UPNP vs Port Forwarding

What is UPNP ?

Universal  Plug  and  Play (UPnP) is a set of networking protocols that  permits  networked  devices, and   other  mobile  devices  to seamlessly  discover  each  other's  presence   on  the    network  and   establish    functional   network  services  for data  sharing,  communications,  and  entertainment.

Port  forwarding  is  to  allow  internet  connection   from  external source  like PC or mobile devices  to connect to the device inside the internal  network such as IP camera .DVR. NVR  after  firewall or router. in another word, Port forwarding is directing traffic from the outside world to the appropriate server inside  your network. 

What is port forwarding

 UPnP is  intended   primarily  for   residential   networks.   Many  new  modern   and   home   use   routers  already   comes  with  this  features.With this function  the device like ip camera, DVR, NVRs can  ask the  router to allow traffic coming from a external source to communicate with it, and router will create a port map rule for this device.

UPNP is designed so that it forwards and unforwards as-needed, preventing that issue. in this case UPNP doesnt always work well, so port forwards are the more reliable option.

for example, Think  the  internet  traffic  like package  that coming from California and arrived at you FED  center. FED   distribution center is like you router. FED  will forward  the  package  to   you according  to  the  address  on the label,   Router like the  center has rules build in which will block or allow package to  go thought or reject. 

Unlike   UPnP,  Manual   Port   Forwarding  (Port Mapping)  rules remain intact regardless of the unit being use or not.  If a  device with UPNP is enable please do not create manual port forwarding because they will cost conflict on the router. 

Network Skill ?

UPNP does require any network experience mostly is automatic            Port Forwarding require to understand a lot of network things create by router.                                                                                     like IP address .DNS .one small mistake can make everything fall