How to Open a Port in Your Router for Black Mesa Server

When you use Black Mesa Server you might need to forward some ports in your router. A port forward allows incoming connection requests from the internet to go straight to Black Mesa Server.

Routers generally do not allow incoming connection requests from the internet. A port forward can overcome this limitation.

Make sure that you know these things before forwarding a port:

• Your router's IP address.
• Your computer's internal IP address.
• The TCP and UDP ports that need to be forwarded.

Use a VPN Instead

Have you considered using a VPN instead of forwarding a port? For most users, a VPN is a much simpler and more secure choice than forwarding a port.

We use and recommend NordVPN because not only is it the fastest VPN, it includes a new feature called Meshnet that makes forwarding a port no longer necessary for most applications. With NordVPN Meshnet, you can connect to your devices from anywhere in the world, completely secure, over a highly encrypted VPN tunnel.

When shopping for a VPN, make sure that they meet the following criteria:

• Your VPN provider should have a no-logs policy. This means that they do not keep any logs of any kind.
• Make sure that your VPN provider has lots of exit nodes all around the world.
• Check that your VPN will not affect your speed.
• Verify that your VPN provider uses WireGuard as the underlying protocol.
• Many people prefer a VPN provider that is not based in the United States.

This is the list of requirements that we used when we were shopping around for a VPN provider. There are lots of free, shady VPN providers out there that we looked at and dismissed.

Based in Panama, using diskless servers, and with over 6,100 servers in 61 countries, we can safely say that NordVPN satisfies all of these requirements.

Once you've set up your NordVPN account on multiple computers and enabled Meshnet, you can seamlessly access all of your devices as if they were on the same network. You don't even have to log in to your router. It's very simple.

Every time you click on one of our affiliate links, such as NordVPN, we get a little kickback for introducing you to the service. Think of us as your VPN wingman.

The easiest way to locate your router's IP address is to run our free Router Detector utility. It is part of our Network Utilities suite of tools and is free for you to use it.

If you do not want to run the software, you can follow our Find Your Router IP Address guide.

You can use our Network Utilities software to automatically forward ports for you. Our Network Utilities software allows you to add port forwards and also remove them when you no longer need them to maximize your network security.

Alternatively you can do it by hand. The normal process for forwarding a port is:

• Start by logging in to your router.
• Look for the port forwarding section in your router.
• Type the IP address of your computer into the correct box in your router.
• Put the TCP and UDP ports for Black Mesa Server in the corresponding boxes in your router.

Usually you have to reboot your router in order to save the changes.

You can choose your router from our list to see exactly how to forward ports for Black Mesa Server:

List of Routers - Customized for Black Mesa Server

The ports that need to be forwarded for Black Mesa Server are listed here:

Black Mesa Server - PC

• TCP: 27015
• UDP: 27015, 27020

Those are the steps to take in order to forward ports in your router for Black Mesa Server.

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