Why is My PS5 on NAT Type 3 and How Do I Fix It?

PS5 NAT Type 3 means your console cannot reach PlayStation Network on the ports Sony requires, so matchmaking fails, party chat drops, and some remote play scenarios break. The fastest fix for most home networks is enabling UPnP on your router. If UPnP is already on, you are almost certainly behind double NAT — an ISP modem sitting in front of your own router — or behind carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) from your ISP, and the fix is different for each.

What NAT Type 3 Actually Means

The PS5 reports one of three NAT types after running Test Internet Connection (Settings > Network > Connection Status > Test Internet Connection). Type 1 means the console is directly connected to the internet with no NAT at all — rare in a home setting. Type 2 is the normal healthy state: the console is behind one NAT device and all required ports are reachable. Type 3 is the problem state: Sony's servers cannot initiate a connection back to your PS5 because one or more ports are blocked, or the console is behind two separate layers of NAT.

NAT Type 3 does not block game downloads or video streaming. The failure shows up in multiplayer matchmaking, voice chat in parties, and peer-to-peer sessions where another player or Sony's relay servers need to reach your console directly.

Root Causes, Ranked by Frequency

1. UPnP Disabled on Your Router

Universal Plug and Play lets the PS5 automatically ask your router to open the ports it needs. Most routers ship with UPnP enabled, but it gets turned off during security hardening passes or after a firmware reset. This is the cause for the majority of NAT Type 3 reports on single-router home networks.

2. Double NAT — ISP Modem Plus Your Own Router

Many ISPs supply a combined modem/router unit. If you then connect your own router to it, you have two NAT layers in series: ISP device → your router → PS5. UPnP only negotiates ports on your router; it has no effect on the ISP device in front of it. The PS5 sees an open path through your router but a blocked path at the ISP device, and the NAT type test fails.

3. Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT) From Your ISP

Some ISPs — especially mobile broadband and budget cable providers — place many customers behind a single shared public IP using CGNAT. The reserved address block for this is 100.64.0.0/10. If your router's WAN IP starts with 100.64 through 100.127, you are on CGNAT. Your router's WAN address is not a publicly routable IP, so port forwarding is impossible regardless of what you configure at home.

4. Ports Not Forwarded and UPnP Unavailable

Some router firmware disables UPnP by design, particularly on ISP-locked units. In that case you must manually forward the PlayStation Network ports to the PS5's local IP. Sony lists the required ports as TCP 80, 443, 3478, 3479, 3480 and UDP 3478, 3479. Always verify the current list on Sony's own support pages before configuring, as it has changed in the past.

5. PS5 Getting a New Local IP After Each Reboot

Static port forwarding rules target a specific local IP address. If the PS5 gets a different address after each reboot, the forwarding rules point at nothing. A fixed local address must be set before static port forwarding will work reliably.

Step-by-Step Fixes

Fix 1: Enable UPnP on Your Router

1. Find your router's admin IP. On Windows, open a command prompt and run ipconfig — the Default Gateway line is your router. On macOS, run networksetup -getinfo Wi-Fi or netstat -nr | grep default. Common addresses are 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1, 10.0.0.1, and 192.168.2.1, but yours may differ — check your own default gateway rather than assuming.
2. Type that IP into a browser and log in with the router's admin credentials (usually printed on the label on the unit).
3. Look for UPnP inside a section labelled Advanced, NAT, or WAN. Enable it and save. Reboot the router.
4. On the PS5: Settings > Network > Connection Status > Test Internet Connection. Check the NAT Type result.

