What Is VPN Port Forwarding?

Port forwarding is a rare and often misunderstood feature of some top VPN services. It requires a static IP address and can come with some security risks, so only a few VPNs allow it on their network.

In fact, very few VPN providers allow port forwarding on their network. Even fewer offer good customization options and the option to forward multiple ports.

Even if you’ve found a VPN that offers port forwarding, you might not know exactly what it’s for or how to use it.

In this article, we’ll explain what VPN port forwarding is, how to set it up on popular devices, and how to use it safely. We’ll also share a list of the best VPNs that allow port forwarding.

Every local area network (LAN) router has a firewall that controls traffic coming in and out of the network, protecting your home devices from security threats like hackers and malicious websites.

This is called a NAT (Network Address Translation) firewall. It’s the feature that allows every device on your local network to share the same external IP address. NAT firewalls come in three types: Open, Moderate, and Strict. These NAT types dictate the accessibility of your local network to external connections.

A strict NAT type has security benefits, but it can also make it harder for external devices to communicate with specific devices on your network, especially on peer-to-peer connections. This can affect your ability to seed torrents and participate in multiplayer games, amongst other things.

This problem is solved by opening router ports. These ports route external traffic to individual devices on your local network, and vice versa.

Port forwarding refers to the process manually opening and assigning a port to certain kinds of network traffic. It allows computers outside of your local network to access specific devices within your local area network (LAN).

Port forwarding allows you to get around the limits imposed by the NAT firewall, improving the speed of some applications and making other services possible, including remote desktop access.

There are other ways to bypass or change your NAT type, but port forwarding is the most popular. For example, it is also possible to use a piece of software called UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) to weaken your NAT type, or to use a Windows 10 Hotspot, which creates a moderate NAT type.

What Is A Port In Networking?

You can think of ports as the routes in and out of your local network through your router. Most routers can have up to 65,000 ports, but only around 1,000 are regularly used. Generally, ports are assigned to specific types of activity. For instance, websites use ports 80 and 443, and email uses port 25.

Only the ports your router uses are kept open, meaning traffic directed to the wrong port will be automatically blocked by the router’s firewall. By default, all of your router’s ports should be closed.

Port numbers for commonly used services are assigned by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Here’s a list of some common NAT ports and their uses:

Port Number	Service
20	FTP (File Transfer Protocol) data transfer
21	FTP (File Transfer Protocol) control
22	SSH (Secure Shell encryption)
25	Email
53	DNS (Domain Name System)
80	HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol i.e. web pages on the internet)
110	POP3 (Post Office Protocol) – Used to retrieve email
193	Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
443	HTTPS (Encrypted web pages)
5060	SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) – used in VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) devices

Local, Remote, and Dynamic Port Forwarding

There are several types of port forwarding in computer networking. Which one you use will depend on whether you have access to the external device, and what exactly you’re trying to achieve.

VPN port forwarding usually involves either remote port forwarding or dynamic port forwarding.

When you connect to a VPN service, the VPN server acts like a router for your computer. Just like a router, it channels your traffic through ports.

However, unlike a home router, most VPN services do not give you the ability to forward traffic to specific ports. Unless you choose a VPN with this particular functionality, the port will usually be chosen automatically.

The reasons for port forwarding while connected to a VPN are very similar to those without a VPN:

Multiplayer Gaming

Gaming is one of the most popular uses for port forwarding, especially for users who use a VPN for gaming. That’s because port forwarding allows you to bypass the firewall on your VPN or local network.

If your VPN has a strict NAT type by default, it may prevent incoming P2P connections from functioning properly. Because dynamic VPN IP addresses change, they can also make it impossible to host a game server.

If you have a strict firewall, you won’t be able to host a game server, and you may experience extra lag or ping. In some cases, peer-to-peer (P2P) hosted online games may simply not work at all.

Port forwarding on a static IP address can fix these problems bypassing your router or VPN firewall. Specific games may require specific ports, so you should consult online forums and guides before beginning.

You can port forward on most games consoles and devices, including Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Torrenting & Other P2P Activities

By default, VPN services reject incoming connections to your torrenting client or P2P application. This can slow down file sharing and make it difficult or impossible to seed torrents.

Port forwarding allows your torrenting client to receive the necessary data packets to connect directly to other users’ torrenting clients and seed the torrent. As a result, port forwarding can have a significant impact on your torrenting performance.

This doesn’t only apply to torrenting, but also to P2P connections in video games. For this reason, many of the best torrenting VPNs offer some kind of port forwarding feature.

Remote Desktop Access

VPN services can sometimes interrupt remote desktop access. Port forwarding allows you to establish a direct connection between your local device and the remote device you want to access, without being interrupted by your VPN’s firewall.

You should only do this if you completely trust the remote device, as a malicious actor could use it to gain direct access to your computer.

Hosting a Website

If you want to host a website from a device while connected to a VPN, you will need a port forward to direct traffic from the internet to a specified port in your local client, which is running the web server software.

