Still not clear on this port forwarding business? If you want to serve any sort of Web content from your home or office without exposing your entire network to Internet meanies, port forwarding is a must-have! Even if you aren’t running a Web server, you may find it useful to use port forwarding for setting up your own co-located FTP server, SSHing into your Linux box, or even running your own game server.

Neonerz has written a two-part article on port forwarding that will help get you started. He deals with the specifics of port forwarding on a Linksys router, but most of the principals will be universal to all router brands.