Asus RT-N56U Lan Ports Not Working? – Easy Fix Steps!

Kevin Wood Updated on
asus rt-n56u lan ports not working

Asus RT-N56U LAN ports not working and you’re wondering why?

On your Asus router, you’ll be able to see quite a few LAN ports.

The blue LAN port is where the internet cable connects and the yellow ports are used to hook up other devices for a wired connection.

When the ports are not working, there are several methods you should attempt.

To fix the LAN ports on Asus RT-N56U, users need to make sure that the LAN and WAN settings are correctly configured. Then a power cycle will reset ALL services and in case this method does not help, the factory reset will get the job done.

About Asus RT-N56U LAN Ports!

On the Asus RT-N56U, the WAN and LAN ports are not colored. The WAN port is the one on the left and the other 4 x LAN ports are the ones on the right.

Before drawing a conclusion you’ll need to identify whether the WAN port is not working or just the LAN ports.

When an Ethernet cable is connected to a LAN port, the respective LED blinks in orange!

You can easily determine this by checking whether you’ve got active WiFi.

In case the WAN port is not working, the router won’t have the internet to transmit over the WiFi, thus you’ll have no wireless connectivity.

When there is WiFi, then your WAN port is just fine.

In case the machine connected to one of the LAN ports does not receive internet, then you should focus your attention on the LAN ports. This will help you localize the problem.

How To Fix When Asus RT-N56U LAN Ports Not Working?

fix asus rt-n56u lan ports not working

Now when you’re aware of whether it’s the WAN or LAN ports that are not working, you can take a quick look at the solutions and apply only what’s necessary for your situation.

In case you’re inexperienced, we suggest performing the solutions in order for complete troubleshooting!

Solution #1 Use A Different LAN Port

The very first step when a LAN port appears not to be working should be to test another entry since the Asus RT-N56U does support 4 x LAN ports.

The LAN ports are the ones from right to left, except the last one, which is the WAN (internet supply) port.

Simply disconnect the Ethernet cable and connect the cable to a different LAN port.

Don’t forget to secure the connection on the other end and make sure that your computer’s Ethernet port is blinking.

This is important because the problem might be on the computer’s end and not on the router’s side.

In case everything appears to be OK, but there is no internet, proceed with the next solution!

Solution #2 Hard-Reset Asus Router

reset router

Sometimes when the LAN port on an Asus router is not working, the problem could be software-related and the ports have nothing to do with the problem.

In case the device has not been restarted in a while, this is your chance to reset ALL services by performing a hard reset.

This method discharges the router and in most cases solves the LAN ports issue:

  1. Turn OFF your Asus RT-N56U router via the power button.
  2. Disconnect the power cable from the back of the device.
  3. Disconnect the power cable from the power source as well.
  4. Remove the Ethernet cable from the LAN port.
  5. Unplug the Internet cable from the WAN port as well.
  6. Wait for at least 3 minutes until the device completely discharges.
  7. Connect and secure all cables back into their ports.

When you’re ready with the power cycle, turn on your Asus router and check whether the LAN ports are now working. In case they don’t proceed with the next solution!

Solution #3 Update Router’s Firmware

The LAN ports on your Asus RT-N56U might have stopped working out of a sudden if the support for certain features dropped.

In that set of thoughts, the solution would include updating the firmware to the latest version by reaching into the control panel of the Asus router.

update router firmware

Here’s how to update the firmware of your Asus RT-N56U:

  1. Use a machine that can connect to the Asus RT-N56U via WiFi.
  2. Open the web browser and insert “router.asus.com”.
  3. Use admin/admin or admin/password to log in to the control panel.
  4. Download the latest Asus RT-N56U firmware version here.
  5. In the control panel of your Asus router go to Firmware Upgrade.
  6. Press on Upload, and select the recently downloaded firmware version.
  7. The router will automatically start the update.

The update takes about 3-4 minutes and the router will restart during the process.

In case the update fails, the device will enter an Emergency Mode, the LEDs will indicate this, and will restore the previous operation. When the update concludes, perform a test of the LAN ports.

Tip: You can even use a mobile device to perform the update!

Solution #3 Configure LAN Ports IP Pool

In case you’ve undertaken a reset of your router or the device is brand new, the LAN ports should be configured in an IP address pool to start functioning well.

In this solution, we’re going to use the default values for the LAN ports but in case that fails, you might need to contact the ISP.

Open and log in to the Asus RT-N56U settings and go to the LAN tab from the menu on the left.

Insert the following IPs respectively:

  • IP Address – 192.168.1.1
  • Subnet Mask – 255.255.255.0

When you’re ready hit Apply on the bottom of the page and click the Reboot button on the top right.

When the device restarts, check whether the LAN ports are now working correctly.

Solution #4 Disable The Asus Firewall (Temporary)

The connection of the LAN ports might be virtually obstructed due to the Firewall protection in the router’s control panel.

You’ll need to temporarily disable the shields to check whether the LAN ports will start working.

disable firewall

Here’s how to temporarily disable the Firewall of your Asus RT-N56U router:

  1. In the router’s control panel go to Firewall.
  2. Configure the settings in the following way:
  • Enable Firewall – NO (YES by default)
  • Enable DDOS Protection –  NO (YES by default)
  • Logged Packets Type – None
  • Enable Web Access From WAN – NO
  • Port of Web Addresses From WAN – 8080
  • Respond to Ping Request From WAN – NO

Press the Apply button and restart the router to save the changes!

Remember: Revert the changes back to their defaults if the solution didn’t help.

Solution #5 Factory Reset The Asus Router

This is the last and most drastic measure against the LAN ports problem on your Asus RT-N56U router.

This will revert ALL settings back to their default values, which in most cases turns out to be helpful against any type of connectivity problem with the device.

Here’s how to factory reset the Asus RT-N56U router:

  1. Open the Asus router control panel.
  2. Go to Administration.
  3. Select Restore/Save/Upload Settings.
  4. Choose Restore and confirm by pressing the OK button.

The reset takes about 3-4 minutes on average and when the reset is ready, you would need to configure the WAN settings from scratch.

To avoid contacting your ISP proceed with the next part of the guide where you’ll learn how to fill in the missing information.

Asus RT-N56U Ethernet Port Not Working?

The two reasons why the Ethernet port on your Asus RT-N56U router is not working are two:

  • No internet is being delivered by the ISP
  • WAN settings are not configured properly

Before contacting the ISP for help, make sure to attempt configuring the WAN settings:

issues on ethernet port

How To Configure WAN Settings?

Basic Config:

  1. WAN Connection Type – Automatic IP
  2. Enable WAN – Yes
  3. Enable NAT – Yes
  4. Enable UPnP – Yes

Wan DNS Settings:

  • Connect To DNS Server Automatically – Yes

Account Settings:

  • Authentication – None

Wan IP Settings:

  • IP Address – (type in Google “What’s my IP Address”)
  • Subnet Mask – 255.255.255.0
  • Default Gateway – 192.168.1.1

When you’re ready hit the Apply button and test whether the WAN port is now working!

Quick Recap:

Hence, the LAN ports on your Asus RT-N56U are not working because the user entirely is faulty or a software bug is preventing the data transfer. To solve the problem users need to hard reset the device, stop the firewall and reconfigure the LAN settings.

Read Next: How to Fix Asus Router Guest Network Not Working?

Read Next:

Final Thoughts:

Now that we know why the Asus RT-N56U LAN ports not working, you can attempt to solve the problem at home.

However, before drawing conclusions, you definitely need to contact your service provider for a professional inspection of your device.

In the worst-case scenario, you might have to purchase a new router.