Why can I not connect/join most online games?

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meowsqueak
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Why can I not connect/join most online games?

Postby meowsqueak » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:36 am

I have noticed that I cannot 'join' a good proportion of online games - perhaps 80% or more. What happens is that the game tries to connect multiple times and never gets past a 50% yellow progress bar.

I suspect this is because I am behind an external firewall, using NAT. This means I can only connect to servers that are directly connected to the Internet. Am I right in thinking that if both ends are using NAT then that is when the connection/join attempt fails?

How can I work around this issue, please?
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MrBunsy
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Postby MrBunsy » Sun Oct 08, 2006 11:01 am

In theory (I think) two people behind NAT can't connect to each other, unless they both forward ports through the NAT. I'm behind NAT (but have ports forwarded) and have hosted games which other people behind NAT have connected to so I'd recon there is a high chance that it's simply the servers not being set up properly, but you could have a go at forwarding Defcon's ports through your external firewall.

http://www.portforward.com/ is very useful btw, and by external firewall, do you mean a peice of equipment you can't get access to? or a router? If you can't access it you might not be able to do much.
meowsqueak
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Postby meowsqueak » Sun Oct 08, 2006 11:36 am

MrBunsy wrote:In theory (I think) two people behind NAT can't connect to each other, unless they both forward ports through the NAT. I'm behind NAT (but have ports forwarded) and have hosted games which other people behind NAT have connected to so I'd recon there is a high chance that it's simply the servers not being set up properly, but you could have a go at forwarding Defcon's ports through your external firewall.

http://www.portforward.com/ is very useful btw, and by external firewall, do you mean a peice of equipment you can't get access to? or a router? If you can't access it you might not be able to do much.


Thanks for your reply.

I shall see what I can do about forwarding those ports through my firewall. I have access to it. I'm not sure that will solve this particular problem, as it does look like a server-side issue, but I can at least try.

By 'external' I meant it's a separate box - i.e. a router - rather than a 'personal' (software) firewall on my PC.

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