Simple Asus RT-AC53 Router Port Forwarding Instructions

The Asus RT-AC53 router has a firewall that helps protect your home network from unwanted Internet access. The Asus RT-AC53 firewall does this by blocking all unauthorized connections.

When you play a game online or use an application online and find that you are getting kicked off repeatedly, or you experience more lag than you should, some of the connections may be being blocked by the firewall. To fix this problem you need to create a port forward for the device you use to play the game or application.

You create a port forward on your Asus RT-AC53 router. We will walk you through every step in the process. These steps are:

How to setup a static IP address on the device you are forwarding these ports to.
How to login to the Asus RT-AC53 router.
How to find the port forwarding section of this router.
How to create a port forward entry.

You may want to print out these instructions.

We think that forwarding a port should be easy. That's why we created Network Utilities. Our software does everything that you need to forward a port.

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When you use Network Utilities you get your port forwarded right now!

Step 1

It is important to setup a static ip address in the device that you are forwarding a port to. This ensures that your ports will remain open even after your device reboots.

Recommended - Our free Static IP Setter will set up a static IP address for you.
Another way to get a permanent IP address is to set up a DHCP reservation.
Or, manually create a static ip address with our Static IP Guides.

This step is important because you want a permanent IP address in your device. If you do not set up a permanent IP address in your device, then when you device reboots it may get a new IP address.

Use a VPN Instead

Have you considered using a VPN instead of forwarding a port? For most users, a VPN is a much simpler and more secure choice than forwarding a port.

We use and recommend NordVPN because not only is it the fastest VPN, it includes a new feature called Meshnet that makes forwarding a port no longer necessary for most applications. With NordVPN Meshnet, you can connect to your devices from anywhere in the world, completely secure, over a highly encrypted VPN tunnel.

Every time you click on one of our affiliate links, such as NordVPN, we get a little kickback for introducing you to the service. Think of us as your VPN wingman.

Step 2

This second step is all about how to login to the Asus RT-AC53 router. To do this you need to open a web browser. It doesn't matter which one, I recommend picking a favorite such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox.

Now that you have opened a web browser, find the address bar. The address bar is normally at the top of the page like this:

Image of a browser address bar — Browser address bar

Above is an example of what a web browser address bar looks like. Find the address bar in your router and type in your router's IP address.

The default Asus RT-AC53 IP Address is: 192.168.1.1

Once you have typed in the IP address into the address bar, just click the Enter key and you should be directed to the following page or box:

Enter the router's username and password into the appropriate boxes and press the blue Sign in button to access the router's management pages.

The Default Asus RT-AC53 Router Username is: admin
The Default Asus RT-AC53 Router Password is: password

Having Trouble?

If you are unable to login to the Asus RT-AC53 router there are a few things you can try:

First, we recommend trying other Asus usernames and passwords. If you have a different firmware version you might also have a different username and password. For a complete list of the default Asus passwords check out this Asus password list.

If none of the Asus passwords helped, it is because you have changed the username and password in the past and don't remember what you changed it to. You can either guess what you changed it to or you can use our Find Password App. It will guess thousands of different common username/password combinations for you. Learn all about it on this Router Password Cracker page.

Finally if you are still unable to login after trying both of the above options, it may be time to consider a factory reset. A reset like this erases all your settings so don't reset the Asus RT-AC53 router unless you have tried all other troubleshooting options first. Learn the basics of resetting a router on this How to Reset a Router page.

Step 3

You should now be logged into the Asus RT-AC53 router. It is time to find the port forwarding section of the router. To help you with this step we start on the Network Map page.

On this page, look in the left sidebar and click the option of WAN under the heading of Advanced Settings.

Then at the top of the page click the option of Virtual Server/Port Forwarding.

Screenshot of Asus RT-AC53 Virtual Server Port Forwarding.

On this new page, make sure the Yes option is marked next to Enable Port Forwarding.

Step 4

Here are the ports to forward for Xbox Live:

TCP Ports: 3074

UDP Ports: 3074

If you are looking for the ports for a different application you can find it by either:

Browsing our List of Games

Check out our our List of Games by Genre

See our List of all Applications

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Create a name for this forward and put it in the Service Name box. The name is only used as a reminder and has no effect on the port forward.

In the Port Range box type the ports to forward.

Your ports can be entered as a list 23,24,25, a range 500-600, or a combination of both 23,45,500-600.

Enter the IP address that you are forwarding ports to in the Local IP box. This is either the IP address of a computer or the IP address of another device on your network.

Select the protocol type of the ports you are forwarding from the Protocol box.

When you are all done click the + button.

When you are finished make sure to click the Apply button under the list of forwarded ports.

Test Your Ports

Now that you have finished forwarding the ports for the Asus RT-AC53 router you need to check them to see if they forwarded properly. We recommend using our Open Port Checker. It can be found in our FREE trial version of the Network Utilities bundle. Our port checker differs from others you find on the Internet because we use a local application to see if the ports are listening. This guarantees that you will not get a false positive. Go ahead and check it out, it's FREE.