Troubleshooting Connectivity

Lord Parkin said:
Yes indeed - most of the pitboss games I'm playing at the moment are hosted by Dynamic DNS. :)
Click to expand...

Maybe confusing myself here, but is there any difference between a Pitboss and a Direct IP game?

We've been playing Direct IP games between myself and 3 friends, where one hosts and the others connect to him. However, if any of us have to leave, we save up and come back another time... this isn't Pitboss as I understand it, where a game is hosted on a 3rd party's computer and everyone comes and goes as they please?

As an aside, I've managed to set up a Dynamic DDNS to my router, and have been able to send packets through the router to the computer behind hit... so fingers crossed when my friends get home I'll be able to test if this has helped.

Cheers again.
 
Direct IP is the method by which the players connect to Pitboss games. So effectively they're the same thing, except the host needs to start the game through Pitboss - then he just uses Direct IP to log in, like everyone else.

Anyway, I see where your confusion is coming from. Yes, you still need one party to use their computer to host the game. Dynamic DNS doesn't do that part of it for you, I believe it just sets up a constant IP address that people can type in which directs them to the game host.

Generally the people that host the Pitboss games that I play in also play in the games themselves. I think that's the best way to do things, since that way when there are problems with the server or the game goes down, the host will realise and be able to fix it ASAP.

As I understand it, anyone in your group should be able to host, as long as they have a computer that can be left on 24/7. I think the best option is usually using an older, secondary computer for the hosting, so that you don't need to commit your main computer. As far as I understand, the old computer doesn't even need to be able to run a game of Civ4, just as long as you can install Civ4 and get into the main menu. (The reason is that the "heavy lifting" of loading up the map each turn is done by the computers of the individual players, not the hosting computer.)

Anyway, I hope that helps you somewhat. :)

- Lord Parkin
 
In all my life i have never played a game in multiplayer that is so moody like civ4!! So, this is the problem, my and two friends are playing over lan router, Warlords. Well, we are trying! When one creates a game over direct ip, only one more can enter, the other one has the problem: contacting peer .... We played this game for years and had all sorts of problems that we came to fix, but this one is SPECIAL! :crazyeye:

We have done everything, from setting ip-s, to turning firewalls and antivirus programs off, to putting laptops in same workgroup, patching, downloading new versions and nothing did the trick...

So, if anyone have ANY idea how to fix this?
 
StefOfDk said:
Could it be a good thing starting a thread on all solutions to problems? There is a lot of posts to go through here ...
Click to expand...
The idea of this thread (like a few others around the site) is simply for you to ask your question, and for someone else to hopefully post a reply fairly quickly. So go ahead and ask away. :)

I agree that it'd probably be useful if someone condensed all the answers into one "Troubleshooting Guide", but I don't think that's happened yet. (It would take a lot of someone's time to do, after all. ;) )
 
Okay, well, my problem is this:

Almost all of the civ-games I host or participate in, have connection issues. I am not sure my computer or connection is the problem, but it seems that ALL players need to have a lot of ports opened on the Internet router. And that does not make very much sense to me: You cannot create a game and assume that all users are Internet router experts, can you?

And my question is: What is the BEST way for the server host and the participating players to connect to a game? Must all players have certain ports opened? Is Direct IP the glorious solution? Should the server host exclude players that seem to be the problem, although it might not be them?

I am really getting weary of all the connectivity issues I have been having in my leagues. Almost all games start off 20 minutes late because of connection problems :-( :-(
 
Port 2056 is the main one to have opened. You should be able to google walkthroughs of how to open ports, although I agree it would be nice if Civ didn't require you to do the work yourself.

Another option is to use Hamachi (google it). As I understand it, it's some kind of virtual private network software. I'm not really much of a computer expert so can't tell you more - but in any event, I've found it's an easy way to get games working fast with minimal hassle. Only thing is that everyone you're playing with needs to download the software.

Hope that helps somewhat. Maybe someone with more technical knowledge can help you out a bit more. :)
 
I have heard about Hamachi before - and even downloaded it. I just think it is 1) a little bit too technical and 2) very hard to ask all the members of the Civ Multiplayer League to download it. It is hard enough to have them open port 2056 :)

Thanx for your reply!
 
Which method are you mainly using for your multiplayer games, by the way? Using Gamespy to host the games could be a solution if you haven't already tried that. (Multiplayer Menu -> Internet Games.) Direct IP can be a bit of a hassle to set up, so Gamespy tends to be the easiest method for online play, from my experience at least.
 
Ok.. here is the deal.... 4 buddies and me started an internet game.. we played.. eventually quit cause one got screwed no problem game ran flawlessly..

Then we go to start a new game... now no one can connect... so we try the port fowarding hoorah it works..

now we have tried to start a new one and nothing works.. not port forwarding not hamachi nothing.. what the hell gives.
 
Lord Parkin said:
Which method are you mainly using for your multiplayer games, by the way? Using Gamespy to host the games could be a solution if you haven't already tried that. (Multiplayer Menu -> Internet Games.) Direct IP can be a bit of a hassle to set up, so Gamespy tends to be the easiest method for online play, from my experience at least.
Click to expand...

We have been using Direct IP, but that depends on a technically good player (regarding Internet and routing) so we now use the lobby. However, we had less online issues with Direct IP after all, it seems.
 
So we all have 2056 open.. UDP etc.... is it possible we need to have upnp enabled? cause just having 2056 open has not allowed us to even play by direct IP.
 
Can I play multiplayer on a 56k modem?
 
I am unable to connect to the server. A message pops up saying server unreachable. Can anyone update me about the multiplayer gaming server, has it been terminated or under cinstruction?
Thank you
 
Hello Gerrard,

This appears when you are unable to connect to the gamespy servers.

Follow these steps:
1. Open the Civ4's ports on the exception list in your firewall.
2. Check if your connection is working properly.
3. Forward the Civ4's ports on your router. Visit the website -> http://portforward.com (There you ought to choose your router and follow the steps in order to forward the Civ4's ports).

You could also try switching off your antivirus programmes if portforwarding doesn't help, otherwise your connection might be insufficient to let you log on the Civ4 lobby.
 
thank you, after disabeling my antivirus I can connect to a game! no more messing around with ports :) i have avast, thx
 
Okay, when I go to join a game in the GameSpy internet games things, it will start to load for a minute, and then invariably state that the connection to the host has timed out. Is it because I'm still running Vanilla, or is it something else?
 
hey all. It seems my my problem is ages old. a friend just started playing and I want to play with him, but I never been able to connect the online server.
I get:
the connection to the game browsing server has failed
now, I've forward my ports, opened 'em on the default windows firewall, but the damn thing still wouldn't connect.
any chance you can help?
any tests that I have to run? thanks:)
 
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