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I have a local DNS server that I want to use, but it's behind a NAT router. For all other servers that are behind that router, I simply have an appropriate forwarding rule enabled in the router. From what I've read regarding DNS, however, it seems that there is no particular port that I can forward to make this work (and I'd rather not just forward all ports >49152). Is it possible to use a DNS server from behind a NAT router?

If it matters, I'm running the bundled DNS role in Windows Server 2008 Standard.

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    DNS operates on port 53.
    – Darth Android
    Aug 4, 2013 at 0:21

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In general, DNS queries are sent from a high-numbered source port (above 1023) to destination port 53, and responses are sent from source port 53 to a high-numbered destination port.

Open UDP port 53 to and from the server in your NAT configuration.

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    you may also have to allow 53/udp in both directions in your firewall. Note that DNS Forwarding uses 53/UDP -> 53/UDP, so if you are forwarding, or using an old dns server, don't specify a source/dest prt > 1023 in your firewall.
    – Frank Thomas
    Aug 4, 2013 at 2:38
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    So, I asked this question years ago, and I know a little bit more about networking now. The thing that was tripping me up way back then (IIRC) was the idea of ephemeral ports. These, I know now, are on the src side of the connection and not relevant to port forwarding. UDP 53 is correct.
    – Allen
    Apr 9, 2018 at 5:13
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You will also need to forward TCP port 53 for some functions of DNS to work properly, including using sub-domain zone files delegated from a main domain and for using master/slave configurations. The zone file changes are transferred via TCP port 53.

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