opening ports and port forwarding

is there is difference between port forwarding and opening a port? are they the same or completely different?

They are different.

Opening a port (on a router or computer) simply means letting through any traffic addressed to that port. (Firewalls typically block most ports and only allow traffic through on a few - such as port 80 for HTTP.)

Port forwarding means redirecting traffic addressed to a particular port to another computer. For example a router may forward HTTP traffic, on port 80, to one computer and SMTP traffic, on port 25, to another one. But all traffic is addressed to the same IP address.

Port forwarding implies opening the port (there wouldn't be much point otherwise), but the converse is not necessarily true.

thanks for your help

so, in this case: http://playstation.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/playstation.... do I need to open ports or forward ports? my router is a netgear dg834pn

I'm fairly sure that all you need to do here is to open the ports as it is the PlayStation initiating a connection with the outside world rather than the other way round. I can't tell you how to do that for your particular router, but it should tell you in the manual. Failing that, I'm sure that someone else must know that router and can help you.

For security's sake you should only open the specific ports that are mentioned in the instructions.

Edit: I should also have mentioned - if any ports are already open, don't close them or you may stop things working. When making this sort of change it's always a good idea to make a quick note of existing settings so that you can restore them if anything seems amiss. It's amazing how quickly you can forget the simplest things if you don't take notes!

Edited by deleted (Wed 19-Aug-09 13:12:36)

In reply to a post by ss_4:

thanks for your help

so, in this case: http://playstation.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/playstation.... do I need to open ports or forward ports? my router is a netgear dg834pn

Hi, for easy to use info on port forwarding the best website on the Internet� Port Forward http://www.portforward.com/guides.htm

You mensioned your router Netgear DG834PN connected to Playstation 3�

Static IP Address http://www.portforward.com/networking/staticip.htm

For Netgear DG834PN router - Click on your PS3 game http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forw...

In reply to a post by E7er:

Hi, for easy to use info on port forwarding the best website on the Internet� Port Forward http://www.portforward.com/guides.htm

You mensioned your router Netgear DG834PN connected to Playstation 3�

Static IP Address http://www.portforward.com/networking/staticip.htm

For Netgear DG834PN router - Click on your PS3 game http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forw...

AnotherExPipex said that the i needed to open ports and not forward them, so are you sure that this is the right website?

In reply to a post by AnotherExPipex:

Port forwarding means redirecting traffic addressed to a particular port to another computer. For example a router may forward HTTP traffic, on port 80, to one computer and SMTP traffic, on port 25, to another one. But all traffic is addressed to the same IP address.

Depends on the router and more importantly how many IP addresses are provided by the ISP.

For example, my Draytek 2600s each work with an 8 IP subnet. The routers can forward traffic on any of the 5 usable IP address to any IP addresses on my network. (and for some of these the port number can also be changed during the forwarding operation).

Yes. I was oversimplifying somewhat so as not to compilcate matters. I doubt, from the OP, that the poster has anything but a standard basic connection. If I'm wrong in that assumption, apologies.

In reply to a post by ss_4:

In reply to a post by E7er:

Hi, for easy to use info on port forwarding the best website on the Internet� Port Forward http://www.portforward.com/guides.htm

You mensioned your router Netgear DG834PN connected to Playstation 3�

Static IP Address http://www.portforward.com/networking/staticip.htm

For Netgear DG834PN router - Click on your PS3 game http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forw...

AnotherExPipex said that the i needed to open ports and not forward them, so are you sure that this is the right website?

Hi, be assured, it is the right website and the correct procedure.

An easy way to understand ports is to imagine your IP address is a TV cable box and the ports are the different channels on that cable box. The cable company will send cable TV to your cable box based upon a unique serial number associated with that box (your IP Address), and then you receive the individual shows on different channels (Ports).

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial38...

Port Forwarding
Outbound only connections from your computer are protected behind a NAT firewall and you can communicate to the Internet but not the other way. What happens if you wanted to play on a games server with the current configuration, there is no way for the Internet to communicate with your computer if it is behind the NAT firewall. This is where Port Forwarding comes into play.

Setting up Port Forwarding
For the Internet to be able to send information to your computer, you must configure your router NAT firewall to Port Forward. Therefore, you must configure your router to port forward all packets to your computer. That means you must know the Private Network address of your computer and that your computer is configured with a Static IP address to ensure that it never changes on you unexpectedly.

Find your computer IP Address use ipconfig /all http://www.vcn.com/knowledgebase/article.php?id=360

http://playstation.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/playstation....

http://playstation.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/playstation....

http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3

Edited by deleted (Thu 20-Aug-09 14:55:19)

I'm not quite sure why port forwarding is required when connecting to an external server. The site that the OP mentioned only talks about opening certain ports.

Edit: But as I have no knowledge of using a games console with an external server I'll bow to your greater experience.

Edited by deleted (Thu 20-Aug-09 13:03:30)