Port forwarding guide

If your machine is behind a home router, you must forward the game and query ports to it. Skip this if your machine has a direct public IP (most VPS/dedicated servers do).

Do you even need this?

• VPS / dedicated server: usually a direct public IP — no router forwarding, just the machine firewall.
• Home PC / home server: behind a router doing NAT — you must forward ports.

Find your machine's local IP

On the machine run ip a (Linux) or ipconfig (Windows) and note its LAN address, e.g. 192.168.1.50. Set it to a static LAN IP or a DHCP reservation so it doesn't change.

Forward the ports

1. Open your router admin page (often 192.168.1.1) and find Port Forwarding / Virtual Server.
2. Add a rule for each game and query port from the ports table, pointing to your machine's LAN IP, with the correct protocol (UDP/TCP).
3. Save and reboot the router if asked.

Example (ARK: Survival Ascended → 192.168.1.50)
  7777  UDP  → 192.168.1.50:7777    (game)
  27015 UDP  → 192.168.1.50:27015   (query)
  # Do NOT forward 27020 (RCON)

Test it

From outside your network, test the game port (e.g. an online UDP port checker, or have a friend connect). If players still can't join, check the machine firewall too — both the router and the OS firewall must allow the port.