# Port Forwarding necessary?



## Kevin872 (Aug 25, 2007)

Back when this Whole Home / MRV things started in beta quite a while ago, I set up my router to forward the two ports chosen in the network setup for each STB as was suggested back then. Maybe I've missed it, but it seems like nobody really talks about this anymore when offering advice on setting up whole home (that and when the installers hook up the DECA to the router, nobody mentions them having to forward ports).

Since I would think that things like VOD and widgets are 'initiated' from the STB (and therefore initiated from my LAN / public IP), I don't know that port forwarding is even necessary as the returning packets were 'requested' and therefore shouldn't be blocked or need specific routing instructions (forwarding). Unless maybe I'm wrong on why things like that are necessary.

While there isn't really much harm in leaving them forwarded in the router, I suppose it could be a minor security risk. Does anyone know if port forwarding is even really necessary for VOD & widgets to work? Just curious.


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## kmcnamara (Jan 30, 2004)

My boxes automatically forward the necessary ports via UPnP.


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## Barry in Conyers (Jan 14, 2008)

I am using a WRT54G with DHCP, no ports forwarded and no UPnP. With my setup, it is necessary to enable LT2P in order for TVApps to initialize.

MRV, TVApps and D*oD all work with no problems (well, TVApps is slow, but that is not a customer setup problem).

Just my experience, YMMV.


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## HCN3 (Feb 16, 2008)

The key that I have found is that TVApps does NOT like two NAT hops to the Internet. I have tried all different port forwarding options to fix it but it does not seem to work for me. As soon as I put the MRV Internet Connection Kit on my Vonage router outside of my firewall router then TVApps started working on ONE of my 2 receivers (HR23 works, HR20 does not). Unfortunately by doing that I have lost my ability to use MediaShare and Directv2PC. I may rearrange the routers at some point to make sure there is only a single NAT hop to the Internet from the receivers but I want to preserve the Vonage priority so I am limited in my options.


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## Kevin872 (Aug 25, 2007)

I don't really use widgets (TV Apps) much at all, although I suppose at some point I might. Maybe I'll just disable the port forwards temporarily and see what works and what doesn't.

I'm waiting on one last DECA adapter at which time I will be converting over from wired ethernet to DECA for my DirecTV. I plan to hook into my router, so I will leave the static IPs on the STBs as they are. I'll do some testing with the port forwards after I got it all converted (or maybe before, who knows).


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## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

To my knowledge, Port forwarding is only needed for network services and network services is not needed for anything. So, you shouldn't need to do any port forwarding.


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## Kevin872 (Aug 25, 2007)

Doug Brott said:


> To my knowledge, Port forwarding is only needed for network services and network services is not needed for anything. So, you shouldn't need to do any port forwarding.


Well that seems to pretty much answer my question then. But now I have to ask..... if port forwarding is for network services and network services is not needed for anything, then a) what are "network services" and b) why is it even mentioned in the STB's menus?


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## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

Future use?


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## MalcolmG (Jul 25, 2007)

Port forwarding is used by Qwest to enable "My Qwest" caller ID and voicemail application. It allows caller ID view, voicemail listen, and call back from displayed number or voicemail. Normally Qwest sets the port forwarding automatically by communicating with your DSL modem, but my modem was too old to have that capability, so I had to set the forwarding manually. Only worked about 5% of the time on my setup, so I shut it off and went back to standard caller ID.


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## lwilli201 (Dec 22, 2006)

From the beginning I have not been able to connect my DVR's to my network with Auto setting. I have always had to set up port forwarding. To be honest I do not have a clue why. I use Centurytel DSL.


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## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

MalcolmG said:


> Port forwarding is used by Qwest to enable "My Qwest" caller ID and voicemail application. It allows caller ID view, voicemail listen, and call back from displayed number or voicemail. Normally Qwest sets the port forwarding automatically by communicating with your DSL modem, but my modem was too old to have that capability, so I had to set the forwarding manually. Only worked about 5% of the time on my setup, so I shut it off and went back to standard caller ID.


Ah .. Thanks. Yes, this is something that would require network services. I didn't even realize it was in use at all, but I know there is some special service through Qwest for additional features.

So I guess network services isn't totally unnecessary. Most people won't need it, though.


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