My step son has setup a server on his computer for Minecraft and what’s to enable port forwarding so his friends can play on his server. I am trying to find out which one is safer between single port forwarding or port triggering.

Also I want to know if I do open a port if people outside of my LAN can access the other devices on the network or does it only open to the computer with the port?

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1 Answer

Port Forwarding and Port Triggering are two different things. You almost certainly want Single Port Forwarding.

The only thing ANYONE outside of your LAN will be able to access is that port at whichever device's IP address you put in. They won't be able to access other devices and, even on your son's machine, they will ONLY be able to access services listening in on the port that you forward and that port only.

Since, presumably, the Minecraft server will be the only service listening on that port, it will be the only new service the outside world can directly communicate with inside your network. So unless there's some major security flaw inside the Minecraft server, you're perfectly fine so long as you only forward the port it needs.

Additional, intermediate information: If your router supports it (and it almost certainly does) give him a static IP that doesn't change within your IP pool. This way you don't have to update the IP address of the port forwarding every time if his computer gets shut down, goes to sleep, etc and pulls a new IP from the router.

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