Every home and business network on the Internet is assigned a unique IP address. Finding and documenting your IP address is an important first step in troubleshooting network problems and accessing your router's control panel. The router control panel will provide access to your router's ports; which, in turn, allow you to enable or disable certain ports used by specific applications. Computers do not have specific ports; instead, they connect by default to all ports.
Step 1
Open the Run prompt by pressing "Windows-R."
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Step 2
Type "CMD" and press the "Enter" key to open the Command Prompt window.
Step 3
Type "IPCONFIG" and press the "Enter" key. This command will provide you with your network information, including your computer's IP address.
Step 4
Open a Web browser and type the IP address associated with the Default Gateway entry from the IPConfig results to open your router's control panel. You may need to enter your router's admin username and password to proceed.
Step 5
Locate the "Port Forwarding" menu to manually open or close specific ports. See the Resources section of this article for a list of common port ranges for popular applications.
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