Linksys EA8300 Router Port Forwarding Steps

A Linksys EA8300 router protects your home network by blocking unwanted incoming internet connections and acting as a basic firewall. Sometimes you need to open a port in your router in order to get a good connection for a game or to use a specific device on your network. The EA8300 lets you choose the applications that are allowed to connect through an open port. By opening a port in your router you allow a specific application or game to send data from the internet to your home network.

Follow the steps below to open ports in your Linksys EA8300 router:

1. Set up a static IP address on the device or computer you are forwarding these ports to.
2. Login to your Linksys EA8300 router.
3. In your Linksys EA8300 router, navigate to the Port Range Forwarding section.
   • Find the Security tab at the left of the screen and click it.
   • Find the Apps and Gaming tab located near the top of the screen and click on it.
   • Find the Port Range Forwarding link located near the top middle of the screen and click on it.
4. Create a Port Forwarding entry.

If the process of forwarding ports in your router seems difficult to you, you are not alone! Do not get discouraged. Let us walk you through the steps for opening a port in the Linksys EA8300 router. Just follow along as we lead you through the process of opening a port in your 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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Setup A Static IP Address

In order to keep the ports in your router open, even after a reboot or disconnect, it is important to set up a static IP address in the device that you are forwarding a port to.

• Recommended - Our free program will setup a static IP address for you.

  → Download Network Utilities today!

• Or follow our Static IP Address guides to setup a static IP address.

After setting up a static ip address on your devices you need to login to your router.

Login To Your Linksys Router

In order to login to the Linksys EA8300 router you need to use a web browser. The Linksys EA8300 router uses what is called a web interface where you can access and control router settings.

Go ahead and open up your favorite web browser. If you don't have a favorite or are not sure what this means, open up Chrome, Firefox, or Edge.

If this step is confusing, we have simplified it for you with this link: Login to your EA8300 Router

Find the address bar once you have opened up a web browser. This is usually located at the top of the page, like in the image below.

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

The Linksys EA8300 router's default IP address is: 192.168.1.1

Enter your router's IP address into the address bar of your browser and click the enter button on your keyboard. A box like the one below should appear.

Enter the username and password for the Linksys EA8300 in the corresponding boxes. Important Note: If you have changed them in the past, you need to enter in those values.

• The default Linksys EA8300 Router Username is: none
• The default Linksys EA8300 Router Password is: created during initial setup

To log in to your Linksys EA8300 router, enter your username and password, and then click the Login button.

Linksys Username and Password Trouble

If the username and password that you typed in did not work, check out our Default Linksys Router Passwords page for other ideas about possible passwords.

If, after trying the above list of passwords you still can't log in, you may need to reset your router. Learn how to do that by reading our How to Reset a Router guide. After resetting the Linksys EA8300 router your username and password are reverted back to factory defaults. Router settings may also change when you reset, so make a note of your current router settings before you reset.

Find the Port Forwarding Section

You should be on the home page of your Linksys EA8300 router once you have successfully logged in. Find the Port Forwarding section of your router.

• Find the Security tab at the left of the screen and click it.
• Click on the Apps and Gaming tab, which is at the top of the screen.
• Find the Port Range Forwarding link at the top middle of the screen and click it.

You should now be on a page that says Port Forwarding.

Create A Port Forward

Make sure that you must open a port in your router before doing so since this will allow data to come through the firewall portion of your router to a specific device. It is possible that this could lead to malicious traffic on your network. However, don't let this warning stop you from making this change if you need it because the risk is very low.

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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1. Click on the Add a new Port Range Forwarding button, which is at the left of the screen.
2. Type in a name for this forward in the Application Name box. Choose a name that will help you remember why this forward was set up since it does not affect the functionality of the forward.
3. If you are forwarding a single port, enter that port number into the Start Port and the End Port boxes. If you are forwarding a range of ports, enter the lowest number of that range into the Start Port box. Then enter the highest number of that range into the End Port box.
4. Make the Both selection in the Protocol drop-down list.
5. Go ahead and enter the IP address that you are forwarding ports to into the Device IP box. It is possible for this to be either the IP address of your computer or of any other device on your network that you want ports forwarded to.
6. Put a check in the box labeled Enabled.
7. Click on the Save link at the left of the screen.
8. Click the Apply button at the bottom of the page to apply these changes when you are completely finished.

Test Your Open Ports

Finally, test your network to see if you have forwarded ports in the Linksys EA8300 router correctly. To do this you can use Network Utilities, which includes a free Open Port Checker tool. Open Port Checker is the only online port-checking tool that has Guaranteed Results.

More Guides To Check Out:

• We have software that does all of this and more called Network Utilities.
• Learn how to Setup your router.
• A full list of games and applications that require port forwarding.