How to Forward Ports in Your Router for TrueNAS

You might need to forward some ports in your router when you use a TrueNAS device. By forwarding ports you allow connection requests coming from the internet to be directed to a TrueNAS 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 IP address of your router.
• Your NAS's internal IP address.
• The list 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.

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.

If you do not want to run the software, you can follow our Find Your Router IP Address guide.

A smart way to forward your ports is to use Network Utilities. Our Network Utilities software allows you to add port forwards and also remove them when you no longer need them to maximize your network security.

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

• You can start by logging in to your router.
• Look for the port forwarding section in your router.
• Put the IP address of your NAS in the proper box in your router.
• Enter the TCP and UDP ports that you need to forward for a TrueNAS device in the corresponding boxes in your router.

Frequently you have 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 TrueNAS device:

List of Routers - Customized for TrueNAS

The incoming ports that need to be forwarded for a TrueNAS device are:

TrueNAS - Default

• TCP: 20-22, 80, 443, 837
• UDP:

Those are the steps for forwarding ports in your router for a TrueNAS device.

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