Easiest Way to Forward Ports on the Cisco Linksys E2100L Router

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Port Forward Staff
September 19, 2018 (Last Updated: ) | Reading Time: 4 minutes

Cisco Linksys-E2100L routers include a very basic firewall that helps protect your home network form unwanted access from the internet. Since this firewall blocks incoming connections you may need open a port through it for certain games and applications. This process of opening a port is frequently called a port forward, since you are forwarding a port from the internet to your home network.

The basic process to open a port is:

  1. Setup a static IP address on either your computer or device that you want to forward a port to.
  2. Login to your Cisco Linksys E2100L router.
  3. Navigate to the port forwarding section.
    • Click the Applications & Gaming link.
    • Click the Port Range Forwarding or the Single Port Forwarding button to forward ports.
  4. Create a port forward entry.

While these steps might seem difficult at first, we will walk you through each step for your Cisco Linksys-E2100L router.

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Step 1

It is important to setup a static ip address in the device that you are forwarding a port to. This ensures that your ports will remain open even after your device reboots.

This step is important because you want a permanent IP address in your device. If you do not set up a permanent IP address in your device, then when you device reboots it may get a new IP address.

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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.

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Step 2

Now we are going to login to your Cisco Linksys-E2100L router. Your router has a web interface, so you will login to it using your web browser. This can be either Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Edge. It usually does not matter which browser you choose to use.

Open up your web browser and find the address bar. It should look something like this:

Image of a browser address bar
Browser address bar

Above is an example of what a web browser address bar looks like. Find the address bar in your router and type in your router's IP address.

The default Cisco Linksys E2100L IP Address is: 192.168.1.1

After entering the IP address of your router you can simply press enter. If all goes well you will see the following screen:

Cisco Linksys-E2100L
Cisco Linksys-E2100L.

You should see a box prompting you for your username and password.

Enter your username and password, and then click the Login button to log in to your Cisco Linksys-E2100L router.

Cisco Usernames and Passwords

If your username and password do not work then please visit our Default Cisco Linksys Router Passwords page.

If you still can't login to your router because you forgot your Cisco Linksys-E2100L router username and password, use our How to Reset a Router Password guide to set your Cisco Linksys-E2100L router back to its factory settings.

Step 3

Now we need to find the port forwarding section in your router. Here's how you do it. Starting from the first page in your router:

Cisco Linksys-E2100L
Cisco Linksys-E2100L.

Click the Applications & Gaming link near the top of the page.

This router has two different sections that allow you to forward ports. One section allows you to forward a range of ports, and the other allows you to forward a single port. To forward a range of ports, click Port Range Forwarding. To forward a single port, click Single Port Forwarding.

Cisco Linksys-E2100L
Cisco Linksys-E2100L.

Step 4

Here are the ports to forward for Xbox Live:

  • TCP Ports: 3074
  • UDP Ports: 3074

If you are looking for the ports for a different application you can find it by either:

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Forwarding a Single Port

Enter the name of the program into the Application Name box. It doesn't really matter what you put into this box, but something that will remind you why these ports are being forwarded is be a good idea.

Enter the port to forward into both the External Port and the Internal Port boxes.

Use the Protocol dropdown box to select the protocol type of the ports you are forwarding.

You need to enter the IP address that you are forwarding ports to in the To IP Address box. It's possible for this to be either the IP address of your computer or any other IP address on your network that you want ports forwarded to.

Verify that you have the Enabled checkbox checked.

Cisco Linksys-E2100L port forward
Cisco Linksys-E2100L port forward.

Forwarding a Port Range

Enter the name of the program into the Application Name box. It doesn't really matter what you put into this box, but something that will remind you why these ports are being forwarded is be a good idea.

If you are just forwarding a single port number then you can simply enter that same number into both the Start Port and the End Port boxes. If you are forwarding a range of ports, usually separated by a hyphen, then you need to enter the lowest number of that range into the Start Port box and then enter highest number into the End Port box.

The protocol that you want to forward is selected from the Protocol box.

Enter the IP address of the device that you want to forward ports to into the To IP Address box. This can be either the IP address of your computer or the IP address of another device on your network.

Make sure that the Enabled checkbox is checked.

When you're finished, click Save Settings near the bottom of the screen to save your changes.

Test if Your Ports are Open

Now that you have forwarded ports on the Cisco Linksys-E2100L you should test to see if your ports are forwarded correctly.

To test if your port has been properly forwarded, you can use our Network Utilities tool, which includes a free Open Port Checker. Our Open Port Check tool is the only online port checking tool with Guaranteed Results.

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