Opening Ports for QNAP TS-420U using Your Router

You might need to forward some ports in your router when you use a QNAP TS-420U device. By forwarding ports you allow connection requests coming from the internet to be directed to a QNAP TS-420U device.

Routers generally do not allow incoming connection requests from the internet. By forwarding a port you can overcome this limitation.

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

• The internal IP address of your router.
• The internal IP address of your NAS.
• The TCP and UDP ports that need to be forwarded.

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.

To find your router's IP address the easy way you can use our free Router Detector software. It's a part of the Network Utilities suite of tools and it's completely free to use.

We have a guide you can follow Find Your Router IP Address if you don't want to run the software.

A smart way to forward your ports is to use Network Utilities. With Network Utilities, you can easily forward ports and also un-forward ports quickly so that you can keep your network up to date with the ports that you need forwarded and maximize your network security.

Port forwarding can also be set up step-by-step by hand. The step-by-step process for forwarding a port is:

• Start by logging in to your router.
• Locate the section in your router that deals with port forwarding.
• Type your NAS's IP address into the correct box in your router.
• It is now time to type the TCP and UDP ports that you are forwarding for a QNAP TS-420U device in the correct boxes in your router.

Usually you have to reboot your router in order to save the changes.

You can choose your router from our list to see exactly how to forward ports for a QNAP TS-420U device:

List of Routers - Customized for QNAP TS-420U

The following ports need to be forwarded for a QNAP TS-420U device:

QNAP TS-420U - PC

• TCP: 21-22, 25, 80, 443, 445, 873, 3306, 6881-6999, 8080, 9000, 13131, 55536-56559
• UDP: 6881-6999

Those are the steps to take in order to forward ports in your router for a QNAP TS-420U device.

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