Forward Ports on Your Router for Jellyfin

You may need to forward ports in your router when you use Jellyfin. The purpose of forwarding ports is to make a direct connection from the internet to Jellyfin.

Routers generally do not allow incoming connection requests from the internet. Forwarding ports can work around this limitation.

Before forwarding a port make sure that you know these things:

• Your router's internal IP address.
• Your media server's IP address.
• The list 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.

You can run our free Router Detector software to locate your router's IP address. It is part of our Network Utilities suite of tools and is free for you to use it.

You can also follow our Find Your Router IP Address article.

The easiest way to forward your ports is to use our Network Utilities software. 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.

You can also choose to set up port forwards manually. The way to forward a port is:

• You can start by logging in to your router.
• Locate your routers port forwarding section.
• Put your media server's IP address in the proper box in your router.
• It is now time to type the TCP and UDP ports that you are forwarding for Jellyfin 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 Jellyfin:

List of Routers - Customized for Jellyfin

The following ports need to be forwarded for Jellyfin:

Jellyfin - PC

• TCP: 8920, 8096
• UDP:

Those are the steps to take in order to forward ports in your router for Jellyfin.

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