How to port forward a Insurgency: Sandstorm server
Sandstorm needs its game port on UDP plus a Steam query port, which is a separate fixed default rather than an offset.
Your setup
Pick the firmware family, not the exact model — the menus are identical across a range.
Default is 27102. If you changed it, it is the value of -Port=.
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.
- 27102 UDP
- 27131 UDP
27102UDPGame trafficPort.27131UDPSteam queryQueryPort, a separate fixed default rather than an offset.
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.
27015TCPRCONAdministrative console.
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 Insurgency: Sandstorm 27102 27102 UDP your server’s local IP Insurgency: Sandstorm 27131 27131 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
Insurgency: Sandstorm — port forwarding rules --------------------------------------------- 27102 UDP -> <server local IP> 27131 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
Because the query port is not derived from the game port, moving the game port and forwarding a range around it leaves the query port behind. Sandstorm servers that nobody can find in the browser but everyone can join by address have almost always hit exactly this.
Not forwarding at all
Sandstorm's tick rate is what makes its gunplay feel right, and tick rate is the first thing to suffer on a machine that is also doing something else.