(Solved) Having trouble connecting to my own server

[admiralicious]

I've noticed that there are other threads dealing with this issue but none seem to have anything useful about resolving the problem. I bought the game today for me and my girlfriend and I'm trying to set a server up, but I cannot find my own server through LAN games or connect directly via IP using 127.0.0.1 as the target IP. I don't think it's being blocked by a firewall, but I'm not sure how I would double check (I use AVG anti-virus if that helps). I shouldn't have to do port forwarding to connect to my own server should I? In my experience port forwarding has always been a massive pain that rarely solved the problem I was having. We were planning on using hamachi to connect to each other, but I'd like to get it working on my side before I try and introduce a second player into it.

[x4000]

Are you actually on your same machine, or are these two separate machines?  If it's the same machine, there really should be no issue with connecting to your own server.  Port forwarding only applies if you're trying to connect out to a router and then back in.

If it's on your local machine with the server and your game, then the problem really could only be one of three things:
- Some sort of software firewall.
- Some sort of server error (try checking the game folder for any sort of error messages, or hitting tilde (~) on the server console to see if anything has popped up.
- Something strange with virtual adapters and/or adapter order on the machine.  There are a few other threads talking about changing your adapter order here.

If you're on a windows OS, you might go into control panel and check the Firewalls section (or Security section, the wording varies by OS) and see if there are any software firewalls listed there that might be blocking this.

Hope that helps!

[admiralicious]

Hey x4000, it's the same machine which is why I'm so confused. Regardless I went through port forwarding's tutorial for opening ports for AVWW on my router and confirmed the port is open so that shouldn't be the issue. I've checked my firewall and it has been set to allow AVWW on public and private and it was set to inform me of blocked programs anyway. Since I have never seen that error (I alt-tabbed to check) I don't think that's the problem. The server is coming up with no error messages either.

What's this about adapters? I'm afraid everything I know about this sort of thing has been learned as I've needed it and I'm unfamiliar with this...

[x4000]

Hmm, very odd.  For the adapter order, you might look here: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,11638.msg120746.html#msg120746

If that doesn't work, we'll need some more info -- what OS you are on, in particular.

[admiralicious]

My Girlfriend tried to connect to me and couldn't. We're connected via hamachi and she tried to connect via LAN, my IP and my Hamachi IP to no avail. I sort of wish we could have tried connecting in the Demo before I bought it. We're both excited about the game but neither of us are very good when it comes to this sort of thing

[admiralicious]

I tried reordered my adapters to put hamachi on top but it didn't help. My girlfriend is able to host and connect to herself but I can't connect to her so the problem must be on my end. I'm using Windows 7 professional and bought the game on Steam if that helps. I am able to see her game on internet games but not lan, and when I try to join it says that connection could be established. I cannot see anyone else's game.

[x4000]

Hi there, sorry for the delay.  It really sounds like you have multiple firewalls running on your machine.  Possibly AVG and Windows Firewall are both running; that often causes confusion because while you've allowed the game in one firewall, another firewall still steps in and blocks it.  If you are using the AVG firewall, my advice would be to turn off the Windows Firewall if you haven't; that will prevent all manner of confusion with similar things in the future.

Hope that does it!

[admiralicious]

I'm using the free version of AVG which does not include a firewall. I've tried turning off the windows firewall and trying to connect and it didn't help When I get home tonight I'm going to try installing it on my netbook. It's too low spec to play the game properly but it will give me an idea of where the problem might be...

Sorry to be so awkward! lol. The game looks great and I don't begrudge you the technical issues I would just like to get it working.

[x4000]

Sorry about that... hmm.  One thing is that the netbook might be able to act as a server, since it's just a matter of the CPU performance on the server, which isn't much.  But still... would be good to solve this.

Generally speaking my suspicion is still a firewall; that's the usual culprit with something like this.  But you could also look and make sure that your port is set the same on the server process and the main game process -- if you changed the port, it might not be.  The server and the main game have different settings files, so if you change one you have to change both; and if someone else is trying to connect to your server, they have to also change their port to match the one you specified on the server.

[admiralicious]

I've figured it out! The problem arose from corrupt Winsock settings! I reset that, rebooted my pc and the game worked immediately. So basically it was totally my PC's problem and nothing to do with the game whatsoever.

For anyone Googling to resolve a similar issue, try running command prompt as administrator (right click, run as admin on "cmd" in start menu), and type is "netsh winsock reset". Then reboot your pc. If it asks you if you would like to remap your LSP answer no. If you had the same problem as me, this should fix it for you, otherwise follow x4000's sound advice earlier in this thread.

Even though you couldn't help in the end, x4000 (not surprising since it was such an obscure problem) I'd like to thank you for trying so hard and getting back to me so quickly! It's not every developer that would take technical support for their players so seriously. You're a class act and I appreciate it!

[x4000]

Oh, cool!  I never would have figured that out -- thanks so much for posting the solution to it, because I imagine that will help others in the future, too.

I really appreciate your support and kind words, and I hope you and your girlfriend have a blast with the game now that the networking travails are past!