Forwarding Ports in a Netgear Nighthawk X10 R9000 Router

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Port Forward Staff
January 12, 2017 (Last Updated: ) | Reading Time: 4 minutes

Did you know your Netgear Nighthawk X10 R9000 router uses a firewall to keep unwanted Internet activity away from your home network. Firewalls do this by blocking all connections to and from the Internet that you have not authorized. In order to authorize a connection you need to create a port forward.

In this guide we will walk you through each of the following steps:

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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.

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.

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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.

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Step 2

In this step we will show you how to Login to the Netgear Nighthawk X10 R9000 router. First you need to open a web browser to access the web interface. It doesn't matter which browser you decide to use, simply pick your favorite. Some of the more common web browsers are: Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Edge.

After you open your web browser find the address bar. This is normally located at the top of the page 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 Netgear Nighthawk X10 R9000 IP Address is: 192.168.0.1

Simply enter that IP address in the address bar and press the Enter key on your keyboard. This should open up an authentication page like this:

Netgear R9000 Nighthawk X10 default login
Screenshot of Netgear R9000 Nighthawk X10 default login.

If you see a box asking for a username and password then you are in the right place.

Once you have entered the username and password in the box, press the OK button to login to the Netgear Nighthawk X10 R9000 router interface.

Having Trouble?

This is where a lot of us get stuck. If you find yourself in this group there are a few things you can try:

  • The first thing we recommend you try is other Netgear username/password combos. If you have a slightly different firmware version then the username and password could be a little different. Here is our list of Default Netgear Router Passwords.
  • If you tried that and still cannot login to the Netgear Nighthawk X10 R9000 router it is because you changed it in the past and don't remember what you changed it to. We recommend trying to guess what you changed it to. If you need help with this, use our Find Password App. It locates your password for you by trying thousands of different combinations. Learn more about how this password recovery app works.
  • If you have tried both of the above troubleshooting ideas and still cannot login to the router, it may be time to consider a factory reset. A factory reset erases all your personal settings. Your entire router will need to be reconfigured after this reset is complete. Learn more about this on our How to Reset a Router page.

Step 3

It is time to find the port forwarding section of the Netgear Nighthawk X10 R9000 router. To do that, we should start on the Basic Home page:

Netgear R9000 Nighthawk X10 Basic Home
Screenshot of Netgear R9000 Nighthawk X10 Basic Home.

First, click the option of Advanced at the top of the page.

Netgear R9000 Nighthawk X10 Advanced Home
Screenshot of Netgear R9000 Nighthawk X10 Advanced Home.

Once you see the page above, click the option in the left sidebar labeled Advanced Setup.

Then, under that choose the new option of Port Forwarding/Port Triggering.

Netgear R9000 Nighthawk X10 Port Forwarding and Port Triggering
Screenshot of Netgear R9000 Nighthawk X10 Port Forwarding and Port Triggering.

This takes you to the page you see here.

Make sure the radio button for Port Forwarding is selected.

Next, select the link in the center section of the page labeled Add Custom Service.

Netgear R9000 Nighthawk X10 Port Forwarding Add Custom Service
Screenshot of Netgear R9000 Nighthawk X10 Port Forwarding Add Custom Service.

This brings you to the page where you can make a port forward entry.

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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Make up a name to put in the Service Name box. The name does not have any effect on the functionality of the forward, it's simply there so you can know why it was created.

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

If you are just forwarding a single port number then you can simply enter that same number into both the External Starting Port and the External Ending 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 External Starting Port box and then enter highest number into the External Ending Port box.

Put a checkmark in the Use the same port range for Internal Port checkbox.

Enter the IP address that you want to forward these ports to in the Internal IP Address box. You can enter either the IP address of your computer or the IP address of another computer or device on your network.

When you are finished, be sure to click the green Apply button to save your changes.

How to Test Your Ports

It is always a good idea to test the ports you forwarded. One way to do this is to use our Open Port Checker. This is part of our free trial version of the Network Utilities. Our Open Port Checker uses a local application on your network to see if those ports are listening. This gives you a guaranteed yes or no.

Additional Information

More router specific guides can be found on our site setuprouter.com.

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