Port forwarding for a ARK: Survival Ascended server
Survival Ascended made this much simpler: a single UDP port and nothing more. It announces itself through Epic Online Services instead of the Steam master server, so there is no counterpart to the separate query port Evolved used.
Your setup
Choose the firmware family rather than your exact model — every router in a family shares the same menus.
Out of the box it is 7777. If you changed that, use whatever you set in ?Port= in the launch line.
The local address of the computer that runs the server. Find it with ipconfig on Windows or ip addr on Linux; it will begin with 192.168, 10. or 172.
Open these
Your firmware takes ranges, so each line here is one rule.
- 7777 UDP
7777UDPGame trafficAscended dropped the separate Steam query port — it advertises through Epic Online Services instead, so this single port carries everything.
Do not open these
These are admin sockets. Many guides put them in the same list as the game ports, but forwarding them exposes a remote console for your server to the whole internet.
27020TCPRCONRCONPort. Administrative only; keep it on the LAN.
For remote administration, connect to the machine through SSH or a VPN and use the port locally from there. Nobody else can reach it that way.
Step by step: your router
- 1
Give the server a fixed local IP
A forwarding rule targets a single local address. If the server comes back from a reboot with a new one, the rule quietly points at an empty address — which is how forwards seem to "break by themselves".
On this router:look for DHCP Reservation, Address Reservation, Static Lease or Manually Assigned IP
- 2
Open the router admin page
From a device on the same network, open one of these in a browser:
- 192.168.0.1
- 192.168.1.1
- 192.168.2.1
- 10.0.0.1
Almost always printed on a sticker on the router itself.
- 3
Find the port forwarding page
Port Forwarding, Virtual Server, NAT, Applications & Gaming, or Port Mapping
Vendors use at least six names for the same feature. Whatever it is called, the page you want is the one asking for a port, a protocol and a device on your network. If the external and internal port fields both exist, set them to the same number.
- 4
Create one rule per line
a description field, if there is one External / WAN / Public / Service port Internal / LAN / Private port Protocol Internal IP / Device / Server IP ARK: Survival Ascended 7777 7777 UDP your server’s local IP Use the same number for the external and internal port. You can make the external one different, but then every player has to connect on that new number, so keep them identical unless you have a specific reason not to.
- 5
Let the server through its own firewall
The router is now sending traffic to the right computer, but that computer can still turn it away. Windows Defender Firewall is the usual offender: it blocks a newly installed dedicated server by default, and from outside that is indistinguishable from a broken forward.
Take it with you
ARK: Survival Ascended — port forwarding rules ---------------------------------------------- 7777 UDP -> <server local IP>
Check whether it worked
Always test from outside your network. A connection from another device in the house proves nothing: that traffic stays on your LAN and never passes through the rule you just created.
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The usual mistake
Most ARK port guides on the web were written for Survival Evolved and tell you to open the game port, the one after it, and 27015 as well. Ascended uses none of those. Following the old advice leaves three ports open where one would have done — and, worse, sends you looking for a networking fault you do not have when the real problem is elsewhere.
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Skipping port forwarding
ARK is usually a memory problem before it is a networking one. Put a full tribe on a modded Ascended map and an ordinary home PC runs out of RAM well before port configuration is what is holding you back.