Crashing Multiplayer? - Info on Firewalls, Routers and Proxies

[Opengrave]

I feel bad asking this with all of the tech talk here but has anyone had any success with PTW using (don's asbestos pants)AOL?

I reeeeally want to play this game and I've bought a copy but I hesitate to break the seal until I know it is going to work.

Win 2K Pro with a fairly new machine
No firewalls etc... that I know of.

Any experience is appreciated.

 

[Omnipa]

I am behind a Linksys router, static IP with P4 1.6 512 g4 10gig running WinXP.

I have joined, played, been involved in reloads...all good. I have hosted and reloaded, even substituting an Ai for a missing human Player. As long as everyone is following good practices and has low ping I think the game is fine.

Yesterday me and four Online buds played for two hours, then took a break, when we Reloaded, it would "send save game" then drop one of the players, he could still chat into pre game lobby, but was not in player list.

Now today, the refresh in the Multiplayer lobby is buggy.

I am really getting frustrated, Firaxis or the publisher needs some more visible support. It is a shame that such a wonderful game is being killed by this buggy release. I know most folks are frustrated to tears <sobbing softly>

 

[DaveMcW]

I'm using a linksys and haven't gotten port forwarding to work yet. According to the helpfiles I may have to disable DHCP, is this true? I don't want to reconfigure all the computers in my house if it's not neccesary.

 

[Isak]

@Opengrave: Sorry, I don't know much about how AOL works personally. Are there any AOL users out there who can help out?

@Omnipa: It doesn't sound like a problem with the game if it has been running smooth for a long time and then suddenly crashes. More likely a problem with the computer, internet, someone else's computer etc..

The bug with reloading a save game sounds like a bug though, but if refresh in the MP Lobby used to work, and then suddenly doesn't, something tells me it is not a game-bug.

And I don't know how visible you want your support, but you can always try writing Infogrames, or posting in their support forum for starters. Or post here (but I guess you already knew that )

@DaveMcW: AFAIK you will have to disable DHCP, to ensure that the ports get forwarded to the correct computer, since DHCP theoretically means that your computers will get different (LAN) ip's everytime they reconnect to the Router (i.e. after re-booting), so there is no way to ensure that a specific computer receives the data. Often they will anyhow, but I guess Linksys decided to setup things like this as a safety feature, so that ports don't suddenly get forwarded to the wrong computer.

Try DMZ combined with a software firewall which is setup to allow total access to Civ3, Directplay and Gamespy instead.

 

[Coffee]

Their maybe one other helpful setting to reduce lag. That is to change your network settings to Full Duplex. I'll leave it at that, since I am not very good at explaining these things. Hopefuly, someone will pick it up from here and provide a more informed explanation.

 

[Dap]

i have basically all the problems with multiplayer sessions as described earlier by others. (i.e. firewall msg, getting kicked out before game starts etc). i don't have a hardware nor software firewall. however, i used to have a software one which is now uninstalled. could it be the case that my old firewall shut the necessary ports down and that they are still closed although the firewall is deleted? If so, how do I go about opening them up again. BTW, can't remember which software i used...

would be most thankful for any help with this...

 

[Isak]

@Coffeecup: True, this may help a bit, especially if you have an internet connection which supports it, but in some cases it also helps speed up connection between the computer and external devices like switches, hubs and similar.

@Dap: That sounds very strange. If you go into the control panel and look in the Add/Remove programs section, is the firewall still listed there?

Also, check the list of active programs by using the CTRL+ALT+Del keys. Perhaps some part of the firewall still starts up.

Try deactivating any antivirus software if neither of the above shows any evidence that the Firewall is still installed.

 

[Dubber]

I know most of the folks here are having problems playing multiplayer over the net, but I can't get PTW to work in a local game on my home LAN in a peer-to-peer mode. I'll host a game on "Host A" and join with "Host B." Both PCs show that Host B has joined, but that's it. Host B locks up, and after about a minute, will get an invalid page fault associated with civilization3x.exe. I've tried hosting on B and the same thing happens to A. I'm running fully patched versions (1.14f/1.29f) on both machines. Infogrames tech support thought it might be a firewall (ZoneAlarm) issue or a proxy (Comtun) issue--both are running on a dual-homed host that I use to share my internet connection. I've set up port forwarding in my proxy for all the ports listed to the PC I want to host with (Host A), although I'm not sure if I need to configure bi-directional UDP mapping for the ports that use the UDP protocol--I've tried it both ways. I've also set ZoneAlarm to run in "low" on program control and "low" on "internet zone" (it's set to "off" for "trusted zone"). And, I've manually added civilization3x.exe, dplaysvr.exe (DirectPlay), and aphex.exe (GameSpy) to "allowed programs" and allowed them to act as servers both in the trusted and internet zones. However, I think that I should be able to play a local game in a peer-to-peer mode, so I've tried it while shutting down the dual-homed host altogether--same effect, in that I see the game, I join it, and the joining computer hangs with the resulting invalid page fault. Suggestions, please?

