What does NAT type mean? PS5 multiplayer keeps failing, Switch can't find rooms, I figured out NAT1/2/3 to make things smoother

last year I got a PS5 at home. I played single-player fine, but when it came to online play, trouble arose: I had to try playing Genshin Impact with friends three or four times, and out of ten voice chats, I couldn't get through eight times. The most frustrating thing was that some games just popped up a line of text—"Your NAT type is restricted." The Switch is even more mysterious. I arranged to hail a carriage with a friend, but I searched his room for ages but couldn't find it. His screen didn't show me coming in at all.

spent a whole weekend messing around, I finally figured out that the root of the problem isn't the speed of the broadband or the performance of the router, but rather something called NAT. After understanding the differences between NAT1, NAT2, and NAT3, I only changed two settings, and all the connection issues disappeared. This article will break down the matter and explain it clearly.

NAT is a translator, and the NAT type is whether others can take the initiative to knock on your door

start with NAT itself. The public IP your broadband network gets from the carrier usually only has one (some don't even have one, as explained later), but dozens of devices on your phone, computer, or game console need to access the internet. What should you do? The router does the translator's job: every device data is recorded in a notebook when it goes out, and it is uniformly switched to a public IP for export; The returned data is then returned to the corresponding device according to the records in the notebook. This mechanism is called NAT, Network Address Translation.

usually browse the web and watch videos, this translator does a very good job. But online gaming is different—many online games allow players to transfer data directly, so your teammates' consoles need to actively send data to your PS5. Here's the problem: you're hiding behind the router's NAT notebook, and people outside don't even know your house number—you can't even find the door when you knock. NAT type measures whether people outside can actively reach out to you, with three levels in total—the stricter the situation, the less likely it is to connect.

NAT1, NAT2, NAT3—compare the three levels

I organized the differences between the three tiers into a table to get an overall impression:

elaborate on a few words. NAT1 is ideal—the console holds its own public IP and can be knocked on your door anytime. The trade-off is that it's directly exposed to the public network, making it much less secure. Usually, you need to switch the optical modem to a bridge or set up the router for special settings to get it. Ordinary families don't need to force it. NAT2 is a cost-effective choice: the device still hides behind the router, but if you manually or automatically unlock several ports needed for gaming, both online and voice play work fine. NAT3 is the problematic mode—either you have two layers of NAT (the optical modem is translating, and the router is translating again), or the required port doesn't open a single door, so players outside can't reach you at all. If both of you use NAT3, you simply can't connect to each other.

first test which gear you are: three machines, three perspectives

PS5 most intuitive: Settings, Network, Check Connection Status. Inside, there's a line labeled "NAT Type," labeled Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, corresponding to the three levels above. Xbox is also straightforward: in Settings, General, and Network Settings, it will be labeled as "Open/Medium/Strict."

Switch pretty tricky; the system doesn't even let you see it. My method is to enter Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and select the "Lobby" under "Play with Friends." If after creating the lobby, your friends can't find it or get a NAT-related error, it's basically NAT3. You can also run a network test directly. Download speeds are normal, but online operations repeatedly fail—almost certainly not accurate.

my own situation: PS5 displays type 3, and my home setup uses a telecom optical modem (router mode) connected to Xiaomi AX3000T then dialing another layer — two layers of NAT stacked together, a standard NAT3 textbook example. Once I found out this, I knew what to do next.

Fix Step 1: Enable UPnP, half the people get stuck at 'only half enabled'

UPnP stands for Universal Plug & Play. Its function is to let the console automatically request the router to open the door: specify which port the PS5 needs, and the router will automatically open it, so you don't have to manually manage it. This is the lowest-cost step—do it first.

Xiaomi router has the "UPnP" switch in the "Advanced Settings" of the 192.168.31.1 backend, which by default is actually enabled; In the "System Settings" tab under "Advanced Settings"; TP-LINK is generally found under 'Application Management'. After driving it, I rebooted the PS5 and tested again. Many people upgraded from Type 3 to Type 2, and that's it.

my family wasn't so lucky; even when I drove, it was still Type 3. Later, I realized what was wrong: UPnP only works at the router layer, and my supervisor has an optical modem pressing down in routing mode, which means two doors—inside and outside. UPnP only opens the inner door, while the outer door doesn't budge at all. This is the pitfall of "UPnP halfway open"—in a two-layer NAT home, just pressing the switch won't save NAT3.

