How does P2P gaming work and why don't I have to port forward?

[louisaldous]

How does peer to peer networking work in video games. For example, if I wanted my friend to join my game why wouldn't I have to port forward. Surely they would have to send a network request to my router which means I would have to port forward (which isn't the case). Why doesn't this have to happen and how does it difference from having a dedicated server?

 

[nigelivey]

UPnP will be enabled on the router.

 

[louisaldous]

UPnP will be enabled on the router.

Thanks for the reply. Can you explain what UPnP is please.

 

[nigelivey]

Is Google broken??

 

[louisaldous]

UPnP will be enabled on the router.

UPnP will be enabled on the router.

Thanks for the reply. Can you explain what UPnP is please.

Is Google broken??

Haha good point. I'll look it up later. Thank you for the reply!