The Technical Hosting Problems Thread

[Cattleya]

Post any issues or problems you are having either hosting or joining TCP/IP games, or stuff that has to do with the technical aspects of using hamacci.

You can find some information on setting up a TCP/IP game in Thyiad's MP Guide. (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?p=4904901#post4904901)

[aitrus]

Hey Cat, could you link Thy's MP guide, this place would be much better choice...

[Cattleya]

Hey Cat, could you link Thy's MP guide, this place would be much better choice...
I'll find a place (or places) to stick if for now. We'll eventually have a more permanant sticky for this forum that will include the MP guide, new Gameplay Affecting Technique FAQ, and stuff like that. Things will probably change in here a lot over the next little bit. :wink3:

[Sint Nikolaas]

Right, the problem:

Alright, could someone please take a look trough how I've set up my connections? I've been trying to host for a while now but again and again I'm failing at it.
Here goes.

I'm on wireless internet sharing a router between four housemates and me. The router is a Belkin G+ MIMO Router (F5D9230-4). My IP at whatsmyip.org is 89.220.41.78. If I throw a game up no one can connect. So I figure I haven't done anything to my firewall / ports let's take a look there. First to open my ports...
portforward says I need to set up a static IP. Here goes.
According to here I've got the following :
IP: 192.168.2.3
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Standard Gateway: 192.168.2.1
DNS server: 192.168.1.254
Okay, now I need to change stuff in my internet connection. I go there and it looks like this.
Right, I use portforwards page to find my static IP's like this.
And I fill in the found things over here. portforward says you might encounter problems with internet if you don't do this right, but I'm still having internet so.. so far so good right? Hm..

Alright, back to the port forwarding page. I have to fill in my static IP, but wtf? The numbers aren't correct. Rechecking if I selected the right router and yep..... right, I skip it then (I've done this step a few time with different routers selected and stuff so I know it doesn't matter too much).

I follow the guide and go to my router IP adress. I log in and proceed to the virtual servers. I click the enable box, fill in everything I know and click apply changes. My connection resets itself and after a bit I get back to the login page.

According to portforward that's it! I'm done!

Right well, that was tried and retried a couple of time but didn't do it for my hosting abillities. Maybe something is wrong with your firewall some say. Well okay, I'll take a search on that and come up here.
It says something about my firewall and about ports. Well, since I just opened port 4000 which is only needed for ''hosting open games only'' I'm set with that. Now let's take a look at my firewall.
AFAIK I only have the standard windows firewall (and a search trough my pc didn't note any other firewalls). So I end up at this page. According to the ''guide'' I have to do this.
I go to my Firewall. I select the advanced tab and select my connection. Seriously though, I don't know what that 1394-connection is for but it's switched off and my LAN is switched off too since I'm using wireless (which is highlighted). I click on settings, add, and fill in what the site tells me to. Right, when I click ok it doesn't work because I didn't fill in an IP adress. Now which one to pick.. whatsmyIP still gives 89.220.41.78, while when I opened to ports at the router center I filled in 192.168.2.136. Well, no worries I just make bother of them. I hope that won't be a problem.
The site tells me I have to open 9 ports (4000 and 6112 - 6119), but I pick only 4000. Oh crap I can't use the same port twice. So I have to pick one of the two ip's. Well, I'll go with 89.220.41.78 since that's the one people will have to connect to right? So in the last screenshot I now see instead of an empty IP adress box EITHER of the adresses and instead of port 6112 I have port 4000.

Wrong. Can't host with that. Oh let's try filling in 192.168.2.136 at the firewall page. Nope won't work either.

What's wrong? I think I've done everything right, right?
---------------------------
Here's the original post with links. (http://forums.diabloii.net/showpost.php?p=5489915&postcount=220)
---------------------------
Replies:
Off the top of my head:
Each machine on the LAN needs to know it's internal IP addy. Eg 192.xxx.x.x
You need to open port 4000.
You need to direct traffic for d2 to 192.xxx.x.x (IE the host machine)

And I echo AJKs advice to turn off windows firewall. I never use that; it even stopped me playing over a LAN :rolleyes: Btw isn't there a technical advice thread here? :hide:

AFAIK, your router already acts as a firewall, so leaving the windows firewall on is redundant. I'm also on a wireless network, and I never needed to bother with this static IP mumbo-jumbo. I just check ipchicken.com to see whether I've got a new IP and host with the one displayed there.

Just make sure that ports 4000 and 6112 are opened at your router's config page.

