Port Forwarding - Microsoft MN-500 User Manual

Note
If you set the Broadband
Networking Wireless Base
Station to bridging mode, the
port forwarding settings in
the Base Station Management
Tool will be unavailable.
Note
Port forwarding involves the
configuration of data ports.
Do not confuse the data
ports, which are logical
programmatic elements, with
physical ports, such as the
Ethernet port on your base
station.
When you change the base station to bridging mode, you disable
network address translation (NAT), which is an important feature of
your network. When NAT is enabled, you can use the single IP
address supplied by your ISP to connect multiple computers to the
Internet. Ordinarily, if you wanted to connect multiple computers,
you would need to arrange additional addresses (for example, by
purchasing additional accounts). NAT enables multiple clients to
share a single connection to the Internet.
If you choose to use the base station as a bridge between two
networks or segments of a network, make sure that another device
on your network (such as a base station, gateway, or router) is
providing NAT service. If you do not have a NAT service on your
network, you should lease an IP address for each computer on your
network. Be aware that each of these IP addresses will be exposed
to the Internet.
To change the base station network mode
1. Open the Base Station Management Tool, and then click
Security.
2. On the Security menu, click Network Mode.
3. Select the Bridging Mode check box.
4. To save your changes, click Apply.

Port Forwarding

You can configure the ports on your base station to establish
virtual servers or run applications with special network
requirements on your network. This is called port forwarding. To
understand how port forwarding works, you must first understand
ports and their role in data transmission.
About Ports
Information passes from the Internet to computers on your network
across ports. In any network communication, there is an outbound
(destination) port and an inbound (source) port. These ports are
used in conjunction with the source and destination IP addresses
to establish a connection between two networked computers.
There are many different types of data transmitted across a
network, and certain types of data must pass out of certain ports.
The data type is recognized by the protocol, or rules, that it follows.
For example, the e-mail messages that you send may follow one
type of protocol, whereas the games that you play may follow
another protocol. Typically, the data protocol determines the ports
to which the data is passed.
The Broadband Networking Wireless Base Station opens the ports
for certain applications automatically when a client on your local
network transmits data to the WAN.
Chapter 6: Configure 65