You may need to forward ports in your router when you use Winston Privacy. By forwarding ports you allow connection requests coming from the internet to be directed to Winston Privacy.
By default routers do not allow incoming network requests. Forwarding ports can work around this limitation.
Remember to Do These Things Before You Forward a Port
Make sure that you know these things before forwarding a port:
- The IP address of your router.
- 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.
Find the IP Address of Your Router
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.
If you do not want to run the software, you can follow our Find Your Router IP Address guide.
How To Forward Ports for Winston Privacy
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:
- Start by logging in to your router.
- Locate the section in your router that deals with port forwarding.
- Put the IP address of your computer in the proper box in your router.
- Put the TCP and UDP ports for Winston Privacy 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 Winston Privacy:
List of Routers - Customized for Winston Privacy
Set Up a Port Forward for Winston Privacy
The incoming ports that need to be forwarded for Winston Privacy are:
Winston Privacy - Default
- TCP: 7776
- UDP: 7777
That is the process required to forward ports in your router for Winston Privacy.
Don't forget to sign up for NordVPN's promo deal before it's gone.
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