Edit: Better follow Thyiad's advice. She's dealt with these problems before.
Also, this is a gaming forum. There should be some network nerds around soon. :badteeth:


@Sint: Perhaps you have forwarded the wrong packet type. Make sure it's set to forward TCP packets, rather than UDP. Forwarding the latter will not prevent you from hosting, but not forwarding the former will; thus you should set it to forward TCP packets or all packets, but not UDP only.

Oh, and make sure you're using port forwarding, rather than port triggering. The latter is a mechanism that (to give the simple explanation) enables forwarding on port X when an attempt is made on port Y, in order to not have port X open when it doesn't need to be.

Also, your IP addresses looked a bit suspicious. As the other people you share the connection with are probably using DHCP (ie, getting their IP addresses dynamically, rather than using static addresses), it is entirely possible that they will be assigned the address you chose. However, if the machine you've set up for hosting is the same one you use to communicate here, and you have no troubles doing so, then this probably isn't the issue. Still, it's a good idea to find out the address range used by your router to satisfy DHCP requests, and then set your static IP address to something outside that. You might also want to set your DNS server to the same as your gateway (I'm assuming the 2 as the third number in your addresses was not a typo; if it is, ignore me).
--------------------

More questions:
AJK: So turning off windows firewall shouldn't make that much of a difference? It'll save that last few steps of my problem right? I mean when it's turned off I don't have to worry about IP's and ports in there. Also I did open the ports at my router config page the right way didn't I? Hm.. now that I think of it IIRC I only opened 4000 the last time, but I did try it before with 6112-6119 open too. As long as I know what I did was right then that part isn't hard anymore.

Pha: Yeah I made sure it was TCP. Some site recommended I just opened both TCP and UDP but the official sites just went with TCP so I did too. How do I see the difference between port forwarding and triggering? I thought what I did was forwarding.. but was I only triggering? Which IP looked suspicious? The 192.168.2.136 one? It was the static IP portforward picked for me since my pc gave 192.168.2.1 as the standard gateway and 192.168.2.3 as my normal IP.

I don't get how it works though. If I got to whatsmyip.org and I see 89.220.41.78 as my IP. Then that's the one of my router right? People will connect to my router using that one. Then the router uses the 192.168.2.136 to send the people to my computer and if my ports are open they'll get into my game?

Anyway.. is the simple solution to just not use a static IP, open all the necesarry ports using my router config page and turning off windows firewall? Then every time I want to host I look up my new IP and pick that one?

[Thyiad]

Sint if you check your PMs and speak to Bill he can help you fix it.
He knows whats wrong.

[Bliven]

Hello, I would like to host, but I'm pretty sure I can't. I have a modem/router from SBC. Can anyone help me through like an instant messenger to the steps needed for hosting?

[Medea]

I could try, even though I don't have any experience with your router model. Maybe tomorrow (Thursday), if you're around?

In the meantime you can read this:

http://portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/SBC/sbc1000hw/DiabloII.htm

[Ardo]

Well, I have now opened the ports needed and I am pretty sure I did it right. Also I have disabled windows firewall, no firewall was blocking my computer anymore. And people still couldn't connect to me. What else could I look?

[stephan]

Are the ports forwarded to the correct (your) machine?

[Ardo]

Yeah, I am pretty sure they are forwarded right. I have done this before for other games and it has worked + It is also written the same way in Portforward.com.

[The Cow King]

Can you join other peoples' games, or is it just hosting that gives you the rubble?

[Bliven]

I can host now! :D

[Ardo]

I can join other peoples games. Just sometimes it would be nice to be able to host yourself also.

[Thyiad]

There is a basic intro to hosting in my MP guide. I am working on an indepth guide at the moment. I can put people in touch with a friend of mine who is a professional network engineer and he can talk you through it but I would ask you try the stuff in the MP Guide first. (He's got about 4 people from the SPF hosting so far so.)

[Nazdakka]

Problems hosting:

I'm on a LAN behind a Draytek Vigor 2600Plus router. I've gone to edit my Open Ports, and they now look like this (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=routerkd4.gif). NB: Port 4747 is open for another program, which doesn't require me to host - it works fine at the moment. That, according to PortForward.com, seems to be the only thing I need to do, although that site doesn't have instructions for my exact router, only similar ones. There is, elsewhere in the NAT setup menu, a link called 'Port Redirection Table'. I suspect I may have to do something with this, but I'm not sure exactly what.

To get my IP, I check whatismyip.com to find my internet IP, and posted that for people to connect to.

Any thoughts?

