D-Link AirPlus DI-524 routers all include a basic firewall that helps protect your home network from unwanted access from the Internet. Since this firewall blocks incoming connections you may need open a port through it for certain games and applications. This process of opening a port is frequently called a port forward, since you are forwarding a port from the Internet to your home network.
In this guide we will show you exactly how to setup a port forward on your router. These steps are:
- Setup a static IP address on the device you are forwarding these ports to.
- Login to your D-Link AirPlus DI-524 router.
- Navigate to the port forwarding section.
- Create a port forward entry.
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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.
It is a good idea to write down this static IP address. You will need it a little later in this guide.
Step 2
In this second step, we will be showing you how to login to the D-Link AirPlus DI-524 router interface. A router provides you the interface through a web browser. Open up the web browser of your choice, it usually does not matter which browser you decide to open. Some recommended browsers are Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, and Firefox.
Open up your web browser and find the address bar. It should look something 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 D-Link AirPlus DI-524 IP Address is: 192.168.0.1
After you put the IP address into the address bar you can simply press Enter. If all goes well you will see the following screen:
You should see a box prompting you for your username and password.
- The Default D-Link AirPlus DI-524 Router Username is: admin
- The Default D-Link AirPlus DI-524 Router Password is: password
Enter your username and password, and then click the OK button to log in to your D-Link AirPlus DI-524 router.
Dlink Usernames and Passwords
If your username and password do not work then please visit our Default D-Link Router Passwords page. It is possible your firmware version has a different username and password.
If you still cannot login to the D-Link AirPlus DI-524 router, try and guess what you changed it to. If you need help, check out our Find Password App.
If you still can't login to your router because you forgot your Dlink DI-524 router username and password, use our How to Reset a Router Password guide to set your Dlink DI-524 router back to its factory settings. However we do not recommend resetting your router unless you have exhausted all other options first.
Step 3
Now we need to find the port forwarding section in your router. Here's how you do it. Starting from the first page in your router:
First, click the blue Advanced tab at the top of the page.
A new set of choices should appear in the left sidebar. Click the link labeled Virtual Server.
You are now on the correct page to make some port forwards.
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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Make sure that the Enabled radio button is selected.
You need to name this entry in the Name box. The name does not make any difference in the forward; it's just there so that you can remember later why you setup this forward.
Enter the IP address that you want to forward these ports to in the Private IP box. You can enter either the IP address of your computer or the IP address of another computer or device on your network.
Select the required protocol for these ports from the Protocol Type dropdown box.
Enter the port to forward into both the Private Port and the Public Port boxes.
Make sure that the Always radio button is selected.
After you are done click the Apply button.
Most people will never need to use this, but I'm going to explain why they have Private Port and Public Port here.
The Private Port and Public Port entries are actually rather useful. They are there so you can direct traffic at two devices on your network.
Let's say that you have two devices running Ftp servers on your network. Let's call these devices device one(192.168.0.1) and device two(192.168.0.1).
Let's also say both these ftp servers are running on port 21. Okay we setup your router to forward port 21 to device one(192.168.0.1:21).
So every external IP address request from ftp goes to device one. How do we get to the second device? Well the Private Port and Public Port entries allow us to specify another outside port to connect to our internal port 21. Lets make the additional port, port 30. We would now setup a rule in the router with the Public Port set to 30 and the Private port set to 21. The IP address in that rule would be 192.168.0.1. So when you wanted to ftp to device two you would specify port 30 in your ftp client.
The router would see these requests coming in on port 30 and forward them to (192.168.0.1:21). This would allow you to ftp to both devices.
When you are finished, click the green Apply button to finalize your settings.
Your ports should now be open. It is time to test them.
Test if Your Ports are Open
Now that you have forwarded ports on the D-Link AirPlus DI-524 you should test to see if your ports are forwarded correctly.
To test if your port has been properly forwarded, you can use our Network Utilities tool, which includes a free Open Port Checker. Our Open Port Check tool is the only online port checking tool with Guaranteed Results.
More...
If you are having difficulty forwarding ports please use our Port Forward Software. Our software does all the work for you making forwarding the right ports easy.
We have more than just port forwarding guides, check out our full list of guides here.
Do you need help setting up your router? How secure is your network? Some routers by default have absolutely no network security. Secure your network and more at setuprouter.com.
