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Port Forwarding Limits

Hello everyone, I am new to the forum and  I'm hoping to find some help with an issue. My router is limiting me to 20 ports forwarded , I'd like to upgrade my router but I can't find information on the new routers about how many ports I can forward through them. I'm looking to find a router that lets me have up to 40 ports, and the max that I would like to spend is $300. If anyone can provide any addition information or links it would be greatly appreciated. The current router I am using is a netgear ac1900.

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All ASUS RT-[whatever] routers can do 128 ports with RMerlin custom firmware. It might also be worth considering flashing custom firmware on your router, or at least trying that before going out to buy a new one.

 

Also if you're able to change ports being used and are forwarding multiple ports to the same device you can often move ports to be sequential to reduce the number of port forwarding rules required.

 

e.g. You're currently listening to ports 11111, 22222, and 33333, instead you can change those ports to 11111, 11112, and 11113 and use a single rule instead of three if they're all going to the same machine.

Edited by BobVonBob
Needs RMerlin

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

 

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1 minute ago, BlueScope819 said:

That just seems like an arbitrary software lock. Pretty much any router that isn't a cheap piece of trash will do.

Far from it. Since port mapping needs to save actual information it takes up memory and since routers don't have any storage space (aside from the ROM holding the firmware) the ports are stored in NVRAM along with all the other settings. The limit is imposed because the router has a VERY limited capacity to save data.

 

And actually, its pretty common across pretty much all routers, apparently some higher end routers can store 30 but theres very little beyond that.

 

10 minutes ago, Jpswim said:

Hello everyone, I am new to the forum and  I'm hoping to find some help with an issue. My router is limiting me to 20 ports forwarded , I'd like to upgrade my router but I can't find information on the new routers about how many ports I can forward through them. I'm looking to find a router that lets me have up to 40 ports, and the max that I would like to spend is $300. If anyone can provide any addition information or links it would be greatly appreciated. The current router I am using is a netgear ac1900.

Your only option is to build a custom PFSense router out of old PC hardware.

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3 minutes ago, BobVonBob said:

All ASUS RT-[whatever] routers can do 128 ports. It might also be worth considering flashing custom firmware on your router, or at least trying that before going out to buy a new one.

 

Also if you're able to change ports being used and are forwarding multiple ports to the same device you can often move ports to be sequential to reduce the number of port forwarding rules required.

 

e.g. You're currently listening to ports 11111, 22222, and 33333, instead you can change those ports to 11111, 11112, and 11113 and use a single rule instead of three if they're all going to the same machine.

Not true, Asus routers have a limit of 30 although there's a custom firmware that apparently does allow 128 called RMerlin but it doesn't work with all routers.

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1 minute ago, Master Disaster said:

Not true, Asus routers have a limit of 30 although there's a custom firmware that apparently does allow 128 called RMerlin but it doesn't work with all routers.

Ah yeah. Stock is 32, RMerlin is 128. My bad.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

 

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Intel Core i7-11700K | Noctua NH-D15S chromax.black | ASUS ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi  | 32 GB G.SKILL TridentZ 3200 MHz | ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 3080 | 1TB Samsung 980 Pro M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD | 2TB WD Blue M.2 SATA SSD | Seasonic Focus GX-850 Fractal Design Meshify C Windows 10 Pro

 

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HP Omen 15 | AMD Ryzen 7 5800H | 16 GB 3200 MHz | Nvidia RTX 3060 | 1 TB WD Black PCIe 3.0 SSD | 512 GB Micron PCIe 3.0 SSD | Windows 11

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Just now, BobVonBob said:

Ah yeah. Stock is 32, RMerlin is 128. My bad.

No worries, TIL that 128 ports is possible thanks to you :)

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1 hour ago, Master Disaster said:

Far from it. Since port mapping needs to save actual information it takes up memory and since routers don't have any storage space (aside from the ROM holding the firmware) the ports are stored in NVRAM along with all the other settings. The limit is imposed because the router has a VERY limited capacity to save data.

Storing the configuration for even hundreds of port-forwards actually only takes some kilobytes, if the data is stored in a text-format configuration-file and even less if it's stored in a binary-format. It's not that difficult to make space for it, even on a 4MB Flash. I'm not aware of e.g. OpenWRT imposing a limit on port-forwards, even on a 4MB - device. (Besides which, saying that there's no storage-space is kind of misleading; the "NVRAM" is just a partition on the Flash-storage, just like the firmware is stored on the same Flash but typically on a different partition. Plenty of routers these days 16MB or more Flash and support installing extra applications and plugins there.)

Hand, n. A singular instrument worn at the end of the human arm and commonly thrust into somebody’s pocket.

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So currently I am running the ports through my modem, if i get a router and connect it to my modem will the limit that the modem has prevent me from making new ports on the router?

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