Open Ports on Your Router for QNAP TS-421U

When you use a QNAP TS-421U device you may need to forward ports in your router. By forwarding ports you allow connection requests coming from the internet to be directed to a QNAP TS-421U device.

By default routers do not allow incoming network requests. By forwarding a port you can overcome this limitation.

Make sure that you know these things before forwarding a port:

• The internal IP address of your router.
• The internal IP address of your NAS.
• 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.

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

Otherwise, you can follow our guide Find Your Router IP Address.

A smart way to forward your ports is to use Network Utilities. 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.

You can also choose to set up port forwards manually. The normal process for forwarding a port is:

• Log in to your router.
• Look for the port forwarding section in your router.
• Type your NAS's IP address into the correct box in your router.
• Put the TCP and UDP ports for a QNAP TS-421U device in the corresponding boxes in your router.

You probably will need to reboot your router for the changes to take effect.

You can choose your router from our list to see exactly how to forward ports for a QNAP TS-421U device:

List of Routers - Customized for QNAP TS-421U

The ports that need to be forwarded for a QNAP TS-421U device are listed here:

QNAP TS-421U - PC

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

That's all it takes to forward your ports for a QNAP TS-421U device.

Don't forget to sign up for NordVPN's promo deal before it's gone.