NETGEAR RangeMax™ NEXT Wireless Router WNR854T User Manual
Fine-Tuning Your Network 6-9
v1.1, January 2007
1. Assign your Web server either a fixed IP address or a dynamic IP address using DHCP
Address Reservation, as explained in “Using Address Reservation” on page 5-4. In this
example, your router will always give your Web server an IP address of 192.168.1.33.
2. Configure the Port Forwarding menu to forward the HTTP service to the local address of your
Web server at 192.168.1.33.
HTTP (port 80) is the standard protocol for Web servers.
3. (Optional) Register a host name with a Dynamic DNS Service and configure your router to use
the name as described in “Using a Dynamic DNS Service” on page5-5.
To access your Web server from the Internet, a remote user must know the IP address that has
been assigned by your ISP. However, if you use a Dynamic DNS Service, the remote user can
reach your server by a user-friendly Internet name, such as mynetgear.dyndns.org.
Configuring Port Triggering
Port Triggering is a dynamic extension of Port Forwarding that is useful when:
• More than one local computer needs port forwarding for the same application (but not
simultaneously) or
• An application needs to open incoming ports that are different from the outgoing port.
When Port Triggering is enabled, the router monitors outbound traffic looking for a specified
outbound “trigger” port. When the router detects outbound traffic on that port, it remembers the IP
address of the local computer that sent the data. The router then temporarily opens the specified
incoming port or ports, and forwards incoming traffic on the triggered ports to the triggering
computer.
While Port Forwarding creates a static mapping of a port number or range to a single local
computer, Port Triggering can dynamically open ports to any computer that needs them and can
close the ports when they are no longer needed.
To configure Port Triggering, you need to know which inbound ports the application needs. Also,
you need to know the outbound port number that will trigger the opening of the inbound ports.
This information can usually be determined by contacting the publisher of the application or from
user groups or newsgroups.
Note: If you use applications such as multi-player gaming, peer-to-peer connections, real-
time communications such as instant messaging, or remote assistance (a feature in
Windows XP), you should also enable Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) according
to the instructions in “Using Universal Plug and Play” on page6-12.