Can't play multiplayer

[pmarg4]

Hello,

Me and my friends recently found out about this game and we were really looking forward to play multiplayer. Three days ago I tried to host and join a game with one of my friends and it didn't work (it tried to connect to the server but it failed). I restarted my router and then it worked. Today I have tried to do the same but it hasn't worked. None of my friends (we were 3 three players) could host or join a game. We have tried to forward ports and disable the firewall but nothing has worked.

[fcxSanya]

Hi,
you definetely should be able to join accessible hosts (at least with properly configured or disabled firewall).

Make sure you are trying to connect via an external IP (see for example http://www.whatsmyip.org/);
if your router supports UPnP and it's disabled, you can try to enable it as an alternative to port-forwarding;
also you may make sure that the external IP reported in the router/modem status info is the same as one on http://www.whatsmyip.org/ (someone reported he had ISP's router providing network for multiple flats in the building, so his own router had a LAN-type (192.168-something) external IP, while the IP reported by whatsmyip belonged to the ISP's router).

If you checked everything above and it doesn't help, try to expiriment with someone who is able to both host/join games (you should be able to find such people in the lobby).

[Hog]

Same issue here, spent a few hours on it last night, no luck. The game install seems to take care of the local firewall, and checking that showed everything ok.The router was set to UPNP enabled, and its firewall was checked, everything ok there.

There seems to be some step by step instructions lacking in this area.  We were trying to connect on a LAN home network, I know this does not let me try to access "out" on the net and back "in" to my LAN (found this out from IP cameras installation), but I can usually connect remotely , from the net in to the LAN.  This may be what is holding me up here. I was looking forward to a good game between my daughter and myself while she was visiting, but the 'unable to connect to the server' error was all we came up with.

I am not a network guy, and this Westell router is junk, but required by my ISP, I just have to work with what I have, 

[feneur]

If you are trying to connect to a computer on the same LAN you can not use the lobby. You should be able to use the direct connection though, see http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/Manual_SettingUpAGame#HostingJoiningaMultiplayergame for more information. You do however need to enter the local IP (i.e. the one given by the router to that specific computer on the network rather than the one which is used when accessing the internet) and that might be a bit harder to find depending on your router.

[Hog]

We did try that, but I was unable to set a static IP, I will work on that this week. This router is antique and proprietary, so much of the options are either hidden or unavailable. Too bad you cannot just connect two machines with a serial cable or Bluetooth. 

[fcxSanya]

On 12/7/2016 at 2:42 PM, feneur said:

You do however need to enter the local IP (i.e. the one given by the router to that specific computer on the network rather than the one which is used when accessing the internet) and that might be a bit harder to find depending on your router.

LAN IP is listed by ipconfig (Windows) / ifconfig (Unix) utilities (as 'IPv4 Address' or 'IP Address' or 'inet addr').

57 minutes ago, Hog said:

We did try that, but I was unable to set a static IP, I will work on that this week. This router is antique and proprietary, so much of the options are either hidden or unavailable.

You shouldn't need to 'set' anything, as soon as you connect a PC it either recieves a LAN IP automatically (via DHCP) or uses a pre-defined (on the PC side) one.

1 hour ago, Hog said:

Too bad you cannot just connect two machines with a serial cable or Bluetooth. 

You can connect PCs directly via a network cable, you have to specify (a different) IPs on both machines manually in this case.

[Hog]

We did try the local ip first, I had no luck there, elsewhere in a forum someone said to use the ISP ip to the router, we tried that as well.

The static IP was recommended elsewhere as well, just as happy not to do that, it is very difficult on this router. UPNP is enabled as well.

As for the network cable, tell me more,  are you saying to run cables through the router to each computer? (I am no network genius). Or run network cable from PC to PC direct (this doesnt sound right to me).

I think you are saying PC to router - router to PC.  then just use the assigned DHCP address?

If no luck there I will have to look into firewalls and AV.  So far both PC firewalls indicate ports open on 20595 for 0AD. If on the LAN, the router firewall shouldnt be a factor right? 

I am getting too old for this stuff, I learned computers using Z80 assembler on a Digital PDP with  a teletype terminal...

[Loki1950]

Quote

I am getting too old for this stuff, I learned computers using Z80 assembler on a Digital PDP with  a teletype terminal...

 Like this

I wrote my first code on am IBM 1700 series system on punch cards so don't complain all that much. Lots of fun if you drop a box of cards(about 2000 cards) and forgot to use the last 5 columns for sequencing there was always someone at the card sorter in recovery mode.

Enjoy the Choice  

[fcxSanya]

On 09/12/2016 at 2:21 AM, Hog said:

As for the network cable, tell me more,  are you saying to run cables through the router to each computer? (I am no network genius). Or run network cable from PC to PC direct (this doesnt sound right to me).

Both configurations should work.

Since you have a router, you can connect via it, and it's a bit easier: you just have to check host IP via ipconfig/ifconfig and enter it on client, see @stanislas69 0 A.D. Lan Tutorial.pdf (originally posted here: https://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?/topic/21454-cant-host-multiplayer-game-even-lan-¿port-forwarding/&do=findComment&comment=323405).

But you also commented on something like direct router-less connection, so I answered that you can use it as well. In this case you have to configure LAN IPs manually, since you don't have a DHCP-server. See a network configuration example in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0k63-FWqfw (up to 3:50, file sharing part is not relevant). For 0 A.D. part: start host on one machine and connect to host's LAN IP on client.

[Hog]

Partial success, thanks for the pdfs! I downloaded the game on my server, then I set it up for host and was able to connect with my laptop and join the game. With that setup working I should be able to figure out why it only works on the server, I suspect it has to do with the router port forwarding. All incoming is routed to the server as that is the ip camera command center. Anyway, very encouraging, I will keep working in it.

[Hog]

Ok, a few more hours spent on this. My laptop will connect with the server and I can play multiplayer that way, but daughters laptop just shows server connection errors. After some experimenting, I think the homegroup associations may be the issue, my laptop and server are in the same group, hers is not. Direct cable did not work, as I found I need a crossover cable not a network cable to do that (my laptop is 9 years old). Apparently newer ones auto configure, but mine doesnt. I will keep working on the LAN issues as I still believe I can make this work, but I do not have her laptop available often.