How to port forward a Terraria server

One TCP port. Terraria's networking is a plain TCP stream with no query port, no secondary socket and no UDP component whatsoever.

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 serverconfig.txt.

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 TCP
  • 7777TCPGame trafficTerraria is TCP. A UDP rule here does nothing at all.

Do not open these

This game has no remote-administration port to get wrong. Forward only what is listed on the left and nothing else.

Step by step: your router

  1. 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. 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. 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. 4

    Create one rule per line

    a description field, if there is oneExternal / WAN / Public / Service portInternal / LAN / Private portProtocolInternal IP / Device / Server IP
    Terraria77777777TCPyour 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. 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

Terraria — port forwarding rules
--------------------------------
7777  TCP  ->  <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

A UDP rule here does nothing at all — not less than it should, nothing. Because so many game guides default to UDP, this is a common way to spend an evening confirming that a correctly written rule is on the wrong protocol. If you are using a modded server such as tModLoader the port is the same, but the mod list has to match on both sides before anyone can connect.

Not forwarding at all

Terraria servers are tiny, so hosting one elsewhere is about keeping the world available rather than about performance. A world people can drop into unannounced is a different thing from one that requires coordinating with whoever owns the host PC.

How much RAM a Terraria server needsTerraria server hostingAll games
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