Author Topic: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server  (Read 6909 times)

Offline Xeph

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Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« on: April 05, 2012, 07:23:31 pm »
I'm guessing I have a problem on my end. When I try to connect to his IP, I get this:

23:48:36: New status: Connecting (Connecting)
23:48:39: New status: Connecting (Connecting)
23:48:41: New status: Connecting (Connecting)
23:48:44: New status: Connecting (Connecting)
23:48:46: New status: Connecting (Connecting)
23:48:49: New status: Connecting (Connecting)
23:48:51: New status: Disconnected (No answer from remote host)

What's your network port setting on the settings window?

32322

Offline x4000

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2012, 07:29:19 pm »
Sorry for the slow reply, PAX East really disrupted us there.  You might try again in the next version, just in case it was a port issue.  Beyond that, it would have to be some sort of firewall blocking traffic on that port.  Sometimes routers are actually set up to block a lot of traffic (such as if you are at a university), but I don't know if that's the case here.
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Offline Xeph

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2012, 05:02:49 pm »
No problem, I expected you guys were busy with PAX. I'll check my software firewall settings, but I doubt it's related to my connection, as I can host and join games of AI War and various other multiplayer titles with high traffic.

Offline Fratricide

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2012, 07:21:46 pm »
I'm having the same problem trying to host.  No one can connect.  I realize it probably needs port forwarding set up but I went to portforward.com and they didn't have the info available.  I need the internal port and external port.  Under network setup in game it says UDP port 32322.  Do i put that in both fields for internal and external ports to forward?  Basically I think that is what I'm messing up.  I just guessed and put 32322 in both internal and external and I tried setting the protocol to BOTH and UDP.  Neither worked.  Need more info.

Offline x4000

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #4 on: April 24, 2012, 07:27:56 pm »
Your internal port is definitely 32322 on both internal and external -- also, UDP is all that is needed but there's no harm in setting it to both UDP and TCP.

What most people mess up is setting the internal IP address to forward to incorrectly.  You have to find out the internal address of the computer that is hosting it, and then set that address as the internal target of the forwarding on your router.

It could also be that there's a firewall on your local machine that is blocking the traffic; if you have multiple computers at home on that same network behind the firewall, the other computers should be able to see and connect to that machine without any port forwarding.  If not, there's a firewall that hasn't been set to allow the game as a server.

Hope that helps!
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Offline Fratricide

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #5 on: April 24, 2012, 07:47:33 pm »
My brain hurts.  Networking is definitely not my field.  I set everything exactly as you said as well as went into control panel and disabled the windows firewall.  I don't have virus protection on my machine or any 3rd party firewall.  (This computer is used solely for gaming)   Still when my friend tries to connect he is getting the same error.  I'll try with a different friend later to make sure it's not operator error.  =P

Offline x4000

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #6 on: April 24, 2012, 07:51:18 pm »
If you go to whatismyip.org, that tells you your public IP address.  Your friend is trying to connect in on that, yes?
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Offline Fratricide

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #7 on: April 24, 2012, 08:10:09 pm »
He tried that and in the game hosting window I also checked "advertise server on internet" so he also tried picking it off the list.  He said it shows up but it just keeps saying connecting...  I also just had a second friend try and he is saying the same thing.

Offline Fratricide

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #8 on: April 24, 2012, 08:16:15 pm »
This is a screenshot of how I set up the port forwarding.  I did an ipconfig in the command prompt and verified that I am actually 192.168.1.103

You have to click the picture a second time after you click the thumbnail to zoom in.



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Offline Fratricide

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #9 on: April 24, 2012, 08:18:33 pm »
I also gave them both my IP address 68.##.##.###

Offline eRe4s3r

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #10 on: April 24, 2012, 08:37:46 pm »
Have you tried rebooting your router after setting the ports? (power off, power on ;P )

Besides that, it might be possible that you are behind a double NAT. How do you connect to the internet? Cable Modem? DSL Modem?
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Offline x4000

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2012, 08:43:28 pm »
Your port forwarding is definitely correct -- thanks for sharing the screenshot.  And if you were advertsing your server and they still couldn't connect, that means there's no way your public IP was wrong.  That's good news!

