How to port forward a ARK: Survival Ascended server
Survival Ascended simplified this considerably: one UDP port, and nothing else. The game advertises itself through Epic Online Services rather than the Steam master server, so the separate query port that Evolved required has no equivalent here.
Your setup
Pick the firmware family, not the exact model — the menus are identical across a range.
Default is 7777. If you changed it, it is the value of ?Port= in the launch line.
The private address of the machine running the server — ipconfig on Windows, ip addr on Linux. It starts with 192.168, 10. or 172.
Open these
This firmware accepts ranges, so each line below is a single 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 administrative sockets. Plenty of guides list them next to the game ports; opening them puts a remote console for your server on the public internet.
27020TCPRCONRCONPort. Administrative only; keep it on the LAN.
If you need remote administration, reach the machine over SSH or a VPN and talk to the port from there. The port stays closed to everyone else.
Step by step: your router
- 1
Give the server a fixed local IP
A forward points at one address. If the server picks up a different one after a reboot, the rule silently starts pointing at nothing — this is why forwards "stop working" on their own.
On this router:look for DHCP Reservation, Address Reservation, Static Lease or Manually Assigned IP
- 2
Open the router admin page
Try these addresses in a browser on the same network:
- 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 External and internal port are the same number here. Changing the external port is possible, but then everyone connects on the new one, so keep them matched unless you have a reason.
- 5
Let the server through its own firewall
The router now sends traffic to the machine, and the machine can still refuse it. Windows Defender Firewall in particular blocks a freshly installed dedicated server by default, which looks exactly like a failed forward.
Take it with you
ARK: Survival Ascended — port forwarding rules ---------------------------------------------- 7777 UDP -> <server local IP>
Check whether it worked
Test from outside your own network. Connecting from a machine in the house proves nothing — that traffic never leaves the LAN and never touches the rule you just wrote.
What usually goes wrong
Nearly every ARK port guide online was written for Survival Evolved and tells you to open the game port plus one, and 27015 on top. Ascended needs none of that. Following the old instructions leaves you with three open ports where one would do, and — more importantly — sends you hunting for a configuration problem you do not have when something else is wrong.
Not forwarding at all
ARK is the game where the sizing question usually bites before the networking one does. A modded Ascended map with a full tribe will exhaust a typical home machine's memory long before its ports become the limiting factor.