If you replace your router every three to five years (as recommended) and you’re not using something from a decade ago, you probably have blazing-fast Internet connections and a whole host of modern features that make your life a little easier. For example, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is an interesting solution. This network protocol allows all devices on a local network to instantly recognize each other and, more importantly, automatically configure them to access the Internet. Isn’t that cool?
Unfortunately, UPnP is not without its flaws, and we’ll use the following analogy to illustrate why. UPnP is a security guard at a club (your router) who may not be good at background checks, but is great at finding seats (ports) for all the customers (devices) that arrive in a split second. In other words, you don’t need to do a lot of setup yourself and any smart devices or game consoles in your home will simply work. The problem is that UPnP has WAN access, which means devices can access your network and open ports, without you knowing. So, is it better to enable or disable UPnP? Since this is an imminent security risk, disabling it is one of the easiest ways to make your router more secure.
But what happens when you turn it off? Although you can disable things like VPN passthrough, once you unplug UPnP, some of your devices may have problems connecting to the Internet. The key word here is may, as modern consoles and devices can work fine with UPnP disabled. If a device decides to misbehave, you can manually enable a port for it, and it will work just fine.
How to Disable UPnP and Troubleshoot Misbehaving Devices
Showing UPnP the door is easy. The process may vary depending on your router model, but most of the time, the first step is to find out your router’s IP address. Check the sticker on the back of the router or, if you are using Windows, bring up the command prompt, enter the command “ipconfig” and copy the address assigned as the default gateway. Then paste it (or enter it manually) into the address bar of your Internet browser, log in and go to the Administration section. There you will find the UPnP setting that you can quickly turn off. On TP-Link, the option is hidden under NAT forwarding, but the rest is the same.
In most cases, your devices will work perfectly. If they don’t? You can use port forwarding. Find the exact port number used by the device, log back into the admin page and navigate to port forwarding. Next, enter the specific port number and IP address of the device you are forwarding traffic to. This will solve most, if not all, problems.
This can be complicated if you have many devices that rely on this remote connection, such as security cameras. Still, UPnP makes it easier for bad actors to gain access to your home network. When you think about it, it’s a small sacrifice to make for extra security. Plus, you’ll probably feel like a real IT wizard when you’re manually forwarding ports, and that’s priceless.
