I’m using using an Internet application/game or have a server behind my Macsense router. How do I configure port forwarding?
The Macsense router line implements Network Address Translation (NAT) to both split a Public IP into multiple Private IPs to create a private LAN network and also to act as the firewall for security purposes. As an analogy, if the NAT firewall were a brick wall then each brick would represent an individual port. The idea of port forwarding for Internet services, games and applications is to remove a brick to allow for a particular request to squeeze through.
Example: FileMaker Pro sends request over port 5003 using the TCP protocol. When John, working behind an XRouter at home, wants to access the FileMaker Pro server at work he’ll need to give his computer a Static IP as explained in the User Manual. He’ll then access the Virtual Server configuration page inside the XRouter and open this port to the computer. To do this he’ll name the port as 5003, choose TCP as the protocol and then input the IP given to the computer. After clicking Apply to save changes John will now be able to receive requests from the server through the XRouter NAT firewall.
The importance of port forwarding is to give a Static IP to the computer so that the port always points to the correct computer and to know exactly what ports must be opened over which protocol, whether it’s TCP or UDP. If any one of these steps is configured incorrectly, you will not receive the proper port forwarding for the service, application or game to work.