[AJK]

Problems hosting:
I'm hardly a network expert, but is your PC's IP adress the same as the one listed in the 'Local Computer' box on your screenshot? Maybe you have configured port access on another computer in your network.

You can check (windows) by bringing up the command prompt (Start->Run->type cmd->press enter). Once the command prompt is up, type 'ipconfig', and look at the number behind 'IP Address'. If it's not the same as the one in your router's setup screenshot, you should retry opening the ports on the IP address ipconfig gave you.

Also, do you have a software firewall (windows firewall comes to mind) running? If you do, you could disable it and retry hosting. AFAIK if you're behind a router you don't need a software firewall.

[Nazdakka]

I'm hardly a network expert, but is your PC's IP adress the same as the one listed in the 'Local Computer' box on your screenshot? Maybe you have configured port access on another computer in your network.

You can check (windows) by bringing up the command prompt (Start->Run->type cmd->press enter). Once the command prompt is up, type 'ipconfig', and look at the number behind 'IP Address'. If it's not the same as the one in your router's setup screenshot, you should retry opening the ports on the IP address ipconfig gave you.

Also, do you have a software firewall (windows firewall comes to mind) running? If you do, you could disable it and retry hosting. AFAIK if you're behind a router you don't need a software firewall.

Yah, the IP for my machine is correct. I do use Windows firewall, partially on general principle and partially to stop it nagging me, but AFAIK whenever it blocks something it asks you whether you want to let it through or not. It could be the problem though, I'll have a look at it.

EDIT: Another thought. Is there anything to stop us using passworded games on Open Battle.net as a host? I've that, in general, Open B.net in general is hack city, but we should be safe playing in private games.

[LprMan]

EDIT: Another thought. Is there anything to stop us using passworded games on Open Battle.net as a host? I've that, in general, Open B.net in general is hack city, but we should be safe playing in private games.

As far as I know, the Open Bnet games are still hosted on the players machine, not on Blizzards servers. If you can't host a tcp/ip game, others won't be able to join your games there either.

[Crazy Runner Guy]

I’ve got an MP problem. I think it might be the campus internet protections, because I think I have done everything I can to let it through my two firewalls. I'm using a wireless connection, and I'm not sure what kind of protections the university is running on their network, or their various devices. The wireless device (router) is Nortel Networks 2330. It's not listed on portforward.com


I have the Vista and have the Windows firewall running inconjunction with the one Norton has. I have configured both to let D2: LoD through, an opened the following ports: TCP 4000, 6112 and UDP 4000 and 6112-6119, as suggested on www.portforward.com.

But I still can’t host. Aman tried earlier today and couldn’t get through. When he initially tried to join, before I had the windows firewall setup, windows gave me a warning saying that it blocked a program, D2:LoD. I clicked to allow the program, and then I went to the exceptions tab on the Windows firewall and allowed the above-listed ports through the firewall.
I did the same on the Norton firewall. I allowed the above-listed ports, only this time they are listed as remote ports by Norton. I have the option to make them local ports.

I also cannot join, as tested again today.

So any ideas are suggested. I would like to use the campus internet for the PvP tourney because of shear convenience.

[Medea]

Problems hosting:

There is, elsewhere in the NAT setup menu, a link called 'Port Redirection Table'. I suspect I may have to do something with this, but I'm not sure exactly what.

Any thoughts?

I don't have any experience with your specific model but that sounds like the port forwarding. What you need to to is tell the router to redirect the traffic on the ports that your already opened to your computer. Make sure you have a static IP address (not DHCP) and use that in the Port Redirection Table.

Good luck

@CRG There is nothing you can do if the network admin on your campus has the slightest idea how to do his job. Which I suspect he does. The only solution is to talk to him and tell him what ports you need opened. He probably won't agree...

[Crazy Runner Guy]

@CRG There is nothing you can do if the network admin on your campus has the slightest idea how to do his job. Which I suspect he does. The only solution is to talk to him and tell him what ports you need opened. He probably won't agree...
Well, I could at least join last year. That's very unexciting news.

[Drystan]

Howdy. I'm trying to open ports etc, and while that seems to be the easy part, I'd like to know how to access my router every time. (Easy you think?) (And I have opened ports successfully before, so that isn't the hard part.)

I get "cannot display the webpage" errors when trying to access it. I can occasionally get to it, but the majority of the time it comes up unfindable. Also, when it can be found, it often slows down after 1 minute and loses connection, so I barely have enough time to change any settings.
My connection to the net is fine as well. I just have trouble accessing it.

