Port forwarding explained

Think of your home's internet address as a building's street address, and ports as flat numbers. Your HonkIP name gets visitors to the building. Port forwarding tells the router which flat to send them to.

Before you start, you need:

• The device's local address, like 192.168.1.50. Find it in the router's list of connected devices. Set it as a "reserved" or "static" address so it doesn't change.
• The port the device uses. Your camera, NAS or game's manual lists it. For example, Minecraft uses 25565.

Steps:

1. Open your router's settings page (often 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1).
2. Find Port forwarding. It may be called Virtual server, NAT or Applications.
3. Add a rule:
   • External port: the port from the manual
   • Internal address: your device's local address
   • Internal port: usually the same number
   • Protocol: TCP, UDP or both, as the manual says
4. Save, then test with Can I reach it from outside? on My home.

Stay safe: only forward the ports you need. Change default passwords on the device first, and use its HTTPS option if it has one.

Still stuck? Email support@swearguard.com and tell us your HonkIP name and what you tried.