How to Open a Port on a D-Link Router

Your D-Link router keeps many ports closed for security purposes. If you need to allow access to a specific program on your computer, you can open or "forward" the port using the router administration utility. This process is useful if a game or other application is unable to communicate over your network.

Enter the default D-Link router IP address into your browser. This is usually "192.168.1.1" without quotation marks. Press "Enter."

Log in to the D-Link router utility. Enter "admin" as both the username and password, unless you have already changed the utility's login credentials.

Click the "Advanced" tab, located near the top of the page. Choose "PortFowarding" from the menu on the left to view the "Port Forwarding Rules."

Select the "Name" field. Type a descriptive name for the port you want to open, such as "Mail" or "Game."

Click the "TCP" field if you want to open a port that uses the TCP protocol, or the "UDP" field for a UDP port. Enter the specific port number that you want to open, such as "80." Use a hyphen if you want to open a range of port numbers, for example "2010-2100."

Choose a computer name from the drop down list marked "ComputerName." Click the button marked with two arrows to display the IP address of the selected computer. Enter the IP address for your computer manually if it is not on the list.

Click the "Add/Apply" button. The port information is added to the "Active Port Forwarding" rules. Press the "Reboot" button to refresh the router and open the ports on the router.