Many internet provider install modems with an built-in router. Simply put: it provides a way to recieve and send data needed for your telephone, TV and internet connection.Ī device that creates a network between the computers in your home by wire or wifi. This is usually provided by your internet service provider, ISP for short. In any network you might find one of these devices: Device So I will need to portforward the modem and the external router.Īs you can see it becomes a bit confusing, if you don't know how your network is setup. In my case, I have a modem with the wireless features turned off and I've hooked up a more powerful router to the modem. So in that case you would only need to change the settings in the modem itself. In most household networks the modem contains a router with wireless capability and everything is hooked up to that. It isn't something you need to configure on your computer but in your modem's and/or router's web interface. It is commonly used for hosting game servers, peer-to-peer transfers, voice-over-ip applications and much more. The pupose of port forwarding is to make a specific programs on your computer accessible to other computers on the internet. Port forwarding or port mapping isn't that difficult, it might look complicated at first but it really isn't. So in this guide I'll be focusing on port forwarding and the basic logic arround it. Troubleshooting problems and maintaining your network would be tricky and painfull. I could have just written an A to Z tutorial but at the end of the day you would still have no idea what you actually did.