Port forwarding on ethernet

Storage Node Operators getting started
#1

Hi everyone, I’m trying to get my first node running but I am having problems setting up port forwarding. My main question is: do I need port forwarding for nodes connected to routers via ethernet?

I am pretty sure the answer is yes, but maybe some background would help explain the question: I have my computer running Manjaro Linux connected to my router via ethernet. When I log in to the router page, I can’t just add a rule like it mentions in the start-up port forwarding documentation. It only gives me the option of setting up port forwarding to devices that are connected wirelessly, not hard-wired. Therefore, since my computer is hard-wired in, I don’t have the option of setting up port forwarding. My ISP is Spectrum, if that helps at all.

Anyway, thanks for any help/advice you might have.

#2

port forwarding rules are based on LAN IP addresses, regardless if they are wired or wireless connections. I used to have Spectrum, although I didn’t use their router, I used my own, which was a linksys at the time. I’d recommend trying to set up the port forwarding through what ever interface you have available and just make sure you’re putting in the IP address of the ethernet connected machine you plan on running your node on.

#3

The whole idea of port forward is that your router needs to know how to initiate a connection with a host on your LAN. Since most LANs use non routable IP addresses like 192.168.x.x, 172.16.x.x or 10.x.x.x those have to be reachable from the public Internet (usually with the public IP of your router) and then translated to an internal IP. Sometime we call this Network Address Translation or NAT. For consumer routers you designate a specific port should be translated to an internal IP. Without this mechanism Storj won’t work for you.