Owner's Manual

Chapter 14 NAT
NBG6716 User’s Guide
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14.5.3 Trigger Port Forwarding
Some services use a dedicated range of ports on the client side and a dedicated range of ports on
the server side. With regular port forwarding you set a forwarding port in NAT to forward a service
(coming in from the server on the WAN) to the IP address of a computer on the client side (LAN).
The problem is that port forwarding only forwards a service to a single LAN IP address. In order to
use the same service on a different LAN computer, you have to manually replace the LAN
computer's IP address in the forwarding port with another LAN computer's IP address.
Trigger port forwarding solves this problem by allowing computers on the LAN to dynamically take
turns using the service. The NBG6716 records the IP address of a LAN computer that sends traffic
to the WAN to request a service with a specific port number and protocol (a "trigger" port). When
the NBG6716's WAN port receives a response with a specific port number and protocol ("incoming"
port), the NBG6716 forwards the traffic to the LAN IP address of the computer that sent the
request. After that computer’s connection for that service closes, another computer on the LAN can
use the service in the same manner. This way you do not need to configure a new IP address each
time you want a different LAN computer to use the application.
14.5.4 Trigger Port Forwarding Example
The following is an example of trigger port forwarding.
Figure 84 Trigger Port Forwarding Process: Example
1 Jane requests a file from the Real Audio server (port 7070).
2 Port 7070 is a “trigger” port and causes the NBG6716 to record Jane’s computer IP address. The
NBG6716 associates Jane's computer IP address with the "incoming" port range of 6970-7170.
3 The Real Audio server responds using a port number ranging between 6970-7170.
4 The NBG6716 forwards the traffic to Jane’s computer IP address.
5 Only Jane can connect to the Real Audio server until the connection is closed or times out. The
NBG6716 times out in three minutes with UDP (User Datagram Protocol), or two hours with TCP/IP
(Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).
Jane’s computer
Real Audio Server
Port 7070