Port forwarding or port mapping is a name given to the combined technique of
- translating the address and/or port number of a packet to a new destination
- possibly accepting such packet(s) in a packet filter (firewall)
- forwarding the packet according to the routing table.
The destination may be a predetermined network port (assuming protocols like TCP and UDP, though the process is not limited to these) on a host within a NAT-masqueraded, typically private network, based on the port number on which it was received at the gateway from the originating host.
The technique is used to permit communications by external hosts with services provided within a private local area network.
Read more about Port Forwarding: Purpose, Types of Port Forwarding
Famous quotes containing the words port and/or forwarding:
“It is by a mathematical point only that we are wise, as the sailor or the fugitive slave keeps the polestar in his eye; but that is sufficient guidance for all our life. We may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we would preserve the true course.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I was duped ... by the Secretary of the treasury [Alexander Hamilton], and made a fool for forwarding his schemes, not then sufficiently understood by me; and of all the errors of my political life, this has occasioned the deepest regret.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)