Ask The Experts

The follow information is obtained from Yahoo! online community and does not express the views, opinions, or technical advice of On-Site. On-Site is not responsible for damages from use of information from Yahoo! Answers

Lyphe Hayter	What is Port Forwarding? Please explain. Thank you. 2 answer(s)
	Best Answer: The job of a firewall is to Block all ports from external access, for security reasons. In essence, port forwarding is "UnBlocking" a specified port, or range of ports that you specify as safe, or trusted, for use by specific programs, or services on your network. For example, I use various VoIP services. I have a linksys NAT-Router and behind that my PC and a Linksys ATA VoIP adapter for making VoIP calls. Before I can reliably use my ATA adapter for making SIP-based VoIP calls, I had to Port Forward, or unblock SIP ports 5060-5063, and RTP ports 16384-16482. These ports can be "Forwarded" on a permanent basis, or opened on a "triggered" basis, as needed. View more answers to this question.
More Answers Bob G port forwarding is the act of forwarding a network port from one network node to another. This technique can allow an external user to reach a port on a private IP address from the outside via a NAT-enabled router. Mr. VoIP The job of a firewall is to Block all ports from external access, for security reasons. In essence, port forwarding is "UnBlocking" a specified port, or range of ports that you specify as safe, or trusted, for use by specific programs, or services on your network. For example, I use various VoIP services. I have a linksys NAT-Router and behind that my PC and a Linksys ATA VoIP adapter for making VoIP calls. Before I can reliably use my ATA adapter for making SIP-based VoIP calls, I had to Port Forward, or unblock SIP ports 5060-5063, and RTP ports 16384-16482. These ports can be "Forwarded" on a permanent basis, or opened on a "triggered" basis, as needed.