Port Forwarding
Configuring a router to direct incoming internet traffic on a specific port to a device on the local network.
Port forwarding is a router configuration that redirects incoming internet traffic from a specific port to a specific device on your local network. Since NAT hides all your internal devices behind one public IP, the router needs to know which device should receive connections. For example, if you run a Minecraft server on your PC, you would forward port 25565 to your PC's local IP so players on the internet can connect. Without port forwarding, incoming connections stop at the router.