What are TCP/UDP Ports and Port Forwarding?
TCP/UDP ports are “windows” that your PS3 uses to “speak” to the internet. If one or more of these ports are closed, the PS3 can’t fully utilize the internet. This might give problems connecting to online games and during voice chat. To open (forward) these ports, you’ll need to tell your router which ports to forward, and where to forward them to (ie the PS3’s IP address). The procedure for this varies from router to router, check your router’s manual for info. Commonly, the section you need to access in your router to do this, is called “NAT”.