 

[Isak]

I'm totally unfamiliar with the Comtun Proxy, so I may be mistaken, but it doesn't sound to me like you're running peer-to-peer, but rather that your two computers are only connected through a third computer running a proxy. If that is so, you need to be able to setup the proxy to forward all traffic from Host A to Host B and vice versa, and it sounds like so far you have only set it up to do it one way. Traffic is fine from B to A since the proxy forwards the correct ports to A, but Traffic from A only gets to the Proxy which then doesn't know what to do with it, so far as I can tell.

Of course, then the problems should have been eliminated when you shut down, the proxy, so the problem is probably somewhere else.

If you say the problem exists regardless of which computer hosts (did you try hosting from both, without the Dual-homed host on?), then you should start going through network settings, and possibly check your TCP/IP settings (even going so far as to reinstall the TCP/IP protocol, though that might give you a hard time when you want to reconnect the Dual-homed server)

I may be terribly off though - the setup seems a bit confusing. Let me get some more details (physical connection type for example) and I'll read up a bit on the Comtun manual meanwhile, even if it isn't necessarily the problem.

In the meantime, have you tried if both computers can connect to internet games individually and simultaneously?

 

[Dubber]

Isak, maybe this will help...



Basically, host A & B can function peer-to-peer because they're both in the same subnet and not directly connected to the "server". Host C (the "server") merely acts as a proxy to share my internet connection and runs the firewall--I can shut it down and still swap files, share resources, etc between A & B. Because neither A nor B have any sort of firewall or proxy software on them, none of their ports should be closed.

If I were playing an internet game and wanted to host, I would use host A because I've forwarded all the ports to that IP. I haven't tried to host or join an internet game from either A or B as of yet--thought I would tackle the simple stuff first. I do see incoming chat from the multiplayer lobby/setup screen, so that's a good sign. But, right now I'm just concerned with trying to figure this LAN game out.

Yes, I've tried hosting from both A & B with and without C being on, and the result is always the same--the joining computer hangs right after it says it has joined the game. It's like there's some sort of session or handshake problem.

I haven't tried reinstalling the TCP/IP stack because it seems to be working for everything else I do, game and net-wise. I do run DHCP from my proxy, but I have it set up so that the IP leases never expire. So, for all intents and purposes, A & B have static IP addresses. I plan to do one more test, which is to connect A to B directly with a cross-over cable--this will rule out the network entirely.

Comtun is made by Linkbyte--www.linkbyte.com. I think I have port forwarding configured correctly, although I may have done a bit of overkill in that I've set the proxy to forward to host A any traffic on the ports specified from IPs 24.XXX.XXX.XXX (my static IP provided by my ISP), 192.168.0.1 (gateway), and 0.0.0.0 (any IP). I'm not sure if I should configure bi-directional UDP mapping for those ports that use UDP--I didn't see anything in the manual and nothing on the board mentions it.

Anyway, I appreciate your help. This is driving me nuts.

Dubber

 

[Isak]

@Dubber: I must admit I'm a more than a bit puzzled by this. I can't figure out where things could go wrong, but if you could test that both computers are able to connect out of the house and that you are able to start a game over the internet with both computers. This is just to make sure that it isn't an 'application error' so to speak.

If you are successful playing online games with both computers (not necessarily at the same time), I'll do some more wracking of my brain to figure out what can go wrong (if anything) in that setup above.

 

[samizdat]

I have tried to play PTW since Christmas- no luck. I am running XP home version.

I've gone through the troubleshooting thread and tried to do everything stated.

I turned off the XP firewall
I checked my IP
I can't find any other firewalls

What I don't understand is how to check/modify my ports.
I used the utility program and some of my ports didn't respond.

Can someone give me more detailed instruction on how to do this and/or other things I need to do in order to play.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Isak]

@samizdat: First of all, sorry about the late reply. Email notification isn't working for me, so I somehow missed your post.

There isn't really a standard procedure to open ports. The exact procedure depends on what equipment or software is blocking the ports, so it's necessary to know what (if anything) is blocking those ports. No ports are blocked by if you don't have special equipment or software doing this (unless your Internet Service Provider block ports, or you are on a shared connection, for example in a college or at work).

So I can't really give you any standard procedure without knowing what it is that's blocking. If you've gone through your own pc, you should contact your ISP to hear if you are behind some kind of proxy or NAT Router, or if there's any other reason you would be unable to connect to internet games.

 

[Snipe65]

Hey quick question.
I am behind a linksys router. I have enabled dmz host on my ip, and when i join other multiplayer games i don't have any problems. However when i try to play a civ3 game, v1.14f i can get into the pre-game chat and setup area but once the game starts my game just quits, no errors nothing just exits. Any ideas ?

 

[Isak]

If you're absolutely sure your own system is configured properly, then it must be one (or more) of the other people in the games you try to join that are not set up properly. Try 1-1 games to troubleshoot, and if your opponent can join/host other games, then it's starting to smell like somethings not set up on your computer.