Does anyone have any idea or seen this before?

Ed: @Thy
Mine isn't 192, but yes. That page (the router) sometimes loads, usually doesn't, and when it does, it often slows down and ends up "cannot be found".

[Thyiad]

192.168.0.1 should get you there. Is that what you mean?

[Drystan]

Gah! So close! I got 5 done before it slowed down, and can no longer be found.
Pretty much, I have to wait x time, and then try access it again.

Attempt 2: Didn't even get to do one port before it slowed and vanished.
Attempt 3: Nearly done. Got a few more opened.

[marzin]

hey all

so i live in the united states. i connect to the net wireless from my laptop, and i have a linksys wireless router and a time warner cable modem. port 6112 is open, i'm an admin on the local router.

so.. any idea how i could host games??

[Medea]

Post in the MP forum - there is a technical issues thread. I'll help you there

[Cattleya]

Post in the MP forum - there is a technical issues thread. I'll help you there I've just merged the question into the thread. :smiley:

@marzin: You will need to forward port 4000 on your router. If you go to http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm it should be able to give you step by step instructions on how to do this for your particular router.

[DaveW]

Is there a software application that will automatically port forward 4000 our comps so we can host MP games? I have tried and tried but just cant seem to get it going. Would love to host some games.

[somenick]

If you're behind a router try to set up the router to forward the specific port.

http://www.portforward.com/ has detailed instructions for a whole lot of different routers. Use at your own risk, though :wink3:

[Drystan]

somenick - that doesn't help. DaveW has tried that, and I have as well. It doesn't work, and need actual information.

Dave - I suggest taking a screenie to show the ports, that way you can say this is how it's set up.

[Thyiad]

You both need to go to your routers admin panel from 192.168.0.1 and forward tcp/ip ports to your internal ip address (achievable from hosting a game and showing the map).

There's a few more details in my MP Guide. Or check the Technical Issues thread in the MP Forum.

I am writing a guide to network but it is a complex subject depending on what router you have.

[The Cow King]

Okay, I don't pretend I have any idea at all (about what I'm talkin about), but have you tried hamachi? I 'think' it should work behind a firewall in the office etc...

Okay, re-read. Now, have you setup a static IP? It's the IP you forward you ports to, while the whatisyouripaddress IP address is the extrernal (whatever) IP you need to reveal to others so they can find you outside your local network.

And I agree with somenick, windows firewall is teh bomb. Drop it.

[somenick]

Alright, I'll try to type something up. But it will turn out very general because it's hard to troubleshoot without knowing anything about the system ;)

Basically you have 3 potential layers where the port forward can get lost.


1. The signal never gets to your router:
It's blocked by your Internet Service Provider (local IT-admin, etc.) Quite a few ISPs do it for ports which are commonly used for illegal activities or have known vulnerabilities on common systems (read windows :wink3:). Some block ports used for gaming (usually universiy and dorm networks).

2. The signal isn't let through by your router:
You need to open the port on your router. Without knowing what hardware you have I'm not going to even attempt to tell you how, but usually there's a good description in the manual or on the manufacturer's website. This site also has a list of how to open ports for different routers: http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm

3. The signal gets through your router but is blocked on your computer
At this stage it's usually a software firewall which won't let signals through. If you have Windows Vista or XP SP2 then you're very likely to have windows firewall enabled. Try disabling it to see if that works. If it works, enable it and open the necessary ports (and allow the right applications through) until it works. I do not recommend leaving your system running without a firewall more than necessary, but it's a nice way of making sure that you haven't set up the firewall the wrong way.

edit: And what does this mean?
somenick - that doesn't help. DaveW has tried that, and I have as well. It doesn't work, and need actual information.


Please define 'it' :wink3:

[Thyiad]

If you have Windows Firewall Active, forget hosting. It even blocked my LAN attempts. If you run network neighbourhood, it automatically engages the firewall again. Remove it.

Over an above that; MP guide, do what I said above and read the instructions on your manufacturers website.

[Drystan]

edit: And what does this mean?

somenick - that doesn't help. DaveW has tried that, and I have as well. It doesn't work, and need actual information.

Please define 'it'
It (in this case): Advice such as "use portforward.com," with no supporting material.

Many people use portforward.com first, before asking questions. I've already done that, and I'm pretty positive that Dave had as well, but that alone didn't fix the issue.

There are also issues, where I can't actually access my router, as it slows down, and the manual access to it (via 10.0.0.x) where x is a value I can't remember off the top of my head.
This issue is: Sometimes I can access it. Most of the time, I can't.
But, when I can, I have a timelimit (random) before it starts to slow down, and then come up with "Page not found." (Usually within 30 seconds.)

