Port forwarding
application of network address translation
In computer networking, port forwarding or port mapping is an application of network address translation (NAT) that redirects a communication request from one address and port number combination to another while the packets are traversing a network gateway, such as a router or firewall. This technique is most commonly used to make services on a host residing on a protected or masqueraded (internal) network available to hosts on the opposite side of the gateway (external network), by remapping the destination IP address and port number of the communication to an internal host.
Purpose
Port forwarding facilitates the connection by remote computers, for example, Internet hosts, to a specific computer or service within a local area network (LAN).
In a typical residential network, nodes obtain Internet access through a DSL or cable modem connected to a router or network address translator (NAT/NAPT). Hosts on the private network are connected to an Ethernet switch or communicate via a wireless LAN. The NAT device's external interface is configured with a public IP address. The computers behind the router, on the other hand, are invisible to hosts on the Internet as they each communicate only with a private IP address.
When configuring port forwarding, the network administrator sets aside one port number on the gateway for the exclusive use of communicating with a service in the private network, located on a specific host. External hosts must know this port number and the address of the gateway to communicate with the network-internal service. Often, the port numbers of well-known Internet services, such as port number 80 for web services (HTTP), are used in port forwarding, so that common Internet services may be implemented on hosts within private networks.
Typical applications include the following:
Running a public HTTP server within a private LAN
Permitting Secure Shell access to a host on the private LAN from the Internet
Permitting FTP access to a host on a private LAN from the Internet
Running a publicly available game server within a private LAN
Administrators configure port forwarding in the gateway's operating system.
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