Forwarding Ports for Watchnet Netflow on Your Router.

You may need to forward ports in your router when you use a Watchnet Netflow DVR. A port forward allows incoming connection requests from the internet to go straight to a Watchnet Netflow DVR.

Routers are not designed to allow incoming network requests. By forwarding ports you can work around this limitation.

Before forwarding a port make sure that you know these things:

• Your router's internal IP address.
• The internal IP address of your DVR.
• 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. It is part of our Network Utilities suite of tools and is free for you to use it.

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

You can use our Network Utilities software to automatically forward ports for you. 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.

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

• Log in to your router.
• Look for the port forwarding section in your router.
• Put your DVR's IP address in the proper box in your router.
• It is now time to type the TCP and UDP ports that you are forwarding for a Watchnet Netflow DVR in the correct 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 a Watchnet Netflow DVR:

List of Routers - Customized for Watchnet Netflow

The following ports need to be forwarded for a Watchnet Netflow DVR:

Watchnet Netflow - PC

• TCP: 80, 5150-5160, 554
• UDP:

Those are the steps for forwarding ports in your router for a Watchnet Netflow DVR.

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