Port forwarding for a Don't Starve Together server
Every shard in Don't Starve Together runs as an independent server with a port of its own. So a world with caves means two servers and two ports, and a public listing adds the Steam ports on top.
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 10999. If you changed that, use whatever you set in server_port in server.ini.
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.
- 10998-10999 UDP
10999UDPMaster shardThe overworld shard players connect to.10998UDPCaves shardEach shard runs as its own server on its own port. A cluster with caves needs both forwarded.
Only if you want them
The server runs fine without these. Each open port is one more door for strangers to try, so leave out what you do not need.
- 8767-8768 UDP
8768UDPSteam querymaster_server_port, for the public listing.8767UDPSteam authenticationauthentication_port.
Do not open these
Good news: this game has no remote-admin port that could be exposed by mistake. Forward the ports on the left and stop there.
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 Don't Starve Together 10998-10999 10998-10999 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
Don't Starve Together — port forwarding rules --------------------------------------------- 10998-10999 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
Forward just the master shard and players can join the world but get disconnected at the cave entrance. By default the caves shard sits one port below the master — the reverse of every other game here — which makes it easy to write the rule the wrong way round.
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Skipping port forwarding
With a dedicated cluster the seasons keep moving even when nobody is logged in — and for a long-running save, that continuity is a big part of the appeal.