Every Quokka Net internet service comes with a shared public IP address, using a technology called CGNAT. It works for almost everything you do online. But if you need people or devices outside your home to connect in, like for a game server, security cameras or remote access, you’ll need a static IP, or a tunnel that works without one. This page explains the difference, and your options.

What is CGNAT?

Your public IP address identifies your connection on the internet. There aren’t enough of the older kind (IPv4) to go around, so with CGNAT (carrier-grade network address translation) several customers share one public IP address.

For browsing, streaming, video calls, online gaming and almost everything else, you won’t notice. Your devices start the connections, and the replies come straight back to you.

When CGNAT gets in the way

Because the public IP is shared, nothing outside your home can start a connection to a device inside it. That affects:

  • Port forwarding. Forwarding a port on your router won’t work, because the traffic never reaches your router.
  • Hosting a game server, or some games’ “open NAT” or host features
  • Security cameras and NAS drives that you connect to directly from outside your home, without the manufacturer’s cloud app
  • Remote desktop or VPN servers you run at home
  • Some websites and services that block or limit traffic from shared IP addresses

Many cameras, smart home devices and remote access apps connect through the manufacturer’s cloud service, and work fine with CGNAT. If yours has an app that works away from home, you probably don’t need a static IP.

Get a static IP

A static IP is a public IP address that’s yours alone, and doesn’t change. With one, port forwarding works and devices outside your home can connect in.

  • It’s $5.50 a month.
  • It’s offered on plans of 100 Mbps and faster. It isn’t offered on 25 and 50 Mbps plans, or on SUPA Networks.
  • To ask for one, call us on 1800 663 977 or email [email protected]. If your plan is slower than 100 Mbps, you can change your plan at the same time.

A static IP isn’t always available, even on a plan that offers it. Sometimes a network’s operational limits or requirements mean we can’t provide one for a particular service. We’ll check yours before we add it. If we can’t, a tunnel (below) may do the job instead.

Once it’s added, restart your router so it picks up the new address.

Set up port forwarding

Once you have a static IP, set up port forwarding on your router:

  1. Give the device a fixed address on your home network, often called a DHCP reservation, so the forwarding rule always points at it.
  2. In your router’s settings, find Port forwarding, Virtual servers or NAT.
  3. Add a rule with the port numbers the device or game needs, and the device’s address.

Where these settings are depends on your router: see our router setup guides or your router’s manual.

Keep it secure. Only open the ports you need, use strong passwords on anything you open to the internet, and keep its software up to date.

No static IP? Use a tunnel instead

A tunnel lets people reach a website, app or device at your home without a static IP or port forwarding, so it works with CGNAT. Instead of waiting for connections to come in, a small program at your home connects out to the tunnel service, and the service passes visitors’ traffic back along that connection.

Cloudflare Tunnel is a popular option, with a free plan. It suits hosting a website, a home server or a dashboard, and reaching a NAS or camera’s web page from away.

The setup goes roughly like this:

  1. Create a Cloudflare account, and add a domain name you own to it.
  2. In Cloudflare’s dashboard, create a tunnel, under Zero Trust > Networks > Tunnels.
  3. Install the connector, called cloudflared, on a computer or server at home that stays on. Cloudflare gives you the command to run. Some NAS drives and home servers can run it too.
  4. Add a public hostname, like home.example.com, and point it at the device and port on your home network, like http://192.168.1.50:8080.

Visitors then go to home.example.com, and Cloudflare sends them through the tunnel. You can add a login in front with Cloudflare Access, so only people you choose can get in. Cloudflare’s Tunnel documentation has the full steps.

A few things to know:

  • It’s for web traffic out of the box. Websites and web dashboards work directly. Other kinds of traffic, like game servers, need more setup, or a different service.
  • The tunnel service sees your traffic as it passes through, so pick one you trust, and use Cloudflare Access or a strong password on anything private.
  • It’s Cloudflare’s service, not ours, so we can’t set it up or support it for you. Other tunnel and remote access services, like Tailscale, work with CGNAT too.