Unable to connect to multiplayer game

[creodor]

Two friends and I tried to play a multiplayer game just now, and were unable to connect. All three of us attempted to host, and for all of us would try to connect and then fail with the error message "Server connection was lost or could not be established." We all have AI war unblocked in our firewalls, and I have the port it uses forwarded to my computer. Since both of my friends are at colleges, and are unable to do that, I normally host. Additionally, one of the two has been able to connect to my games in the past, while at his college. We tried to download Hamachi to bypass all of that, but on one of my friend's computer it does not connect at all. The other one and I attempted to connect with Hamachi but were unable to connect even with Hamachi. It would not show a game at all in the LAN view and via direct IP (using the Hamachi IP) it gave us the same message. We all have the Steam version, so its up to date. None of us are running the beta version. Two of us have Zenith Remnant, but had it disabled in order to play with the third who does not. If any additional info is needed, just ask and I'll supply it. Thanks in advance for any help.

[x4000]

Sometimes it will not connect on the very first try -- make sure you try it at least two or three times before giving up to make sure that it isn't simply that.

Beyond that, I would be suspicious of potential software blocking, or similar, at the college. One way to test is to open up a command prompt in windows and try telneting into the host ip and port to make sure that it is open. There are quick guides for that around on google, it is helpful for connectivity testing in any case.

Another thing to check is to make sure that you all have your ports set to the same value in ai war. If any of you changed it from the defUlt, you all must.

I presume that you have port forwarding set up on your router, but with hamachi that is not even a worry.

Hope that helps, please let us know if any of those solve it for you, they should be the most likely culprits bases on your description.

[Fiskbit]

Another thing to try is disabling your antivirus software, as it can block AI War from connecting to other computers. That's a common cause for multiplayer connection issues.

If you drop by the AI War IRC channel while I'm around there, I'd be happy to help you test your settings to see where the problem lies. In case I'm not there, there are other users in there with known good network configurations, too, and Revenantus (another staff member) also often hangs out there and would probably be willing to help out.

Sorry to hear you're having such trouble. Hopefully we can help you find a solution.

[creodor]

Thanks for the help and advice; it seems most likely that its the colleges blocking the game. We tried telnet, but it was unable to connect. We all have the same port, but no luck there. And one of my friends is completely unable to get Hamachi to connect to anything. It sucks, but not much we can do at this point. Hopefully the colleges will lighten up a little bit, but until then we'll keep searching for some way past the block.

[x4000]

Hmm, that does sound like what it must be, yeah.  You could try running it over port 80 to get around that; if all of you switch your AI War port to 80, then that may just look like regular HTTP traffic to the college.  And if Hamachi is not working, you might try one of the other (free) alternatives like Commodo or Wippien or similar.  But generally just changing the port to 80 or 443 or similar is a way around simple port blocking, though not more sophisticated deep packet filtering.

[creodor]

We tried the port used for Skype (as we use that for VOIP) as well as 8080, but we'll give those a try too next time we're all able to. Also, thanks for those alternatives to Hamachi; I knew they existed but couldn't remember the names.

[x4000]

My pleasure!