Easiest Way to Forward Ports on the Asus RT-N56U Router

Your Asus RT-N56U router includes a firewall that helps to protect your home network. A firewall's job is to block potentially dangerous connections to and from the Internet. By default some of the safer connections have been opened so you can use the Internet. However there are times you want some of the blocked connections opened. This process of opening a port or connection is called a port forward because you are forwarding a port through the firewall and sending it straight to a device on the network.

We will go over how to:

1. Setup a static IP Address on the device or game console you want to have these ports forwarded to.
2. Login to your Asus RT-N56U router.
3. Navigate to the port forwarding section.
   • Click the Advanced Setting button.
   • Click on WAN.
   • Click the Virtual Server button.
4. Finally, what data to enter to get your ports forwarded.

We will be walking you through each and every step in the process to getting your ports forwarded for the Asus RT-N56U router.

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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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

It is now time to login to the Asus RT-N56U router. Your router uses what is called a web user interface. What this means is you need to use a web browser to access the router interface.

Go ahead and choose your normal browser and open it up. Common web browser choices are: Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer and Firefox. It shouldn't matter what browser you want to use, just pick your favorite.

Once you have opened the browser of your choice, find the address bar at the top of the page. It should look like this:

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-N56U IP Address is: 192.168.1.1 After entering the IP Address in the address bar, click the Enter key on your keyboard. The following box appears:

You should see a box prompting you for a username and password.

• The Default Asus RT-N56U Router Username is: admin
• The Default Asus RT-N56U Router Password is: admin

Enter your username and password, and then click the OK button to access your Asus RT-N56U router.

Trouble Logging In?

This is a common place to get stuck. Here are a few things you can try:

• Try other common Asus username/password combos. Router firmware updates sometimes change the username and password. Here is our list of Default Asus Router Passwords.
• If other Asus passwords did not help you log in, it could be that you changed the username and password in the past and have forgotten. If this is the case, why not use our Find Password App. It automates the process of guessing different combos for you. Learn more about this on this page.
• Finally, if nothing else worked, you may need to consider a reset. A factory reset like this one erases all personal data and maybe even ISP data you are unaware of. We strongly suggest trying other options before resorting to a reset. Learn the basics of resetting a router in our How to Reset a Router guide.

Step 3

It is now time to find the port forwarding section of the router. To do that, let us start on the first page:

First, click the Advanced Setting button in the left sidebar menu.

Then, under that click the WAN option.

Finally, click the Virtual Server tab at the top of the page. This should take you to a page like this:

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

Don't forget to sign up for NordVPN's promo deal before it's gone.

Enter the name of the program into the Service Name box. It doesn't really matter what you put into this box, but something that will remind you why these ports are being forwarded is be a good idea.

In the Port Range and Local Port box type the port to forward.

You need to enter the IP address that you are forwarding ports to in the Local IP box. It's possible for this to be either the IP address of your computer or any other IP address on your network that you want ports forwarded to.

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

After you are done click the Add button.

Once you have finished, click the Apply button to save your changes.

Test if Your Ports are Open

It is always a good idea to check your work. Did those ports forward correctly?

To test the ports to see if they forwarded correctly, we recommend using our free Open Port Checker. This can be found in our free trial version of the Network Utilities. Not only is this Open Port Checker free but it is Guaranteed to work.

More

Check out some of our other guides:

• Is this a Router or a Modem?
• What is a Firewall?
• Here's a guide to Understanding DHCP.
• An Introduction to Subnetting.