What do I do for "connection attempt timed out"?

[bovinda]

I'm a complete noob at online gaming--never done it. I'm trying to set up a direct internet IP game between me and my buddy.

So I start a game and begin it. Then I tell him to connect. It tries for awhile, then says "connection attempt timed out" or something like that. On my end, he never joins, and there's no indication his computer tried to contact mine at all.

I have no idea what to do. I skimmed the stickied posts on connectivity, but it all sounds over my head. (e.g., I don't even know how to access port 2056, or if that might be the problem.)

Any suggestions? I'm using Windows XP w/ SP 2, Norton 2006 Internet Security, Civ IV w/ 1.61. The problem is the same whether I host and he tries to join or he hosts and I try to join.

Any help is immensely appreciated!

Edit: I forgot--I'm connecting to a DSL connection thru a Netgear WGT624 router, if that is significant. He's also connecting to a DSL connection thru a router (not sure of the model).

 

[sometemple]

you're not in over your head... you've just got to do a spot of reading. Got to www.portforward.com for information about how to get port 2056 opened up. They've got detailed walkthroughs for a variety of different routers. Also, make sure you're not running any type of blacklist filtering software (i.e. peerguardian), because they seem to love blocking gamespy, which is required to play civ online. Before you do ANY of that though, make sure it's not your firewall or something silly like that. Good luck.

 

[bovinda]

Sometemple, thank you so much! I didn't realize until I skimmed the page you sent me that port forwarding was the same thing as port opening. Or that port forwarding was done from the router. And sure enough, after forwarding 2056 on my router, we're able to play. Thank you for the link!

 

[bovinda]

I spoke too soon. We're having the same problem. We were able to play for a little bit, then stopped to take care of some things, and now we can't connect again--same exact problem.

It happens regardless of whether we try a direct IP game or a game thru Gamespy. I don't get it. Does anyone have any ideas? Any help is immensely appreciated...

 

[IglooDame]

I spoke too soon. We're having the same problem. We were able to play for a little bit, then stopped to take care of some things, and now we can't connect again--same exact problem.

It happens regardless of whether we try a direct IP game or a game thru Gamespy. I don't get it. Does anyone have any ideas? Any help is immensely appreciated...

Check and see if one or the other of you have your PC's firewall software up again.

 

[bovinda]

Both of our firewalls are set up to allow or permit Civ IV. (I'm using Norton IS 2006 and he's using the free version of Zone Alarm.)

Could it have to do with a static versus a dynamic IP address or something? I read somewhere that port forwarding requires a static IP address. But I don't think my IP has changed (according to www.findmyip.com) in a couple days, at least.

Am I overlooking something?

Edit: and when we tried playing through Gamespy, I could see him in the lobby and he could see me, but we still couldn't get our games to connect when I tried hosting. Does that mean anything?

 

[bovinda]

On closer examination, my IP address had changed--it just looked similar. When I gave it to my friend, we were able to connect twice. We're going to try again tomorrow to see if it keeps working--hopefully that was the trick. If so, I'll just set my IP to static rather than dynamic, as long as there are no security risks associated with that?...

 

[sometemple]

Someone's been doing their homework! Good. I'm glad the link helped.

Yeah, not having a static IP will sure mess you up sometimes. There's no real risk to switching to a static one (especially since you're running your firewall all the time). I have a problem sometimes because my computer assigns on IP to my wireless card and another to my ethernet card. Sometimes I get the two mixed up.

 

[bovinda]

The link did indeedy help, thanks sometemple. It's amazing how much you can learn just by trying to get a game to function! In any event, the last couple days it is still working, so I think we are good. I will look into setting up the static IP when I get a chance.