Troubleshooting Connectivity

[SkippyT]

Well... my problem is... connect. I go to Multiplayer-Internet Games-Login and enter my Gamespy ID and password and say Login and nothing happens! Looks like the computer is working for 5 seconds but then everything turns normal. I've never gotten into a multiplayer game. Please help!

Edit: I've seen that this has been posted before. I did as you said. And I tried to do the same but it now said: Your Username is blablabla..

Edit2: I have re-installed the 1.61 patch and everything turned back to the way it was in the beginning. I need some help here

 

[SkippyT]

AND it can't be a firewall problem like everybody says. I've turned off the firewall and tried. Please, somebody who has encountered this problem, help me!

 

[knupp715]

SkippyT, this has happened to me a few times. I will fix it and then a few weeks later it will happen again.

Try re-installing the game or re-installing the patch (use official site or the advanced in game option if official site doesn't work).

Make sure you have connection to the internet also. I lost it one day (after I posted in this thread) and encountered the problem again. As soon as I got my connection back everything was fine.

I'm not sure if this will help you but good luck. Maybe somebody else knows what is wrong with it.

 

[Hardvark]

Can someone help me please, I'm desperate! I'm having real problems connecting to a pitboss game. We've tried going through the lobby and direct ip, but with both I constantly seem to get the connection timed out message when I try to connect to the host (I've made sure that port 2056 is open for direct ip). It's absolutely frustrating as I can spend ages repeatedly trying to connect to the game, but just getting the same message. I've tried rebooting my pc and switching my router off and on, but nothing seems to make much difference.

Of course, it wouldn't be so bad if once I did manage to get in I could stay in. But my graphics driver keeps getting a thread stuck and rebooting my system. But that's a whole different story!

Does anybody have any suggestions for the connection timing out problem?

 

[SkippyT]

well, thanks for the responce knupp715 and it's good to know that somebody is reading this. But I've done that often and it doesn't work. I'm just praying that the new patch will be released shortly because this one is not so good. I'll just have to play SP for a while now..

 

[Agit]

Both my wife have been playing single player Civ4 games but now we want to play multiplayer Civ4. (us vs AI) Every time one us starts a LAN game (or Direct IP game) the other can not see the game it in the lobby. We are not running XP firewall and are connected to same Linksys router.

When we first encountered this problem I got an error/warning from Norton Ani-Virus about a port scan from 192.168.1.101 (my own machine) and my wife got the same message for her machine. I thought maybe this was the problem and created a rule to allow the port scan from my own system. This did not help.

I wasn’t sure if needed to open up the firewall ports for a LAN game but, just in case I did and opened port 2056 on the linksys. (Per post I found here)

We are both running the latest patch and I’m running out of ideas and most post I find here are seem to be related to internet(gamepspy) game issues.

Does anyone have any advice or links to post that deal with LAN specific issues?

 

[Agit]

Well I spent a little more time tackling this LAN problem I posted about above and found a very odd problem.

Test setup:

2 computers and 2 copies of the Civ4
I did the follow twice; once with Norton Ani-Virus auto protect ON and the second time with Norton Anti-Virus auto protect OFF.
No XP Firewall just a Linksys router
Computer A: 192.168.1.100
Computer B: 192.168.1.101

1) I have computer A ping computer B to verify network connectivity & I also have computer B ping computer A.

Results = successful

2) Launch Civ4 and Alt-Tab out to Desktop
3) I have computer A ping computer B to verify network connectivity & I also have computer B ping computer A.

Results = successful

4) Computer A creates a LAN game
5) Computer B attempts to find game after entering LAN lobby

Results = LAN game is not found

6) I Alt-Tab out to Desktop
7) I have computer A ping computer B to verify network connectivity & I also have computer B ping computer A.

Results = Unreachable destination (or Request time out) Both computers can get to internet but can not ping or browse internal network.

The only way to fix this problem and restore internal network is to reboot both computers. This totally boggles my mind. Launching Multiplayer Civ4 = dead internal network. Is anyone else encountering this network problem? Or have any suggestions?

 

[ressu]

I have exactly the same problem as above with 2 pc:s on LAN (+Norton).. How can this be, have they tested this at all??

 

[ressu]

Solution seems to be to disable Norton's Internet Worm Protection from both machines (Antivirus Options).

Just selecting civilization4.exe from Program exclusions is not enough for pc:s to see each other. After game is in progress the worm protection can be enabled again. A bit fiddly but seems to work...

