How to Port Forward Microsoft Flight Simulator in Your Router

Microsoft Flight Simulator is an Open-World, Flight, and Simulation game published by Xbox Game Studios released in 2020.

Microsoft Flight Simulator has the following styles of play.

• In an open world style of game the player is allowed to roam freely through a normally massive environment. This style of games is usually not on rails, meaning that the player gets to go anywhere and solve problems in the order that they choose.
• Flight games are usually from the cockpit or from a chase camera but can also be ground based such as RC simulation games. They are not necessarily flight simulators but are more often limited in functionality in order to be more approachable to a broader range of gamers. Wing Commander and TIE Fighter are popular flight games.
• In a simulation game the primary goal is to simulate a real life situation either for education or entertainment. Simulation games have a huge vareity of types including sports, driving, flying, and dating. Some of the most popular sims of all time are SimCity and Madden NFL.

When you are playing Microsoft Flight Simulator you might need to forward some ports in your router. Forwarding ports is a useful trick in gaming because it can really help to make your network connection most stable and intermittently even faster. Routers were not designed to allow incoming network requests and some games can play tremendously better if an incoming connection is forwarded through the router to the game.

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.

Before you can forward a port you need to know the following things:

• The IP address of your network router.
• Your gaming machine's IP address.
• The TCP and UDP ports that need to be forwarded.

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

An easy way to do this is use our Network Utilities software. It can open your ports with just a few clicks. Then when you are done you can just was quickly close your ports again. Alternatively you can do it by hand.

The process for forwarding a port is usually:

• Login to your router.
• Locate your routers port forwarding section.
• Put the IP address of your computer or gaming console in the correct box in your router.
• Put the TCP and UDP ports for your game in the matching boxes in your router.
• Sometimes you have to reboot your router for the changes to take effect.

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The required ports that need to be forwarded for Microsoft Flight Simulator are as follows:

Microsoft Flight Simulator - PC

• TCP: 3074
• UDP: 88, 500, 3074, 3544, 4500

Microsoft Flight Simulator - Xbox One

• TCP: 3074
• UDP: 88, 500, 3074, 3544, 4500

Microsoft Flight Simulator - Xbox Series X

• TCP: 3074
• UDP: 88, 500, 3074, 3544, 4500

Microsoft Flight Simulator - Steam

• TCP: 27015-27030, 27036-27037
• UDP: 4380, 27000-27031, 27036

We have guides that are custom tailored for Microsoft Flight Simulator that will show you the exact ports.

• Microsoft Flight Simulator - PC
• Microsoft Flight Simulator - Xbox One
• Microsoft Flight Simulator - Xbox Series X
• Microsoft Flight Simulator - Steam

That's all it takes to forward your ports. Have more games that need a boost? Check out our growing list of games and applications.