Simple Netgear R7000 Router Port Forwarding Steps

This is the port forwarding guide for the Netgear R7000. We also have port forwarding guides for the following related routers:

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Port Forward Staff
December 02, 2016 (Last Updated: ) | Reading Time: 5 minutes

In this guide we will be showing you how to properly port forward the Netgear R7000 router.

Did you know the Netgear R7000 router includes a basic firewall used to protect your home network from any unwanted access coming from the Internet? This firewall's job is to block connections, it does this well and unless you tell it to stop blocking a connection it will always deny the connection because it deems them unsafe. However not all of these blocked connections are unsafe. The process of telling the firewall a connection is considered safe and is allowed through is called opening a port or more frequently a port forward. Learn more about Firewalls here.

The basic steps involved in opening a port are:

  1. Creating a Static IP Address on whatever computer you want these ports forwarded to.
  2. Login to your Netgear R7000 router.
  3. Navigate to the port forwarding section.
    • Click the Advanced link.
    • Click the Advanced Setup link.
    • Click on Port Forwarding / Port Triggering.
    • Click the Port Forwarding radio button.
    • Click the Add Custom Service button.
  4. Create a port forward.

Keep going, don't give up. We will walk you through each step in the port forwarding process.

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Step 1

It is important to setup a static ip address in the device that you are forwarding a port to. This ensures that your ports will remain open even after your device reboots.

This step is important because you want a permanent IP address in your device. If you do not set up a permanent IP address in your device, then when you device reboots it may get a new IP address.

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Step 2

This step involves logging into the router interface to make the necessary changes. To do this you need to know that the router uses a web interface, meaning you need to login using a web browser. This browser can be any browser you want such as Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, or even Edge. It should not matter what browser you decide to use, simply pick your favorite.

Once you have opened the desired web browser, find the address bar. This address bar is normally found at the top of the page.

Image of a browser address bar
Browser address bar

Above is an example of what a web browser address bar looks like. Find the address bar in your router and type in your router's IP address.

The default Netgear R7000 IP Address is: 172.16.0.1

If everything went well, you should see the following screen:

Netgear R7000 Login
Netgear R7000 Login.

You are on the right page if you see a box asking for a username and password.

After you enter the username and password for the Netgear R7000 router you can click the OK button at the bottom of the page.

Username and Password Trouble?

There are a couple different reasons a username and password won't work when entered. Here are a few troubleshooting ideas to fix it:

  • One reason a username and password will not work is you have a slightly different firmware version with a different username and password. We recommend trying other common Netgear passwords. Find the list of them on our Default Netgear Router Passwords page.
  • Another common reason for a username and password not to work is that you changed it in the past and have forgotten. To solve this problem you could manually enter any password you think you may of changed it to or let us do it for you. We have a completely safe Find Password App. It automates the long process of trying all the different passwords you or the app can think of. It will also check the common defaults too.
  • Finally if nothing else works there is a definite way to fix the problem. Reset the router back to factory defaults. This is not recommended unless you have exhausted all other troubleshooting ideas you may have. Learn more in our How to Reset a Router guide.

Step 3

Now that you are logged into the Netgear R7000 router you need to find the port forwarding section. To do that follow us. We start on the first page:

Netgear R7000 Basic Home
Netgear R7000 Basic Home.

Click the Advanced tab at the top of the page.

Netgear R7000 Advanced Home
Netgear R7000 Advanced Home.

Next, click the Advanced Setup option in the left sidebar. It should be the bottom option.

Advanced Setup opens a new group of choices. In this new menu pick Port Forwarding/Port Triggering.

Netgear R7000 Port Forwarding and Port Triggering
Netgear R7000 Port Forwarding and Port Triggering.

Now, fill in the Port Forwarding radio button in the center section of the page.

Select the purple Add Custom Service button, also located in the center section of the page.

Step 4

Here are the ports to forward for Xbox Live:

  • TCP Ports: 3074
  • UDP Ports: 3074

If you are looking for the ports for a different application you can find it by either:

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Enter the name of the program into the Service Name box. It doesn't really matter what you put into this box, but something that will remind you why these ports are being forwarded is be a good idea.

Use the Service Type dropdown box to select the protocol type of the ports you are forwarding.

If you are only forwarding a single port number then enter that number into both the External Starting Port and the External Ending Port boxes. If you are forwarding a range of ports separated by a hyphen then enter the lowest number of that range into the External Starting Port box and the highest number of that range into the External Ending Port box.

In the Use the same port range for Internal port checkbox put a checkmark.

You need to enter the IP address that you are forwarding ports to in the Internal IP Address box. It's possible for this to be either the IP address of your computer or any other IP address on your network that you want ports forwarded to.

Click the Apply button when you are all done.

Congratulations. You did it.

How to Tell if Your Ports Opened

After you have forwarded the ports for the Netgear R7000 router you should test them to see if the ports were forwarded correctly.

One way to test whether forwarded ports are open or not is to use our FREE Open Port Checker. This neat application can be found in our trial version of the Network Utilities. Our Open Port Checker is the only one online that is not only FREE but has Guaranteed Results.

More Resources

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