UPnP
Technology & Computing abbreviation · Networking
| Stands for | Universal Plug and Play |
|---|---|
| Categories | Technology & Computing |
UPnP stands for Universal Plug and Play, a networking abbreviation.
A set of protocols that let devices on a home network discover each other and automatically open ports on the router, so game consoles, media servers and smart TVs work without manual port forwarding.
Example: Turn on UPnP in the router settings if the console reports a strict NAT type.
Usage notes
Promoted by the UPnP Forum from 1999 and now maintained by the Open Connectivity Foundation. The convenience is also a risk: malware on one device can open ports to the internet without the owner's knowledge, and routers that wrongly exposed UPnP on their internet side have been abused in large DDoS attacks. Many security guides advise disabling it unless needed. It is unrelated to the "plug and play" detection of USB hardware.
Related abbreviations
More networking abbreviations
- STUN – Session Traversal Utilities for NAT
- TCP – Transmission Control Protocol
- TCP/IP – Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
- TFTP – Trivial File Transfer Protocol
- TTL – Time to live
- UDP – User Datagram Protocol
- UTP – Unshielded twisted pair
- VLAN – Virtual LAN
- VNC – Virtual Network Computing
- VPN – Virtual private network
- VXLAN – Virtual Extensible LAN
- WAN – Wide area network