When you use Home Control Assistant you might need to forward some ports in your router. The purpose of forwarding ports is to make a direct connection from the internet to Home Control Assistant.
Routers do not generally allow incoming connection requests from the internet. By forwarding ports you can work around this limitation.
Remember to Do These Things Before You Forward a Port
Before you can forward a port you need to know the following things:
- The IP address of your router.
- The internal IP address of your computer.
- Each of the TCP and UDP ports that you need to forward.
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.
Find the IP Address of Your Router
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.
Otherwise, you can follow our guide Find Your Router IP Address.
How To Set Up Port Forwarding for Home Control Assistant
The easiest way to forward your ports is to use our Network Utilities software. Network Utilities lets you manage port forwards by putting them in when you need them and also removing the ones that you no longer need which maximized network security.
Another option is to go through the process of forwarding ports one step at a time. The process for forwarding a port is:
- You can start by logging in to your router.
- Locate your routers port forwarding section.
- Put the IP address of your computer in the proper box in your router.
- Put the TCP and UDP ports that you are forwarding for Home Control Assistant in the correct boxes in your router.
Some routers need to be rebooted in order for the changes to be saved.
You can choose your router from our list to see exactly how to forward ports for Home Control Assistant:
List of Routers - Customized for Home Control Assistant
Setting Up a Port Forward for Home Control Assistant
The incoming ports that need to be forwarded for Home Control Assistant are:
Home Control Assistant - PC
- TCP: 2000
- UDP:
Those are the steps for forwarding ports in your router for Home Control Assistant.
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