Does VPN allow port forwarding?

If you’re not already familiar with VPNs, then you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. A VPN allows you to create a secure, private connection to another network over the Internet. This can be useful if you’re trying to access resources on a network that’s different from your own, or if you want to keep your traffic and activity private from prying eyes.

One of the great things about VPNs is that they can allow you to forward ports from one network to another. This means that you can make any service on your LAN accessible to computers on a remote network, without having to open up any firewall ports or configure NAT settings. All you need is an IP address on the remote network and a port number, and you’re good to go!

Of course, there are some potential pitfalls with port forwarding through a VPN. One is that it can introduce security risks, since it effectively bypasses any firewalls or NAT settings that might be in place. Another is that it can be difficult to troubleshoot if something goes wrong. But overall, port forwarding is a very powerful tool that can make life much easier when working with different networks.

PIA is the best VPN to use for port forwarding. With almost 30,000 servers available in 78 countries, all of which support P2P sharing, PIA is user-friendly and enables the port forwarding feature with a simple check of the box in Network Preferences.


Worth knowing

Port forwarding is a technique often used by home users to enable access to services hosted on their local area network. By configuring port forwarding, a user can redirect incoming traffic from the Internet to a specific computer or service within their internal network. This can be useful for accessing resources that are not publicly exposed, such as file servers or gaming servers.

VPNs can also support port forwarding, although the specifics vary depending on the VPN protocol in use. For example, OpenVPN supports port forwarding via its server-bridge directive, while PPTP-based VPNs typically require manual configuration of port forwarding rules at the router level. Regardless of the approach taken, configuring port forwarding with a VPN generally involves opening up firewall ports at both the VPN server and client side in order to allow traffic to flow freely between them.

One common use case for port forwarding over a VPN is accessing remote services that are not accessible directly over the public Internet. For example, imagine you have a web server running on your home network that you want to make available to the world. Without port forwarding, anyone trying to access your server would be unable to reach it because all incoming traffic would be blocked by your router’s firewall. However, by configuring port forwarding and opening up TCP port 80 (the standard HTTP port), you can allow anyone to connect to your web server simply by entering its IP address into their browser.

Of course, this also opens up your home network to potential attacks as well since anyone with knowledge of your IP address can now attempt to force their way into your system through whatever open ports they find. As such, it’s important to take steps to secure any systems that will be accessible via port forwarding, such as setting strong passwords and keeping software up-to-date with security patches


Worth knowing

When it comes to which port is best for VPN, the answer is TCP port 443. This is the default protocol and port for Mobile VPN with SSL, and it is usually open on most networks.


Worth knowing

The Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol, more commonly known as PPTP, uses a combination of the TCP port 1723 and the IP protocol 47, also known as Generic Routing Encapsulation or GRE. This protocol provides a low-cost, private connection to a corporate network through the Internet.

Thank your for reading!