Creating a Port Forward in Your Router for Wake on LAN

You might need to forward some ports in your router when you use Wake on LAN. By forwarding ports you allow connection requests coming from the internet to be directed to Wake on LAN.

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:

• Your router's IP address.
• The IP address of your computer.
• 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.

You can run our free Router Detector software to locate your router's IP address. Our Router Detector tool is free to use and is part of our Network Utilities software.

You can also follow our Find Your Router IP Address article.

The easiest way to forward your ports is to use our Network Utilities software. 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.

Alternatively you can do it by hand. The step-by-step process for forwarding a port is:

• You can start by logging in to your router.
• Locate the section in your router that deals with port forwarding.
• Put your computer's IP address in the proper box in your router.
• Enter the TCP and UDP ports that you need to forward for Wake on LAN in the corresponding boxes in your router.

Some routers need to be rebooted in order for the changes to be saved.

You can choose your router from our list to see exactly how to forward ports for Wake on LAN:

List of Routers - Customized for Wake on LAN

The following ports need to be forwarded for Wake on LAN:

Wake on LAN - PC

• TCP:
• UDP: 7, 9

That's all it takes to forward your ports for Wake on LAN.

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