Repair Step 2: Manually forward the port to open a dedicated door for the console

UPnP it doesn't work, manual port forwarding is introduced, meaning the PS5's IP is fixed to a specified number of doors. I've copied the commonly used PS5 ports below, so I followed them when setting them up:

• TCP: 1935, 3478 to 3480
• UDP: 3074, 3478 to 3479

operation sequence is to first set a fixed IP for the PS5 (manually enter the IP in the network settings, for example, 192.168.31.20, 31.1 for the gateway, and 223.5.5.5 for DNS), then enter the router's backend under "Port Forwarding" to create a new rule, set the PS5's fixed IP for internal IP, and set the port as above. The protocol is divided into TCP and UDP, each set up a few lines. Switch is even more convenient; the official recommendation is to forward the entire UDP from 1024 to 65535 to it.

the relationship between port forwarding and DMZ, and when to use DMZ, I previously wrote a special comparison article explaining the difference between "opening a door" and "tearing down the entire wall." Only dedicated devices like game consoles should consider the latter: the difference between port forwarding and DMZ .

this step was done, my PS5 went from Type 3 to Type 2, with voice and online support fully enabled. And that's not all—because I know there's still a layer of optical modem at home with NAT pressing, and reaching Type 2 depends on hard port forwarding. In the future, when changing games or ports, I'll have to reconfigure everything. To eliminate the root, you need to do the third step.

Repair Step 3: Eliminate one layer of NAT and switch to optical modem bridging

a dual-layer NAT family, the cleanest way is to let the modem switch to 'translation,' only doing the photovoltaic conversion and handing the dial-up to the router. That is, switching the optical modem to bridge. After the upgrade, only AX3000T one NAT layer remains; UPnP and port forwarding all take effect directly, so you don't have to outsmart two layers of doors.

change the bridge to activate the super password for optical modem. For Telecom, you can refer to the process I wrote before about obtaining Telecomadmin, which includes the script for entering the 10,000 number; When modifying, copy down the original VLAN parameters, set up PPPoE dial-up in the router after bridging. I recorded all these pitfalls in the on converting optical modems to bridge . Before starting, be sure to read them. There are four things you must follow after the changes, or the changes will be wasted.

there's another special case that needs to be mentioned: some friends have deleted both layers of NAT and forwarded ports, but the PS5 is still Type 3. This is most likely not your fault; the operator has placed you in the big NAT (CGNAT)—a whole building or area sharing a batch of public IPs. Your "public IP" is actually an address within the operator's intranet, so no matter how wide the door is, it doesn't matter. Verification method: The IP obtained from the router's WAN port does not match the export IP found online (the WAN port usually starts with 100.64 or 10). Directly call 10000 and say, "I need remote work at home, need a public IP," and usually the change is free. By the way, once you get a public IP, remote access to your home NAS can also benefit. For details, see about remotely connecting to the NAS.

the entire inspection process sequence and follow the route to avoid the

Finally, I've organized the order in which I made this trip. If you encounter online issues, follow this order. Don't switch to bridging right away—you can finish the first two steps in five minutes:

two easy reminders to overlook. First, after changing any settings, always turn off the power and restart the console. Sometimes, reconnecting to WiFi may not refresh the NAT state, so don't be fooled by illusions; Second, NAT only affects "online connection establishment"; it does not affect download speed or single-player games, so don't blame the slow internet speed on NAT. If you really want to prioritize gaming experience: latency depends on WiFi channels and slotting; if you can't connect online, check NAT—two different things. Friends with soft routers at home should be extra cautious. Systems like iKuai and OpenWrt have more NAT and firewall rules, and multi-layer forwarding can easily get you involved. Beginners are advised to first sort out the main router layer before experimenting: the soft router entry has a comparison of what suits and doesn't fit, so don't blindly jump in.