Router-specific menu paths (firmware varies — use these as a starting point; exact labels differ by firmware version):

• TP-Link (tplinkwifi.net): Advanced > NAT Forwarding > UPnP
• Netgear (routerlogin.net): Advanced > Advanced Setup > UPnP
• ASUS (asusrouter.com): WAN > Basic Config > Enable UPnP
• Xiaomi (miwifi.com): Settings > Advanced > UPnP
• Netgear Orbi (orbilogin.com): Advanced > Advanced Setup > UPnP
• Linksys (linksyssmartwifi.com): Connectivity > Internet Settings > UPnP
• OpenWrt: Services > UPnP/NAT-PMP > Start UPnP daemon
• DD-WRT: NAT / QoS > UPnP > Enable

Fix 2: Assign the PS5 a Static Local IP

Before forwarding ports, lock the PS5's local address so rules stay valid after a reboot. Two methods:

DHCP Reservation (recommended): In your router's admin panel, find DHCP > Address Reservation or a Connected Devices list. Locate the PS5 by its MAC address and bind it to a specific IP such as 192.168.1.150. The router will assign the same address every time that device connects.

Static IP set on the PS5 itself: Go to Settings > Network > Settings > Set Up Internet Connection. Select your connection, open Advanced Settings, and switch from DHCP to Manual. Enter the IP address you want (choose one outside the router's DHCP pool to avoid conflicts), the subnet mask (typically 255.255.255.0), the default gateway (your router's IP), and your preferred DNS servers.

Fix 3: Manually Forward PlayStation Network Ports

Once the PS5 has a fixed local IP, open the Port Forwarding section of your router admin interface. It may be labelled NAT, Firewall, Virtual Server, or Applications/Gaming depending on the brand. Create rules forwarding these ports to the PS5's static IP:

Confirm the current port list on Sony's official support pages before saving — Sony has revised it in the past and the list on their site is authoritative. After saving the rules, reboot the router and re-run Test Internet Connection on the PS5.

Fix 4: Put the ISP Modem in Bridge Mode (Double NAT Fix)

If your network path is ISP modem/router → your router → PS5, you need to eliminate one NAT layer. The cleanest approach is putting the ISP device into bridge mode, also called IP passthrough or transparent bridging on some units:

1. Connect a computer directly to the ISP-supplied device and log into its admin interface. The admin IP is usually printed on the sticker on the unit.
2. Find a setting called Bridge Mode, IP Passthrough, or Transparent Bridging. On some ISP modems this appears under WAN > Connection Type or Advanced > Firewall. Menus vary significantly by ISP and firmware version.
3. Enter your own router's WAN MAC address as the passthrough target if the interface prompts for one.
4. Save and reboot both devices. Your router's WAN port should now receive the real public IP directly.

Not all ISP-supplied devices support bridge mode. Some offer only a DMZ host setting on the ISP device, which achieves the same result by forwarding all inbound traffic to your router's WAN IP. If neither option is available, call your ISP and ask them to put the line in bridge mode from their side, or ask to replace the combo unit with a modem-only device.

Fix 5: CGNAT — Request a Dedicated Public IP From Your ISP

If your router's WAN IP falls in the 100.64.0.0/10 range (100.64 through 100.127), all UPnP and port forwarding work is irrelevant — you do not have a routable public IP. Call your ISP and request a dedicated public IPv4 address. Many ISPs provide this at no extra charge; some charge a small monthly fee. This is the only reliable network-level fix for CGNAT: there is no router setting that can bypass it.

An alternative is a VPN service that assigns a dedicated exit IP and achieves NAT Type 2 through UDP hole-punching. Performance varies and adds latency, so a dedicated IP from the ISP is strongly preferable for gaming if it is available on your plan.

Fix 6: DMZ as a Last Resort

Placing the PS5 in the router's DMZ exposes its local IP directly to the internet with no router-level firewall filtering. This will achieve NAT Type 2 in almost all cases because all ports are effectively open inbound. The security downside is real: any service listening on the PS5 is reachable from the public internet without router packet filtering in front of it. Use DMZ only as a temporary diagnostic step to confirm the problem is NAT-related, or accept the trade-off permanently if you understand the exposure. To configure, find DMZ or Exposed Host in your router's Firewall or NAT section and enter the PS5's static local IP.

Verifying From the Command Line

Before relying solely on the PS5's own NAT type report, verify your public IP from a computer on the same network to rule out CGNAT and confirm DNS resolution is healthy:

If nslookup or dig playstation.net returns NXDOMAIN or times out, you have a DNS problem on top of (or instead of) a NAT problem. Fix DNS first — check that your router's upstream DNS servers are reachable and that no local resolver is filtering the query before tackling NAT.

