, port triggering can dynamically open ports to any computer that needs them and can

close the ports when they are no longer needed.

To configure port triggering, you need to know which inbound ports the application needs. Also,

you need to know the number of the outbound port that will trigger the opening of the inbound

ports. You can usually determine this information by contacting the publisher of the application or

user groups or newsgroups.

To set up port triggering:

1.

Select

Port Forwarding/Port Triggering

under Advanced in the main menu. The

Forwarding/Port Triggering screen displays.

2.

Select the

Port Triggering

radio button. The port triggering information displays.

Note:

If you use applications such as multiplayer gaming, peer-to-peer connections, real-

time communications such as instant messaging, or remote assistance (a feature in

Windows XP), you should also enable Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) according

to the instructions in

“Using Universal Plug and Play” on page 6-13

.

Figure 5-8

NETGEAR RangeMax™ Wireless-N Gigabit Router WNR3500v2 User Manual

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Customizing Your Network Settings

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3.

Clear the

Disable Port Triggering

check box.

4.

In the

Port Triggering Timeout

field, enter a value up to 9999 minutes. This value sets the

inactivity timer for the designated inbound ports. These ports close when the timer expires.

This is required because the router cannot be sure when the application has terminated.

5.

Click

Add Service

.

6.

In the

Service Name

field, type a descriptive service name.

7.

In the

Service User

field, select

Any

(the default) to allow this service to be used by any

computer on the Internet. Otherwise, select

Single address

, and enter the IP address of one

computer to restrict the service to a particular computer.

8.

Select the service type, either

TCP

or

UDP

or both (

TCP/UDP

). If you are not sure, select

TCP/UDP.

9.

In the

Triggering Port

field, enter the number of the outbound traffic port that will cause the

inbound ports to be opened.

10.

Enter the inbound connection port information in the

Connection Type

,

Starting Port

, and

Ending Port

fields.

11.

Click

Apply

. The service appears in the Port Triggering Portmap table.

Note:

If the

Disable Port Triggerin

g check box is selected after you configure port

triggering, port triggering is disabled. However, any port triggering

configuration information you added to the router is retained even though it is

not used.

Figure 5-9