Can 2-3 players play from one Internet Connection?

[zarakand]

I'm just wondering if 2-3 players can play off of one DSL connection. I have 2 computers connected to the internet via a network, and at times both of us can get on gamespy and join a game. At other times it seems nearly impossible.

Earlier today a friend brought his computer over and we thought it would be great for all 3 of us to play on gamespy. The three of us could never join games. However, when a few hours earlier the two computers at my house could with ease. Does 3 put us over some sort of limit? I have the required ports open on my router.

Thanks for any help

 

[the oob]

You can, but you need to all use different ports. Go to your main game folder, and use the _Civ4config shortcut (it's a shortcut for the file you want to edit). Scroll down to a line that says

; NetComm Port

and change the port number beneath that line to something unique for each computer... one of the computers can keep the original port (2056) if you want. Then forward each of those ports on your router (UDP, not TCP).

So for instance, you could change it so the computers are using ports 2056, 2057, and 2058 respectively, then you would need to port 2056 UDP, 2057 UDP, and 2058 UDP on your router.

 

[Doomed_UK]

We often have 3 machines connected trough my router to the same civ game without playing around with the ports. We only play direct IP though.
If one of the 3 machines hosts only one other in the room can join it though.

 

[zarakand]

You can, but you need to all use different ports. Go to your main game folder, and use the _Civ4config shortcut (it's a shortcut for the file you want to edit). Scroll down to a line that says

; NetComm Port

and change the port number beneath that line to something unique for each computer... one of the computers can keep the original port (2056) if you want. Then forward each of those ports on your router (UDP, not TCP).

So for instance, you could change it so the computers are using ports 2056, 2057, and 2058 respectively, then you would need to port 2056 UDP, 2057 UDP, and 2058 UDP on your router.

Thanks I'm going to try this when we all get together one Wednesday again.

We often have 3 machines connected trough my router to the same civ game without playing around with the ports. We only play direct IP though.
If one of the 3 machines hosts only one other in the room can join it though.

We don't have a problem via lan or direct ip, only when all three of us try to be on gamespy at once. It's a lot more fun to play with 7-10 humans than 3 humans.

 

[Seb2]

I dont get, even theoretically, why you would need to mess around with ports to play many in a LAN to a server outside?
All such client to server connections are supposed to be dynamic.
You could have hundreds of pc's in a LAN connect to the same website at port 80 at the same time, no worries there. Should be the same connecting to a Civ IV server running at port 2056.
I just dont get that...

 

[zarakand]

Not sure why it works, but I did follow the advice above and it solved my problem.