 

[eskunk]

Agit: I experienced the exact same problem. I also conducted successful pings between the two laptops. connected via lan cabel and i also tried an adhoc network.
once civi was open the network was down until i restarted. Norton anitvir is installed on one machine. first start of civi4 i reported some worm thing. i did not pay attention and just clicked something. later i disabled all firewalls (windows and another one on the other laptop) and norton antivir but with no success.

I will deinstall norton and give feedback later

 

[Agit]

Solution seems to be to disable Norton's Internet Worm Protection from both machines (Antivirus Options).

Just selecting civilization4.exe from Program exclusions is not enough for pc:s to see each other. After game is in progress the worm protection can be enabled again. A bit fiddly but seems to work...

I tried disabling Norton's Internet Worm Protection and still have the same problem when creating a LAN game.

 

[Sedai]

I can start and run LAN games just fine, but my friend and I want to connect with a third person who lives miles away. This, we cannot achieve... I am starting to get the feeling LAN players can't participate in online games... which is odd, as we do it with many other titles...

 

[Great_Scott]

Hi all. I've been running a PTBS on my machine through a ADSL modem. I've just set up a wireless router as well... successfully, but now my fellow players cannot connect to my machine...

Any ideas?

 

[OverloadUT]

I can start and run LAN games just fine, but my friend and I want to connect with a third person who lives miles away. This, we cannot achieve... I am starting to get the feeling LAN players can't participate in online games... which is odd, as we do it with many other titles...

I strongly suggest taking look at a program called Hamachi. It allows you and your friends, be them in the same house or across the world, to connect together in a "Virtual Private Network" - once connected via Hamachi, which doesn't require any firewall configuration, you can play any game in "LAN" mode with no fuss. Basically, it makes it as if you were on a LAN with all of the people connected to your Hamachi network. I use it all the time with my friends for other games.

 

[OverloadUT]

Hi all. I've been running a PTBS on my machine through a ADSL modem. I've just set up a wireless router as well... successfully, but now my fellow players cannot connect to my machine...

Any ideas?

Were you using a router before? If not, then before you were directly connected to the Internet, whereas now you are behind a NAT and need to forward the appropriate port (2056) to the machine you are running Pitboss on.

Logging in to your router and telling it to forward all 2056 traffic (both TCP and UDP) to your server's IP address should do the trick.

If you already were on a router (and had done this already) then be sure the same configuration is active on your new router.

 

[sirkris]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if it's not a firewall/router issue, then chances are it's not caused by anything on your end. I posted a study here several months back that showed a direct correlation between the number of players in the lobby and the frequency of bad peer issues.

At around 50 players or less in the lobby, there are virtually no bad peer issues. Once you get to the 70-100 range, you'll find that only about 10% of the people are "good peers" while everyone else is finding it virtually impossible to join/host a game. Those same people (myself included) have no trouble later when the traffic dies down.


My point? The devs have a history of throwing the multiplayer together in a haphazard hurry in Civ releases, with the mentality that single-player is the top priority. In fact, as far as I can tell, there is no mention whatsoever of multiplayer improvements in the new Warlords release. From what I've heard (rumor, mind you), the lead dev has commented that they don't intend to fix any multiplayer issues in Warlords because, to paraphrase, "the multiplayer is just fine as it is."

In fact, I have a lot of experience designing and working with networking protocols, both peer-to-peer and client-server. Though I can't see the network code because they decided not to include it in the SDK, based on what I've observed I'd say that, roughly 90% of the time (give or take), the bad peer issue is caused by an excess in gamespy traffic, which is caused by more players being in the lobby. It's not so much gamespy's fault; most other games can handle the data without any peer problems. But if Civ4 is using some inefficient, sloppy, rushed, and/or thrown together chunk of monkey feces for its network code, then that would explain why the p2p ports suddenly close up whenever there are a large number of players in the lobby. If they're not compressing the packets efficiently, for example. The gamespy packets are so large they flood the open ports, leaving no room for players to connect (similar in concept to Denial of Service).

I've contacted the lead developer (who happens to be from the same town I grew up in apparently), but he has yet to respond. I'm guessing that they believe us multiplayers should be thankful they at least tossed us a bone.