How to Confirm the Fix Worked

1. On the PS5: Settings > Network > Connection Status > Test Internet Connection. The NAT Type result should now read Type 2.
2. Join or create a multiplayer lobby in a game that previously failed to find matches.
3. Test party voice chat — this is one of the most reliable real-world indicators of correct NAT status, since it requires bidirectional UDP across PSN ports.

Common Misdiagnoses

UPnP Fixed It Temporarily, Then Type 3 Came Back

If UPnP is enabled but the PS5 gets a new local IP on each reboot, UPnP re-negotiates on startup so the NAT type appears correct immediately, then breaks later when the IP changes. The real fix is pairing UPnP with a DHCP reservation so the PS5 always gets the same address and UPnP port mappings remain valid between sessions.

Blaming the PS5 Hardware

NAT type is determined entirely by the network infrastructure between the PS5 and the internet. The console has no inbound firewall of its own. If a second console or any other gaming device on the same network also shows restrictive NAT, the problem is confirmed to be the router or ISP. Rebuilding the PS5 database or reinstalling system software will not change NAT type.

Forwarding Ports Without a Static IP First

Static port forwarding rules target a specific local IP. If the PS5's address changes after a reboot, the rules become orphaned and point at nothing. Always configure a DHCP reservation before adding port forwarding rules — otherwise the fix will break the next time the console powers off.

Running Both UPnP and Manual Forwarding at the Same Time

Some routers create conflicts when UPnP and manual forwarding rules both target the same port numbers. The router may refuse a UPnP mapping request because the port is already statically assigned, or it may create duplicate entries that confuse the NAT table. Use one method or the other, not both simultaneously.

A 2026 Note on IPv6, CGNAT, and DoH

A growing number of ISPs now provision home connections with IPv6 alongside IPv4. The PS5 supports IPv6 fully, and on a properly configured dual-stack connection NAT Type 2 can be achieved automatically for IPv6 traffic — because IPv6 does not use NAT by default, eliminating the port-mapping problem for IPv6 paths entirely. However, the PS5's NAT type test still reports the IPv4 result, so you may see Type 3 on IPv4 while IPv6 connectivity to PlayStation Network is healthy. If your ISP has deployed IPv6, confirm your router is advertising the delegated prefix to LAN clients via router advertisement (RA); some routers require this setting to be explicitly enabled under the IPv6 or LAN configuration section.

5G fixed wireless broadband almost universally operates behind CGNAT as a structural property of the radio access network. Requesting a dedicated public IPv4 is often not available on these services. For 5G home broadband users, the realistic path to NAT Type 2 on IPv4 is either a VPN with a dedicated exit IP, or waiting for the ISP to enable IPv6 paths for PlayStation Network traffic — at which point the IPv6 route bypasses the CGNAT layer entirely.

DNS-over-HTTPS and DNS-over-TLS do not affect NAT type directly. However, if you run a local DNS resolver such as Pi-hole or AdGuard Home, verify that no firewall rules on that host accidentally block UDP traffic on ports 3478 or 3479. Those ports are entirely unrelated to DNS but can be caught by overly broad outbound block rules applied to the resolver machine.

For the protocol-level specification of how NAT devices are expected to handle UDP port mappings — useful when debugging why UPnP leases expire or conflict — the IETF's RFC 4787: NAT Behavioral Requirements for UDP is the definitive reference.

Preventing Recurrence

• Keep a DHCP reservation for the PS5's MAC address in your router so its local IP never changes after a reboot or a power failure.
• After any router firmware update, verify that UPnP is still enabled — updates frequently reset settings to factory defaults without warning.
• If you replace your router, recreate the DHCP reservation and port forwarding rules before the PS5 connects to the new device.
• Record your router's WAN IP after initial setup. If it ever shifts into the 100.64.0.0/10 range, your ISP has moved your connection to CGNAT and you will need to contact them to restore a public IP.