Port Forwarding
What is Port Forwarding?
Port forwarding allows Eddy’s Servers to communicate with your device, which is behind your router. Before: Your router blocks all ports, so the server can’t communicate to your device.
![Before Port Forwarding](https://blog.tinyelectrons.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/port_forwarding_before.png)
![After Port Forwarding](https://blog.tinyelectrons.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/port_forwarding_after.png)
Is it Secure or Safe?
Port forwarding is not secure and can be considered a low to high risk technique. Port forwarding opens a port on your router so anyone can see that it’s open. It’s kind of like leaving your empty shed door unlocked. If you’re running a server then you should avoid port forwarding. The same can be said about having expensive tools in your shed, you should probably lock your shed if you have expensive tools.
![FIrewall Hole](https://blog.tinyelectrons.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/firewall_hole.png)
Is this difficult to setup?
It depends. If you know networking and have done this before then this will take you 5-10 minutes, otherwise it could take 15 minutes to 2 hours and be considered very difficult to setup. The same can be said for changing your car oil; the first attempt will always take a longer time.
Should I use Port Forwarding?
Port forwarding is free and requires no additional hardware but comes at a cost of being a potential security risk. I am personally not a risk taker and I have been using Port Forwarding for years. To this day, I haven’t seen a problem with using port forwarding. The risk is yours to take.
Is there an Alternative to Port Forwarding?
Yes, you can use Eddy Bridge, which uses a secure connection back to the server and avoids port forwarding.
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