If you want to get a game going and you've tried disabling firewall/router, I'd suggest your best bet would be to try hosting/joining during non-peak hours, preferably with less than 50 people in the lobby. It'll still be hard to get a game going (less players in the lobby; kinda a catch-22), but at least you'll be able to play with little or no peer issues. That's what I do, and I am able to get a 9-player game going just about every night if I do it during low-traffic periods.

Other than that, you can try complaining about it as I have. But given the lack of interest they've shown in even addressing these issues, I doubt it'll do much if any good.


Hope this helps! =)


--Kris

 

[mb352525]

Well... my problem is... connect. I go to Multiplayer-Internet Games-Login and enter my Gamespy ID and password and say Login and nothing happens! Looks like the computer is working for 5 seconds but then everything turns normal. I've never gotten into a multiplayer game. Please help!

Edit: I've seen that this has been posted before. I did as you said. And I tried to do the same but it now said: Your Username is blablabla..

Edit2: I have re-installed the 1.61 patch and everything turned back to the way it was in the beginning. I need some help here

I don't know if you are still having trouble connecting to Gamespy Multiplayer, but I had a similar problem and can now connect.

I have a valid Gamespy account which I tried to login with, and the game thinks for a few seconds, then does absolutely nothing.

Instead, I created a new Gamespy user account using the Civ4 interface.

*** This will only work if you provide an email address that Gamespy does not recognize already.

 

[Lokolos]

Both my wife have been playing single player Civ4 games but now we want to play multiplayer Civ4. (us vs AI) Every time one us starts a LAN game (or Direct IP game) the other can not see the game it in the lobby. We are not running XP firewall and are connected to same Linksys router.

When we first encountered this problem I got an error/warning from Norton Ani-Virus about a port scan from 192.168.1.101 (my own machine) and my wife got the same message for her machine. I thought maybe this was the problem and created a rule to allow the port scan from my own system. This did not help.

I wasn’t sure if needed to open up the firewall ports for a LAN game but, just in case I did and opened port 2056 on the linksys. (Per post I found here)

We are both running the latest patch and I’m running out of ideas and most post I find here are seem to be related to internet(gamepspy) game issues.

Does anyone have any advice or links to post that deal with LAN specific issues?

It is not a lan specific issue... it is a problem with Norton that detects the host/peer as an invasor and cuts the lan to prevent it from being attacked. To solve this problem open Norton -> Options -> Wormprotection -> look at which IPs are blocked and unblock your internal IP -> uncheck the box automatically block intruders.

Ps: Since this problem was solved in my computers and I do not have norton in my computer, the steps may not be completly accurate.
Ps2: I'm brazilian so there may be some English mistakes.

 

[Foodman]

Me and my freind want to do a 7 day CIV - IV gaming marathon next week, today we took a trial to see if we could get it to work, which we could not at all.

We are sitting in the same room, NOT connected to the internet, his & my windows XP firewall is turned off and so is his Norton Antivirus.

LAN:

We both get the following error when trying to create a LAN game:

"the network socket could not be created"
Followed by
"The Network socket encountered an error and was closed. Disconnected."
Followed again by:
"unable to start messaging engine"

Now i have been reading all i can find for the last couple of hours, and all i learned about LAN gaming is that we must be in the same workgroup and give each other acces to a folder, or harddrive or something in order to see each other in a LAN game, but we couldnt even get one started.

We also tried Dirrect IP Connection.
Since we were not on the net, we took ip # 1.1.1.1 & 1.1.1.3 with identical subnet mask
We could not connect to each other

I also tried to add IPX protocols (left over from my old DOOM II days ), with the same frame type but that also did not work to make us able to start a LAN game.

PS: We are connected by a standard ethernet cable to a hub

Now, as far as i can understand, most people are able to play together on a LAN, so me & my freind should too (i really hope since i took a week off from work).

All help will be much appreciated.

 

[Noey]

We both get the following error when trying to create a LAN game:

"the network socket could not be created"
Followed by
"The Network socket encountered an error and was closed. Disconnected."
Followed again by:
"unable to start messaging engine"

Yesterday we had the same problems. The game actually needs a connection to the internet at the same time you open a lan or direct ip game. We also noticed that at that point the ability to access the lan computers running Civ4 under Windows XP is interrupted. Our problem was that we couldn't see each others games in the lan lobby or get connected with direct ip. After 2h we gave up.
The day before we played over the internet via direct ip with no trouble. It would be nice to figure out the reason for this problem. I can't understand why the game connects to the internet for lan games. Maybe the programmers can cut it in the next patch?@Soren