Questions about public IP and port forwarding

[Gabbo]

I don't know much about networking so probably these a very dumb questions. However I have some issues with a game since, after I activated the firewall on my router (that for some reason was off by default) can't connect to online servers. I tried to open the port of that service with port forwarding but did't worked. I read on some forums that it's because you need a public IP or it would not work. However I also read that public IPs are more vulnerables to attack since evryone from the outside can connect. So my questions are
1: should I just deactivate the firewall on the router (since it is the default setting)?
2: are public IP more risky?
3: is it true that I need a public IP to port forward?
4: what is upnp and can it be useful in this situation (i saw the setting in the router and seemed related)

 

[Solaris17]

2: are public IP more risky?
3: is it true that I need a public IP to port forward?

these two dont even make sense. idk who you asked but this is some yahoo answers steam community garbage if I ever saw it. We wont get into CGNAT because it wouldnt have worked with the firewall off if that was the issue.

4: what is upnp and can it be useful in this situation (i saw the setting in the router and seemed related)

yup! upnp assuming it works correctly on your router can help alleviate some of these problems. Any kind of port forwarding can be risky, but the world is a scary place when you look at the logs. People; you included and anyone answering this thread is under attack constantly by automated port scanning or targeted vulnerabilities.

1: should I just deactivate the firewall on the router (since it is the default setting)?

Ideally no. You should work the problem with it on and learn something in the process.

In this case I would check the following.

- Turn upnp on to see if it makes a difference. There may be a lag time so you may have to try a few times.

- Manually enable the port on your router, but also make sure it is allowed in your OS firewall.

- Double check the required ports for your game, dont rely on one source for the info. Check around and compare results.

- Last if you have a DMZ setting you may be able to configure it and set it to target your computer/computers IP only. This effectively stops rules from being applied to your machine while keeping the firewall working for the rest of the network. This isnt a fantastic idea, as obviously its effectively the same as having the firewall disabled.

Your router may have different features or different names for the things mentioned above. Look around at the settings read and get familiar with them, that should be enough to get you started.

 

[Gabbo]

these two dont even make sense. idk who you asked but this is some yahoo answers steam community garbage if I ever saw it.

Agree to the 3, but about the public ip needet to port forward seems kinda true. I think it is because my isp is weird but basically (this is what I understood so maybe I'm wrong) everything on my router still goes to "something" from the isp and that is what closes the port (and that is maybe why the firewall was off by default). A lot of people with my same router and isp complain that without public IP it did't work.

About the upnp I have no idea how it works tho. On my router there is just a "on/off" button and under it there is a "descrtipion, protocol, internal port, external port" table but it's empty, under that table there are the port mapping and firewall settings and that's where I set my rules. (obviously just turning it on did'n worked)
Lastly I have a dmz setting and that was the only thing that worked, but I would prefer a more concrete solution (still better than nothing tho)

 

[Solaris17]

Agree to the 3, but about the public ip needet to port forward seems kinda true. I think it is because my isp is weird but basically (this is what I understood so maybe I'm wrong) everything on my router still goes to "something" from the isp and that is what closes the port (and that is maybe why the firewall was off by default). A lot of people with my same router and isp complain that without public IP it did't work.

About the upnp I have no idea how it works tho. On my router there is just a "on/off" button and under it there is a "descrtipion, protocol, internal port, external port" table but it's empty, under that table there are the port mapping and firewall settings and that's where I set my rules. (obviously just turning it on did'n worked)
Lastly I have a dmz setting and that was the only thing that worked, but I would prefer a more concrete solution (still better than nothing tho)

Well you seem to understand everything so I’m not sure why you asked. Good luck!

this is why engineers don’t assist on tech and game forums.

 

[Gabbo]

Well you seem to understand everything so I’m not sure why you asked. Good luck!

yes and no, still the dmz is not really a solution and I'd like to avoid the public ip thing (not only for safety but because it seems that with my isp is a pain in the ass and very long procedure (it shoud be like two click from them but it is what it is))