SonicWall Port Forwarding Made Simple: Here’s How To Set It Up

The SonicWall by default blocks unauthorized traffic from your home network and in turn protects your devices from malicious access. However, to effectively run some programs or games, you will need to open some ports. Port forwarding opens ports on your router to enable public access and connections of your server or internet devices including Web Server, Email Server, IP camera, Printers, and gaming consoles by other end users. This, in turn, makes it possible for you to forward or run specific programs. We give you a step by step process on how to set up SonicWall port forwarding:

Create the Address Objects

To create the address objects on your SonicWall:

• Log in to your SonicWall GUI
• On the top navigation menu, click Object
• Click Match Objects/ Address 
• Click the Add a new Address Object and create the Server’s Private IP and Server’s Public IP Address Objects.
• Add the new Address Objects to SonicWall’s Address Object Table by clicking the Save tab.

Create the NAT Policies

You can create different NAT policies including Inbound, Outbound, and Loopback. The policies enable you to examine and rewrite ports and addresses for incoming and outgoing traffic, enabling the Sonic OS to translate incoming packets to their respective destinations. It helps to link specific ports and Public IP address to Private IP Address. To create the NAT policies:

• Click the Policy tab at the top menu.
• Click the Rules and Policies/ NAT Rules tab.
• Click the Add tab to open a pop-up window.
• For Inbound NAT policy, select appropriate fields and leave the Advanced/ Actions tab fields as default. Click the Add tab to add this policy to the SonicWall NAT policy table.
• Select the appropriate fields for the Outbound NAT policy, leaving the Advanced/Actions tab in default status. Click the Add tab to add this policy to the SonicWall NAT policy.
• If you want to access your server via its Public IP address, then create the Loopback NAT policy by filling the appropriate fields on the Original tab.

Create the Firewall Access Rules

To create the firewall access rules: 

• Click Policy on your navigation menu
• Click Access Rules/ Rules and Policies
• Select the Matrix view type and your WAN to Appropriate Zone Access Rule
• Click the Add tab and create the Access Rule 
• Click Add once you finish the above set up.