What Is 'Port Forwarding'? How Do I Set My Own Port Forwards?

Port forwarding is the redirecting of computer signals to follow specific electronic paths into your computer. If the computer signal can find its way into your computer a few milliseconds quicker, it will add up to be dramatic speed increases for your game or your downloading.

65,536 paths to choose from: that pencil-thin network cable (or wireless network adapter) at the back of your computer contains 65,536 microscopic pathways inside it. Your network cable is the same as a major highway, except your network cable has 65,536 lanes, and there is a tollboth on each lane. We call each lane a 'port'.

Your Internet signal is comprised of millions of tiny little cars that travel on these 65,536 lanes. We call these little cars "transfer packets". Computer transfer packets can travel very quickly (up to thousands of kilometers per second), but they do observe a stop-and-go set of rules, where they are required to stop at each major network intersection as if it were a border crossing between countries. At each intersection, the packet must do three things:

1. Find an open port,
2. Pass the identification test that will allow it through that port, and if not,
3. Move to the next port and try again, until it is allowed to pass through the toll.

In some cases, packets sent by hackers will be caught and held at the intersection, where they will then be dissolved into random electrons. When this happens, it is called "packet filtering" or "packet sniping".