Dlink DI-904 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:
- Setup a static IP address on either your computer or device that you want to forward a port to.
- Login to your D-Link DI-904 router.
- Navigate to the port forwarding section.
- Click the Advanced button.
- Click on Virtual Server.
- Create a port forward entry.
While these steps might seem difficult at first, we will walk you through each step for your Dlink DI-904 router.
We think that forwarding a port should be easy. That's why we created Network Utilities. Our software does everything that you need to forward a port.
When you use Network Utilities you get your port forwarded right now!
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.
- Recommended - Our free Static IP Setter will set up a static IP address for you.
- Another way to get a permanent IP address is to set up a DHCP reservation.
- Or, manually create a static ip address with our Static IP Guides.
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.
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.
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.
Step 2
Now we are going to login to your Dlink DI-904 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:
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 D-Link DI-904 IP Address is: 192.168.0.1
After entering the IP address of your router you can simply press enter. If all goes well you will see the following screen:
You should see a box prompting you for your username and password.
- The Default D-Link DI-904 Router Username is:
- The Default D-Link DI-904 Router Password is: blank
Enter your username and password, and then click the Login button to log in to your Dlink DI-904 router.
Dlink Usernames and Passwords
If your username and password do not work then please visit our Default D-Link Router Passwords page.
If you still can't login to your router because you forgot your Dlink DI-904 router username and password, use our How to Reset a Router Password guide to set your Dlink DI-904 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:
Click the Advanced button near the top of the page.
The menu on the left should change. In this new menu, click Virtual Server.
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:
- Browsing our List of Games
- Check out our our List of Games by Genre
- See our List of all Applications
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Be sure that there is a dot in the Enabled radio button.
Create a name for this forward and put it in the Name box. The name is only used as a reminder and has no effect on the port forward.
You need to enter the IP address that you are forwarding ports to in the Private IP 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.
Use the Protocol Type dropdown box to select the protocol type of the ports you are forwarding.
Enter the same port number to be forwarded into both the Private Port and the Public Port boxes.
Make sure that the Always radio button is selected.
When you are finished, click the Apply button.
Most people will never need to use this, but I'm going to explain why they have Private Port and Public Port here.
The Private Port and Public Port entries are actually rather useful. They are there so you can direct traffic at two devices on your network.
Let's say that you have two devices running Ftp servers on your network. Let's call these devices device one(192.168.0.1) and device two(192.168.0.1).
Let's also say both these ftp servers are running on port 21. Okay we setup your router to forward port 21 to device one(192.168.0.1:21).
So every external IP address request from ftp goes to device one. How do we get to the second device? Well the Private Port and Public Port entries allow us to specify another outside port to connect to our internal port 21. Lets make the additional port, port 30. We would now setup a rule in the router with the Public Port set to 30 and the Private port set to 21. The IP address in that rule would be 192.168.0.1. So when you wanted to ftp to device two you would specify port 30 in your ftp client.
The router would see these requests coming in on port 30 and forward them to (192.168.0.1:21). This would allow you to ftp to both devices.
Your ports should now be open. It is time to test them.
Test if Your Ports are Open
Now that you have forwarded ports on the Dlink DI-904 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.
