Simple TP-Link TD-W8980 Router Port Forwarding Steps

The TP-Link TD-W8980 has a very basic firewall that helps protect your home network from unwanted Internet activity. The firewall does this by blocking incoming and outgoing connections that have not been authorized. Some online games and programs run much smoother if you allow additional connections through the firewall. This is called a port forward.

In this guide we will show you how to port forward on the TP-Link TD-W8980 router. The steps we will show you how to do are:

How to setup a static IP address on the device you plan on forwarding these ports to.
How to login to the TP-Link TD-W8980 router interface.
How to find the port forwarding page in the router's web interface.
How to setup a port forward for the online game or program of your choice.

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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.

Recommended - Our free Static IP Setter will set up a static IP address for you.
Another way to get a permanent IP address is to set up a DHCP reservation.
Or, manually create a static ip address with our Static IP Guides.

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.

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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TIP: Write this static IP address down. You need it in Step 4.

Step 2

Now we are going to login to your TP-Link TD-W8980 router. Your router has a web interface, so you will login to it using your web browser. This can be either Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Edge. It usually does not matter which browser you choose to use.

Open up your web browser and find the address bar. It should look something 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 TP-Link TD-W8980 IP Address is: 192.168.1.1

If all goes well you will see the following screen:

You should see a box prompting you for your username and password. If you do not see a login screen you need to find out if the router's IP address has been changed. To do this follow the directions on our How To Find Your Router's IP Address page. Remember you are going to be checking your router's internal IP address.

The Default TP-Link TD-W8980 Router Username is: admin
The Default TP-Link TD-W8980 Router Password is: password

Enter your username and password, and then click the OK button to log in to your TP-Link TD-W8980 router.

TP-Link Usernames and Passwords

If your username and password do not work then please visit our Default TP-Link Router Passwords page.

You can also try and guess what the router login username and password have been changed to. To help you with this step we have a Find Password App.

If you still can't login to your router because you forgot your TP-Link TD-W8980 router username and password, use our How to Reset a Router Password guide to set your TP-Link TD-W8980 router back to its factory settings.

Step 3

Now we need to find the port forwarding section in your router. Here's how you do it. Starting from the Device Info page in your router:

We first click the Advanced Setup link in the left sidebar.

A new menu appears at this point. Select the option of NAT.

Finally, click Virtual Servers from the new menu below that.

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:

Browsing our List of Games

Check out our our List of Games by Genre

See our List of all Applications

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Pick the Custom Server radio button choice.

Enter the name of the program into the Custom Server box. It doesn't really matter what you put into this box, but something that will remind you why these ports are being forwarded is be a good idea.

Enter the IP address that you are forwarding ports to in the Server IP Address box. This is either the IP address of a computer or the IP address of another device on your network.

If you are forwarding a single port, enter that port number into the External Port Start, External Port End, Internal Port Start and Internal Port End boxes. If you are forwarding a range of ports, enter the lowest number of the range into the External Port Start and Internal Port Start boxes. Then enter the highest number of the range into the External Port End and Internal Port End boxes.

Select the protocol type of the ports you are forwarding from the Protocol box.

When you're finished, click the Save/Apply button at the top of the page.

Test if Your Ports are Open

Now that you have forwarded ports on the TP-Link TD-W8980 you should test to see if your ports are forwarded correctly.

To test if your port has been properly forwarded, you can use our Network Utilities tool, which includes a free Open Port Checker. Our Open Port Check tool is the only online port checking tool with Guaranteed Results.