Port forwarding can be necessary for helping your node stay synced and connected to peers. This can increase connections/peers for your Qortal core node(s). We will try to make this scenario as simple as we can - as there are several variables. Choose the section below that fits your situation:

Option 1: If you have only ONE node, and your router has uPnP enabled, you will not need to do anything, your single node will simply start obtaining incoming connections.

If you ARE going to use uPnP, you can have MULTIPLE nodes on the same LAN obtaining incoming connections via uPnP by simply modifying a SINGLE setting in settings.json for your SECOND node and HIGHER:

Simply edit settings.json for the nodes ASIDE FROM THE FIRST NODE, and change the listenPort for the subsequent nodes, below is an example for the second node on the LAN.

{
"listenPort": 22392
}

The above settings would be fine for your SECOND node, you do not need to do anything for the FIRST node, as it will run on the default port 12392. Any SUBSEQUENT node you will need to add ONLY the above setting in settings.json, with a DIFFERENT port for each subequent node. (note - if you are on WINDOWS the settings.json you will modify is located in %localappdata%\Qortal folder. Do NOT remove any of the 'path' settings on Windows machines or your node will not work correctly!) Option 2: If your router does NOT offer uPNP, you will need to configure port forwarding (on your router). 1) Login to your router and set the IP address of the node to "STATIC" or "Reserve IP Address" or whatever verbiage your router uses for this setting. This will prevent the node’s IP address from changing and affecting all of this configuration. 2) In your router, configure port forwarding for this device: Inbound: 12392 (sometimes ‘inbound’ is titled ‘internal’) Outbound 12392 (sometimes ‘outbound’ is titled ‘external’) Protocol: TCP ===== More Than One Node On Your Home Network (no uPnP)===== If you have more than one node on your network, then you’ll want to: * Set a static IP address for each node in the router. * Configure port forwarding in the router for each node. 1) Set the IP address of each node to STATIC. This will prevent the node’s IP address from changing and affecting all of this configuration. 2) Set port forwarding for each node as shown in the following. Internal and external for each node will be unique and NOT match the other nodes: Node 1 Internal: 12392 External: 12392 Node 2 Internal: 12392 External: 12393 Node 3 Internal: 12392 External: 12394 Node 4** Internal: 12392 External: 12395

etc.

(Just change the last digit in each number ONLY for the EXTERNAL port. You can leave everything else on defaults.)

Here you can find step by step info for specific router: https://portforward.com/

Static IP guide: https://www.coolblue.nl/en/advice/assign-fixed-ip-address-router.html

Port forwarding guide: https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-port-forward-4163829

It is never a good idea to add your node in DMZ. That will stop all the DPI and SPI and if you have the API enabled and white listed, you are putting your computer at risk! DMZ bypasses the SPI mechanism of the built in filters and all the internet traffic can reach your node directly. SPI (stateful packet inspection) firewall protects you by examining incoming packets against existing connections. Also add UPnP text. If a router has it then it must be enabled. UPnP or NAT-pmp opens dynamic port ranges to act as an assist for SPI. Enabling NAT/UPnP solves problem for the most but unfortunately due to the torrent p2p laws most ISPs now filter ports by default at the client side so port forward is also needed. For example:

219.88.183.49:12392 (qortal-1.2.3-2df0453), height 42318, sig: PXNoJM7W, ts 2020-07-31 17:17:24

192.168.100.83:44380 (qortal-1.2.3-2df0453), height 42318, sig: PXNoJM7W, ts 2020-07-31 17:17:24

Look at the second IP address with a dynamic port. This is UPnP working. Instead of 12392 , it has opened a 44380 port for TCP handshake / connect / ACK.