I would like to open a range of ports. How would I go about doing that?
do not let your firewall to block those ports - then your application can listen to client’s requests.
I doubt it’s exacty you wanted to hear 
You can’t open ports manually. Only a software can do it. I dont know if there is a program that can open any port that you want.
Only programs can open ports for your firewall. Just wondering, do you 100% trust the port you want to open?