portforwarding, how does it work?

[zoutzakje]

I'm sure I read a topic about this somewhere, but I can't find it anymore.
So... I'd like to know how to do it, since I was gonna play a game with some1 tomorrow.

[x4000]

This is one of the best resources around: http://portforward.com/

But, briefly:

1. The client does nothing.

2. The host finds out their local behind-their-firewall IP address.

3. The host logs into their router.

4. The host forwards the single AI War port (configurable in settings if you wish) to their behind-their-firewall local IP.

5. The host finds their external IP (http://www.whatismyip.com/) and gives that to the client.

6. The client connects to the host via the external IP, using the same port that was set up in #4.

7. If there are still problems, make sure that there are not any software firewalls on the client or server side that are interfering (sometimes antivirus software includes firewalls you might not even be aware of).  There needs to be an exception in any and all software firewalls on the client and server side for AI War and its port.

Hope that helps!

[zoutzakje]

thanks for the quick reply. I have been reading pretty much everything on that website and I now understand what port forwarding is a bit at least. But I'm still having trouble with actually getting it to work (I suck terribly when it comes to computers and routers lol, I only know how to play games )
I know my external IP
I know what kind of router I have
But I don't know how I can discover my internal IP

Still puzzling a bit on that one

EDIT: allright, figured out nearly everything now. Only still stuck at step #4. I got a bunch of numbers and I need to figure out where to put them lol. But at least I'm getting somewhere now.

[x4000]

This should help with the internal IP: http://ask-leo.com/how_to_find_the_ip_address_of_my_computer.html

[zoutzakje]

cool thx. I'll look more into it tomorrow when I got more time. Been reading about this for hours now and it's starting to bore me
but thx for the help chris, really appreciate it.

[x4000]

My pleasure!

[zoutzakje]

I know it's kind of silly to make a post on a topic from nearly a year ago, but.... I just wanted to let new people know that Chris' advice really works lol. I couldn't make it work back then because i didn't know my dad had put up a password for entering the router, which he didn't feel like sharing with anyone :/ Had to use Hamachi instead.
Tried port forwarding somewhere else and it worked.
A bit late perhaps, but thanks Chris

[x4000]

My pleasure.