What is Port Forwarding?

Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

http://live.pirillo.com/ – Most people nowadays use Broadband Internet, which means they are always connected. Make sure you’re protected with a firewall. If you do have one, and you need to access something on your computer from another place, you can open a port… which is called Port Forwarding.

Any software that requires Internet access has a port assigned to it. The application uses this specific port to access what it needs to. For instance, if you use IRC, then you would normally connect to port 6667. Programs such as mIRC or Colloquy will ask you during setup which port to use. I recently did a video about using my iPhone to connect to IRC . In order to do this, I have to open the port and secure it with a password. I then use the iPhone to connect to that port on my Mac at home, and voila! I can chat.

Of course, if I try to connect, my router needs to know where to forward me. What machine on my network do I need? What specific port and application? This is where your router comes in handy. If you open up your router in your Control Panel, there will be a page about port forwarding to help you set it up.

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