Fastest TP-Link TD-W8951ND Router Open Port Guide

Your TP-Link TD-W8951ND router includes a basic firewall that helps to protect your home network from any unwanted Internet access. A firewall by design blocks ports or connections which you may want unblocked for various reasons, including gaming or other applications. The process of unblocking a port is normally called a port forward because you are taking a port and forwarding it through the router's firewall directly to a device on your local network.

In this guide we will walk you through the steps involved in:

Setting up a static IP address on the specific device you want the ports forwarded to.
Logging into your TP-Link TD-W8951ND router.
Navigating to the port forwarding section.
- Click the Advanced Setup link.
- Click on NAT.
- Click the Virtual Server link.
Creating a port forward.

Each of the above steps will be covered in more detail. We realize this is overwhelming to a lot of you, don't worry, we will walk you through all the steps involved in forwarding your ports.

We think that forwarding a port should be easy. That's why we created Network Utilities. Our software does everything that you need to forward a port.

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When you use Network Utilities you get your port forwarded right now!

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.

Recommended - Our free Static IP Setter will set up a static IP address for you.
Another way to get a permanent IP address is to set up a DHCP reservation.
Or, manually create a static ip address with our Static IP Guides.

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.

Use a VPN Instead

Have you considered using a VPN instead of forwarding a port? For most users, a VPN is a much simpler and more secure choice than forwarding a port.

We use and recommend NordVPN because not only is it the fastest VPN, it includes a new feature called Meshnet that makes forwarding a port no longer necessary for most applications. With NordVPN Meshnet, you can connect to your devices from anywhere in the world, completely secure, over a highly encrypted VPN tunnel.

Every time you click on one of our affiliate links, such as NordVPN, we get a little kickback for introducing you to the service. Think of us as your VPN wingman.

Step 2

This step involves logging into your TP-Link TD-W8951ND router. To do this you need to understand that your router has a web interface, meaning you login using a web browser. It makes no difference what browser you decide to use, simply pick your favorite. Common web browsers include:

Edge
Chrome
Internet Explorer
Firefox

Pick one and open it up. Then look for the address bar. This is normally at the top of the page, like this:

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 TP-Link TD-W8951ND IP Address is: 192.168.1.1

Once you have entered the correct IP address, click the Enter key. This should open up an authentication box or page, like this:

If you see a box asking for a username and password, you are on the right page.

The Default TP-Link TD-W8951ND Router Username is: admin
The Default TP-Link TD-W8951ND Router Password is: password

Go ahead and enter the username and password associated with the TP-Link TD-W8951ND router. Then click the OK button to login to the router.

Having Trouble?

This is where a lot of people get stuck. Here are a few things you can try:

The first thing we recommend is trying other default TP-Link usernames and passwords. It is possible you have a slightly different firmware version and these will sometimes have different usernames and passwords. Check out our list of these on our Default TP-Link Router Passwords page.

If that did not work, it is probably because you changed the username and password in the past and don't remember what you changed it to. If this is the case, you could try cracking the password yourself. To automate the long process, you can use our Find Password App. It tries thousands of different possibilities for you. Learn more about this time saver on our Router Password Cracker page.

Finally if nothing else has worked, it might be time to consider a reset. A reset is not recommended unless you have exhausted all other troubleshooting methods. A reset erases all previous settings you have changed in the past. Learn more about this in our How to Reset a Router guide.

Step 3

It is now time to find the port forwarding part of your router. To do that we should start on the Status page of the router.

Select the Advanced Setup option at the top of the page.

Under that, a new set of choices appears. Select NAT.

Then click Virtual Server in the middle of the page.

Screenshot of TP-Link TD-W8951ND port forward.

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:

Browsing our List of Games

Check out our our List of Games by Genre

See our List of all Applications

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You might notice that most of our site doesn't have ads on it. This is because we use partnerships with companies like NordVPN to keep the site running. Thank you for supporting us by using our referral links.

Use the Rule Index dropdown box to pick an empty rule.

Put a name for this forward in the Application box so that you can remember why you set this forward up. The name does not matter so pick something that has meaning to you.

The protocol that you want to forward is selected from the Protocol box.

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

Enter the IP address to forward these ports to into the Local IP Address box. If you are forwarding ports so you can run a program on a device other than your computer then you can enter your device's IP address into that box.

When you are finished, click the Save button.

That's all there is to it. Don't forget to click the SAVE button at the bottom of the page when you are finished.

Are Your Ports Open?

Now that you have finished forwarding the ports on the TP-Link TD-W8951ND router you need to test if they forwarded properly.

In order to check if your ports forwarded correctly we recommend using our Open Port Checker. This Open Port Checker is part of our free Network Utilities trial version.

Our Open Port Checker is the only one online that uses a local application to listen for ports. This means our open port checker is the only one that is guaranteed to work.