Without a port forward, it won’t be possible for users outside of your local network to access the website. You’ll also need to configure a public domain name to point at your VPN IP address.

In this section, we’ll explain exactly how to set up port forwarding on your home router or VPN service.

How to Set Up Port Forwarding on a Home Router

How you set up a port forward will vary slightly by router model. The following instructions apply to most modern routers.

In the video below, you’ll see how we set up a port forward on a Virgin Media router:

How to Set Up Port Forwarding on a VPN

The port forwarding process varies far more between VPN services than it does between routers.

If your VPN has all ports open by default, allows you to open all ports, or uses dynamic port forwarding, then you won’t need to configure anything else. You’ll be able to find this information on your VPN service’s website.

Here’s a video demonstrating how to set up port forwarding with Private Internet Access.

Your NAT Firewall helps to keep your device safe from the wider internet. It determines which devices are able to access your local network and communicate with your device. Port forwarding is designed to bypass this firewall, which means it stops working as intended.

For this reason, port forwarding with or without a VPN can cause some serious security vulnerabilities. If it’s not used with caution, It can be exploited by hackers and malicious third parties to steal your data or even hijack your device.

Port forwarding can also cause IP leaks when torrenting. It is important that you check for data leaks before connecting to any publicly visible torrents, as this is both a privacy and security risk.

How to Port Forward Safely

If you are careful not to open more ports than necessary and you follow the safety tips below, it is very unlikely that you will be subject to an attack.

Because of the security vulnerabilities associated with port forwarding, most VPNs do not allow it on their network. In fact, out of the 62 VPNs we have reviewed, only 13 VPNs offer port forwarding.

Many popular services – including NordVPN and ExpressVPN – block access to all ports except those that are absolutely necessary for the VPN to function.

For a VPN to support the secure forwarding of multiple ports, it needs to have both static IP addresses and the capacity for constant technical attention. As a result, only smaller and more technically-oriented VPNs tend to have it as an option. Even then, it is often limited in functionality.

All of these VPNs only offer port forwarding on premium subscriptions, and in some cases they even require an additional fee. This means there are no free VPNs that support port forwarding.

What Are the Best VPNs for Port Forwarding?

The best VPNs for port forwarding allow users to set multiple port forward rules simultaneously. You should have a degree of choice over which port numbers to use, and on which servers.

As always, VPNs for port forwarding also need to be secure services with strong encryption, zero-logs privacy policies, and fast speeds.

Based on our latest tests, these are the top three VPNs for port forwarding in 2024:

1. AirVPN: Best for Customization Options

AirVPN is the best VPN for port forwarding. It offers up to 10 remote port forwards on all of its servers, via WireGuard or OpenVPN connections. Our review of AirVPN also measured very fast upload and download speeds for torrenting.

Unlike other VPN services, AirVPN allows users to request any port over 2048. It is also possible to remotely map forwarded ports to a different local port below this range.

In addition to the 10 permanent port forward rules offered by AirVPN, it also offers a dynamic port forwarding option. You can configure your port forwards from the client area of the AirVPN website.

AirVPN is intended for experienced or advanced VPN users, which means it can feel difficult to use for beginners. You’ll need some technical knowledge to make use of its port forwarding feature, but the VPN’s support forums are helpful and well-maintained if you come across any problems.

2. Private Internet Access: Best Overall VPN with Port Forwarding

Private Internet Access is the highest-rated VPN that also offers a port forwarding feature. It balances effective port forwarding options with a user friendly interface, torrenting support, and good overall performance. Our latest tests also show that PIA is a good VPN for torrenting overall.

PIA’s port forwarding feature allows for a single dynamic port forward at any time. The port is selected automatically, so it may not work for all applications. However, it will enable you to bypass your NAT firewall.

PIA doesn’t offer the same number of port forwarding options as AirVPN or Hide.me, and it won’t allow for the same number of forwarded ports simultaneously. However, our PIA review found that it outperforms both these VPNs in other areas, including overall security, speed, and streaming.

If you need a VPN for other areas as well as port forwarding, PIA is the best option.

3. PrivateVPN: Best for Ease of Use

PrivateVPN is another top-rated VPN service with a port forwarding feature. Once you connect to a VPN server, PrivateVPN automatically assigns you a specific port. This doesn’t require any prior setup or further configuration, making PrivateVPN an ideal choice for VPN beginners.

It’s possible to forward ports on all 200 of PrivateVPN’s servers, regardless of location. However, it can only be done on OpenVPN connections as PrivateVPN doesn’t support WireGuard.

Another drawback is that PrivateVPN only offers one remote port forward at a time, which changes every reconnection.

The service does at least provide a dynamic port forwarding feature. This can easily be activated by selecting a dedicated IP from the server list.

In our PrivateVPN review, we found that these servers are owned and controlled by PrivateVPN. This is a welcome layer of privacy and security, especially for torrenting.