Now we're getting down to closer to where the issue might lie.  Really there are only three possibilities left at this point:

1. You still have a software firewall running in some capacity that you may not be aware of.

2. Your ISP is doing filtering on nonstandard ports.

3. Your router itself is doing "application level filtering" and choosing to block the content, or is otherwise firewalling it off in some manner.  There are so many different firewall settings on the various routers that it could be a variety of things with this.

-----

It sounds like you've already pretty much exhausted issue #1.

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For #2, if that's the problem then you probably need to host the game on a different port.  In your server, you can go into settings and change the port to something like 80 -- or even better yet 443, the SSL port -- and then save and exit the server.  Then restart the server from the main game, and it should say you are now hosting on that port. 

Then you'd need to update your port forwarding to forward that port rather than 32322, and then your friends would have to do one of two things: a) change their port to whatever you set, in their own settings on their clients; or b) connect to you through the advertised public server listing, which handles the port-setting for them based on your advertisement.

The idea with this approach is that some ISPs (mainly in Europe) block whole ranges of ports from having any traffic go through them.  I'm not quite sure why, but I have seen it before with our game AI War.  A handy way to fool that with any game that supports it is simply to change your game to use one of the standard ports.  The reason we don't start the game preconfigured to use one of those ports is that the problem is really quite rare, and meanwhile those standard ports are often in use by other programs that the player might be running (personal web servers, etc).

-----

For the third problem, it pretty much comes down to poking around in your router settings for anything that says something like "firewall" or "application filtering" or similar.  And then making sure that anything suspicious there is turned off.   I wish I could give you more specific notes on this one, but it really varies so much by hardware.


Lastly, if nothing of this sort is working, you can always skip all that and use something like Hamachi or Comodo or one of the other free virtal private network providers.  These come at some performance cost to your networking, but with the benefit of utter simplicity in most cases.

Hope that helps!
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Offline x4000

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2012, 08:47:00 pm »
Have you tried rebooting your router after setting the ports? (power off, power on ;P )

Besides that, it might be possible that you are behind a double NAT. How do you connect to the internet? Cable Modem? DSL Modem?

Ooh!  Both really good suggestions.  I should have thought of those. ;)

Yeah, sometimes router settings are funny and don't "take" until a reboot.  Depends on the router.  If your firmware is out of date on the router, upgrading that to the latest version can resolve any firmware bugs that might be impacting you, too.  Sometimes firmware updates come with a general performance boost aside from games in particular, but just for general internet browsing, too.  So usually they are good to do, but almost nobody does them.

And then with the double NAT comment, that's really quite true.  If you've got a cable modem or similar, then a router of your own behind it, it's quite possible that the cable modem has its own firewall and so forth on there.  What you'd want to do in that case is to put the cable modem into "DMZ Mode."  In that mode, it offers no protection at all and it's just like being out on the Internet directly.  Which is no problem if you have a router of your own right behind there.  As it stands, if your modem isn't set to DMZ mode then that can make networking in general very difficult... I can tell you from personal experience.
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Offline Fratricide

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #13 on: April 24, 2012, 08:55:37 pm »
It's funny I just tried power cycling the router and come back upstairs and you said that.  =P  I have a cable modem.  One of those new DOCSIS 3.0 fast ones.  I don't know if that makes a difference.  lol

I just read your long post.  I think I'm definitely going to have to go with Hamachi or something.  I tried this website http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ You just type in the port you want to test to see if it's open.  Both 32322 and 443 both still say closed even after I change and save them on the port forwarding list.  There must be something on my PC that is blocking it but I can't think of anything.  This PC is strictly built for gaming.  I don't have anything productive on it whatsoever.  lol

I wouldn't even know where to start with the changing the cable modem to DMZ mode.  (Or even know what DMZ mode means for that matter.)  Demilitarized Zone mode?  lol

I have the upgraded tier from Comcast so my downstream is 35Mbps and upstream is 10Mbps.  I think I can eat the performance hit on Hamachi and still be fine right?

Offline Fratricide

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Re: Unable to connect to Toll's MP server
« Reply #14 on: April 24, 2012, 09:13:21 pm »
Don't get me wrong I love the in game music but it is driving me insane playing in the background while I'm trying to get this network part working.  lol