Hi! Can anyone walk me thru the steps to close port 53 on my home router? I would appreciate it.

L_Avocado74

My home router keeps opening a port 53, and Fing keeps telling me that my network is at risk... our family just had to wipe/ purchase all new electronics, as everything got hacked a couple months ago... if someone could walk me thru the steps to close this port, I would be super grateful! Thank you!!

Robin

Thanks for your post @L_Avocado74
I am sure our moderators can help you in this. Any advice @Marc @Pixel @rooted
Thanks

Marc

@L_Avocado74, your router probably had universal plug and play active.  (UPnP)...  Go into your routers configuration and turn it off, then reboot the router to clear the existing port assignments.  That will stop it from being opened automatically going forward.

Pixel

Hi @L_Avocado74 in addition to previous suggestions there could be a number of reasons why a port is open. Some isp routers will have a port open to allow firmware updates, some streaming services (With or without hardware) also open ports to allow multicast services (allow your video or music service to function). It’s arguable whether or not this is a good practice but it happens and frequently the port is locked open by a firmware change so you may not be able to close the port. Installation of a streaming service can also add port forwarding rules to your router’s firewall which will also open a port, deleting or disabling the rule will close the port but may stop a service or piece of hardware from working.

Run malwarebytes on your all of your computers to check that you don’t have malware opening ports & also run a full antivirus scan.

Go to www.grc.com and run “shields up” against all service ports, this will show any open ports and also use it to confirm that you have fixed the problem.

Next course of action is to check with your isp/router provider if they use some facility on port 53 although this is unlikely (TCP port 53 is normally reserved DNS queries).

Then check if any devices connected to your network (video streaming boxes etc.) are opening a port.
Port 53 should be open only for outgoing traffic destined for the DNS servers it should be Closed or “Stealthed” to incoming traffic.

L_Avocado74

Thank you so much! I will do that, and make sure all is well. I appreciate your responses. :)