The strange way it crashes, also makes me think you should try reinstalling the game. Ususally windows will manage to throw out an 'Invalid Page fault' error or something similar in a crash like this, but if there really isn't any kind of error message, it is a bit spooky.

 

[Cletus]

Originally posted by Isak
@shinji

Only one player per internet connection/IP Adress is allowed, I'm afraid.

Arrg! Is this the final word on this? Two of my buddies are behind a router (using a single cable modem). Using the Trigger Port 6073, Incoming Port Range: 2302-2400 (D-Link router) method one of them can now join an IP game I host from my place, but the second player can't join.

FYI: Enabling the DMZ didn't work at all, for even a single player.

 

[duke22]

I've got a problem of my own and I seem to be the only one having this.

I can connect into multiplayer games without problems on DirectIP. However, after a couple of time in the game, my connection suddenly drop. So I'm kicked out of PTW and even from Messenger and I've got a nice little icon on my task bar saying "Local Cable Unplugged". It last about 5 seconds then everything returns to normal.

When playing with just another person, it's not so bad but when playing with two or more people, it drops all the time.

I call my Service Provider tech support for help but he couldn'T see anything strange with my connection.

I'm running on XP with a DSL/Cable modem.
My network card is a DLink DFE 538TX/R.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[mabellino]

I've just bought ptw and patched it to 1.14f (I'm in the uk ) and have tried several times to join mp games through gamespy. I can get as far as the attempting to join multiplayer game countdown screen then it gives the attached msg.
I'm running XP Pro (sp1) and I connect to ntl broadband via a server running Win 2k Advanced Server. I have no problem chatting in the lobby but this failure to connect is doing my head in I've disabled all firewalls and before doing so allowed the civ3.exe and gamespy programs to connect to the internet and act as a server through zonealarm so their ports should be open. I also ran a scan ports program but couldn't make sense of the info (I'm not a major techie but I can hold my own!) I'm at my wits end. I also phoned ntl's tech support and they told me I wasn't behind a router and my pc had it's own IP address which starts with 192 i think??
What I'm basically asking ( in a roundabout way) is if I will have to make my pc connect directly to the internet instead of using ICS and the server?
Thanks in advance

 

[Isak]

@Mabellino:

A few things from the top of my head:

1. The IP-adress, is that on the client or the host computer? An IP using a 192.168.XXX.XXX adress is on a local network, so it could be behind a router. If it's on the client machine, then it would just be assigned by your host computer.

2. This article from Microsoft's knowledge base may be the solution to your problem.

3. Did you also remember to allow DirectPlay access to the internet, and to act as server? I assume you did, but since you didn't mention it, I thought I'd better ask

4. I'm sure it should be possible to make it work. As long as the game uses DirectPlay, it should be possible to connect via ICS, so don't give up

Let me know if none of the above helped.

@duke22:

Oops, I somehow failed to see your post until now. My explanation is that I don't get email notification, so I sometimes miss a few posts to my subscribed threads It's no excuse though, so please let me know if you're still having problems.

One thing to check is that power management on your network card isn't set to power off the card after a few minutes of inactivity. You can do that by right-clicking my computer, select Properties, click the Hardware Tab, click the Device Manager button and find your Network card. Then choose properties, and if there is Power Management (or similar) tab in there, go in and disable that feature right away.

Also make sure you have the latest driver for XP, as there were apparently problems with the ones WindowsXP install for this card. You can find them here. Note that you'll need to press 'Download' and then wait until the FTP page opens, and download the file: DFE-538TX_XP.exe

It's only a longshot though, but if you still need help, let me know a bit more about your type of connection (like do you need to manually establish connection using a PPPoE client, or are you 'always on', as they say?)

 

[cmtlac]

I am posting here and will post new thread if no response. I have been using PTW for at least 6 months with no, I repeat no, problems hosting a game on my local lan. Easter, last month, I hosted a game with family on local Lan using Windows XP SP1 as OS. I use a Linksys switch to connect all computers which is uplinked to Linksys DHCP router for internet connection. Have never played online, just on LAN. Today, family is together for Mem.Day so we want to play. Ooops! Now, on my WinXP computer every time I click "Host" I get error message. It is an application fault 1000 with civilization3.exe at fault address 0x0008c0bf. Well, okay, so I go to Win98 computer to host and I don't get error message but WinXP computer cannot see the local game to join and does not reach under DirectIP. All the computers can ping each other from command prompt. So...I reinstalled all game software incl. original Civ III and all patches thru PTW 1.14. Still no luck. Updates that I have done include Windows Media Player and new codec, updated Nvidia drivers (tried roll-back but no difference), updated to DirectX9.0a, and the usual MS security updates. Still no difference. I even changed which NIC I am using on the WinXP computer but still is no difference. I am at a total loss to explain what has happened. I do not think this is IP problem or port problem but a a civ3.exe problem. Any help would be appreciated.