Port Forwarding Tester

Martin Brinkmann
Nov 3, 2007
Updated • Sep 20, 2019
File Sharing, Network, Security
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You might have encountered the term Port Forwarding before. Maybe when you were configuring BitTorrent clients such as qBittorrent, trying to get multiplayer games to run properly, or when you  encountered other connection issues.

If you post a support question on a forum, it is often suggested to check port forwarding to make sure that this is set up properly; but what the heck is it?

Port Forwarding can be described as a way to tell your router to send specific traffic to a specific computer inside the network. For BitTorrent, it would mean that the bittorrent ports that are used on the device the client is running on are forwarded to that device and not blocked or to another device on the network.

Bittorrent is however not the only possible application. You could forward requests for port 21 to a home ftp server or requests for port 80 to a web server. Multiplayer and online games, especially older ones, may also require port forwarding to work correctly.

Port Forwarding Tester

port forwarding tester

Port Forwarding Tester is a simple online application that tests if port forwarding is set up correctly. All you need to do is load the service's webpage and a port number that you want to test. The external IP address is filled out automatically but you may change it if it is not correct. It may also be useful when you are about to test the port forwarding of a different computer.

The application returns either that the port is blocked or open. Open means port forwarding is set up correctly while blocked means that it is not set up properly.

Closing Words

The Port Forwarding Tester lets you test any port on the Internet site. Just enter a port you are interested in and click on the check button afterwards to start the test. The IP should get filled out automatically so you normally do not have to worry about it. If you think it is not correct, check your IP here.

If the port is not forwarded check out the Port Forwarding Configurations page to find out how you can configure your router or PC to do just that.

The application is useful in determining whether port forwarding is set up correctly. It takes just a couple of seconds to run a test. One thing that I wish it would allow you to do is test multiple ports in a single operation. While you can run a common ports test, there is no option to enter a port range or multiple ports.

Summary
Port Forwarding Tester
Article Name
Port Forwarding Tester
Description
Find out how to quickly test if ports are properly forwarded to devices in a computer network using a straightforward online application.
Author
Publisher
Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Taomyn said on September 4, 2013 at 9:46 am
    Reply

    And for those looking for a decent alternative that’s free and free from ads plus other crap (though I would recommend donating), then try qBittorrent: http://www.qbittorrent.org/

  2. zondron said on September 4, 2013 at 10:10 am
    Reply

    Why not use the portable version of uTorrent?

    Just downlad the .exe from official website into a folder, create a text file in the same folder, rename the .txt file to settings.dat and start uTorrent. You can move the folder anywhere.

    1. Coyote said on September 4, 2013 at 3:03 pm
      Reply

      ^Exactly…. in fact I would recommend avoiding all versions over 2.0, the torrent portion of the program hardly changed, it’s all the ads, ratings, and possible tracking features that require all the additional installs.

      And this is why I never updated in a nutshell;

      “Ads
      More Ads (hit decline offer)
      Even more ads (hit decline)”

      Nope. I donated $25 several years ago to the utorrent crew.. possibly a decade… so I refuse to accept their reasoning for selling out so much.

      1. zondonr said on September 4, 2013 at 4:16 pm
        Reply

        You can turn off the ads.

  3. Paul said on September 4, 2013 at 3:18 pm
    Reply

    qBittorrent FTW!

  4. anon said on September 4, 2013 at 3:42 pm
    Reply

    Qbittorrent your way out of this piece of crap.

  5. Dukislav said on September 4, 2013 at 5:45 pm
    Reply

    +1 for Qbittorrent

  6. Blue.bsod said on September 4, 2013 at 6:25 pm
    Reply

    I’m a long long time user of Bitcomet now and forever. Never any ads, no offers, nothing to decline, no sell out… little used due to the complex nature they still scare people away with, but their new install is a simple one click solution that discovers all settings on its own except firewalls.

    They follow a simple idea…’share’… if you share you can possibly go faster than those who don’t share. You can even see connections* connected to you and of them who is sharing and who isn’t… then you can boot them / ban them or ignore them selectively ‘mwahahaha…’. We can set how much we share, with who, and how fast we share.

    *in my personal experience over 95% of Azures and uTorrent users do not share, I boot them.

    So those who believe Bitcomet is hard to understand, they haven’t been that since version 1.09a (current public release 1.35). Also Bitcomet installs a Firefox add-on to capture media from the temp directory. You can easily unload it using Firefox’s Add-on Options page.

    Bottomline, Bitcomet is faster and easier to install/use. Signing up as a registered user will allow you to join the ranks as a sharing user. The more you share, the faster you can possibly go.

  7. suc said on July 19, 2014 at 7:21 pm
    Reply

    utorrent installs itself in appdata folder so it can inject malware without the UAC consent. Don’t use utorrent because it’s unsafe!

  8. uTP said on December 8, 2015 at 10:47 am
    Reply

    The best last version of utorrent is 2.2.1 build 25534

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