Playing MP with a cable modem & router

[pigpen]

i have never had a cable modem before so i dont know much about them. my roomate has a router so we are both sharing the same cable connection. i am unable to play PTW online MP...i found a list of ports that need to be opened but i have no idea how to do this...also, if i do this will it affect my roomate's computer's security?

 

[Duantalus]

It all depends on your router. If you could tell me what it is I could most likely get you instructions for freeing up ports, and on most routers you can specify to what IP those ports are open for, so it would only affect you.

 

[Zalcron]

what if u r using a hub?

 

[Duantalus]

Using a HUB will not make any difference. In the situation that he describes they are both behind the same connection to the internet, that connection is an IP Address. Since that IP address can only be given to one computer only one of them would be able to go online at a time. Fortunately there is a common ‘cheat’ for this problem known as NATing. While the computers are NATed they each will have their own local IP Address and all requests to the internet will be processed by the router and then returned to whatever NATed computer sent it. Under this circumstance any special requests that are received by the router are simply ignored. That’s why you have to open ports in order to do certain things.

 

[Zalcron]

sorry, m network knowledge is extremly limited, r u saying like a using a router i have to open ports? if so how?

 

[Duantalus]

I’m not entirely sure that I understood you, but if what you are asking is if you have a router and are having problems with online play if configuring the router to open ports to you will solve the problem, that just may work.

 

[pigpen]

ok well i found out how to open ports and opened all the ones listed on ina-support.com and in the 25-page sticky thread and it worked for a couple games and now its not working again...this is really starting to piss me off. this must be why they are developing civ 4. this is a bit like microsoft, releasing things before they even work...if it is still simply a problem on my end, what else could it be after all the appropriate ports are open and it still doesnt work?

 

[Padma]

Originally posted by pigpen
ok well i found out how to open ports and opened all the ones listed on ina-support.com and in the 25-page sticky thread and it worked for a couple games and now its not working again...this is really starting to piss me off. this must be why they are developing civ 4. this is a bit like microsoft, releasing things before they even work...if it is still simply a problem on my end, what else could it be after all the appropriate ports are open and it still doesnt work?

The problem is not necessarily at your end, but that is most likely. Firaxis did a LOT of testing to make sure that MP worked in as many environments as they could. But there is a HUGE number of possible Hub/router/Modem/Video Driver/etc. configurations. Maybe they never ran into your configuration during testing.

BTW, would you mind *NOT* using bold and color for your default font. There is nothing in the forums rules against it, but it is hard to read against some background styles, and even we moderators only use it for *important* matters, not for routine posts.

 

[pigpen]

holy <expletive deleted> excuse me...maybe someone should change their background style

"important matters" lol its a game website what could REALLY be that important

Moderator Action: Admittedly, the most *important* stuff we have to do is police the forums, such as combining multiple spam posts into one, for instance, and telling the offender about it. Also pointing out that we run a "PG-rated" site, so we tend to *remove* a lot of offensive words. --Padma
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Zalcron]

Originally posted by pigpen
ok well i found out how to open ports and opened all the ones listed on ina-support.com and in the 25-page sticky thread ?

dude how do you open the ports??? i havent a clue please help! and am not using a router only a hub to connect 2 machines together.

 

[syknight]

If you're using a hub you don't need to open ports, because nothing will be closed to begin with.

Although, if you are running Windows XP it is possible you have Internet Firewall turned on, in which case it probably would stop traffic. Search google and you'll find tons of pages with explicit detail on how to disable it.

 

[Zalcron]

It is the firewalls, i have turned them all off and no joy still. Its no doubt something more complicated. But i am of the opinion the dam game is bugged!

 

[Duantalus]

Zalcron, I'm not entirely sure I understand your problem, since I was trying to help pigpens, perhaps if you explain it too me I could be of some help.

 

[Zalcron]

sure, see my first post here http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70214