Portforward is useless for that issue, as noone seems to understand what people ask when they ask about this (as well as portforward not supporting the issue). I've searched google, and have given up, due to those that answer questions about this issue give the same advice Thyiad did in the other thread (http://forums.diabloii.net/showpost.php?p=5664596&postcount=23)(this is not a negative thing about you Thyiad, it's just an example. I appreciate the knowledge and support you give so often around these forums.)
That's the answer people give on other sites about the same question, because people don't seem to understand that this can be an issue.

IE: Most people say - "you access your router through (#.#.#.#)" - when that's exactly what we do. The router just dies or shuts off user access or something. It's still connected to the internet, but there's no manual access to the router settings.

Edit: This is not asking for advice or support. It is merely a statement as to why advice such as "portforward.com" is not always useful - there are other issues that could interfere as well.

DaveW - have you tried Hamachi? I think that worked for me when I used to have it. Someone should have a site somewhere.

[Cattleya]

It (in this case): Advice such as "use portforward.com," with no supporting material.

May I kindly suggest that if you are looking for more information than a link to www.portforward.com, that some more background information helps? Such as, "I've followed all of the instructions on the www.portforward.com, and it still won't work" or "My router is really messed up and I have trouble actually getting to the controls for it." Also, actually listing which router you use, your operating system, and any firewall software on your computer will also help greatly. General questions will get general answers. :wink3:

The simple truth is though, if portforward.com isn't getting you where you need to go, it may be time to call your ISP (or someone local who knows about this stuff and can sit down at your computer.)

Also, please post these sort of questions in the MP forum, in the Technical Issues Thread. Having these things in one place makes it easier for people to see if their particular issue has already been addressed.

(I've now merged this thread into the Technical Issues Thread.)

[Drystan]

Sorry Catt. That's my bad. I thought I saw (not for the first time this week,) a post saying that DaveW had used portforward (which isn't there now,) but Dave did say he had "tried and tried." [/attempt at redemption :)]
Also, I wasn't personally asking for help about my router. I've long since given up on that. :grin: (It isn't the first unresolved router issue of mine as well.)

On a similar request for help issue, is there any way to test if someone can join, without actually requiring someone to keep trying while you change settings?

[Thyiad]

If you have fast user switching you can try and join your own game using the external IP address and not the internal one.

Make sure windows firewall is off. It's a nightmare.

If you're around on MSN when my network friend is, I will try and set you up. However, I will say the fact you can't get into your admin page makes me think you have other more serious issues than D2. I don't know whether being on an admin account makes a difference?

[Drystan]

I am technically an admin, so that shouldn't matter. :rolleyes: Well, admin account anyway. I'm wondering why they call it "Fast user switching," as you just log on with two accounts. No need for speed.

Anyway, windows firewall is off, ports are opened, and could connect to 10.0... (obviously,) but not to my external (124...) So I'll add you to msn, and go from there.
Cheers.

[DaveW]

Help please. I have configured my router, set a static IP address, opened ports, no good. I also purchased PFConfig frpm Port Forward.com, no good. Any suggestions?
@Drystan, I havent got Hamachi yet. May have to go there if I cant forward my ports.

[Nazdakka]

Help please. I have configured my router, set a static IP address, opened ports, no good. I also purchased PFConfig frpm Port Forward.com, no good. Any suggestions?
@Drystan, I havent got Hamachi yet. May have to go there if I cant forward my ports.

Make sure you've turned off the Windows Firewall. That's what was screwing me up.

[DaveW]

Ok I have manually configured my router using the port forward guides, I have used PFConfig to automatically configure it, I have disabled Windows Firewall and still I cannot host games. Please help. I did read that some ports may be blocked at my ISP. Let me try there and I'll get back to u guys.
*DaveW kicks the trash can*

[DaveW]

Well I checked my ISP and they dont restrict port forwarding. They did say that perhaps my router wont allow those ports to be forwarded so now I have to contact the router manufacturer. Stay tuned....
*DaveW pix can up*

[Thyiad]

Dave that sounds incredibly odd. You're at home and not at a Uni, aren't you?

Forgive me if you've done this but on mine, I have to check the internal IP addy of the computer I want to host on, create a d2 tcp/udp thing on port 4000, then allow d2 to go to the internal IP.

[DaveW]

Dave that sounds incredibly odd. You're at home and not at a Uni, aren't you?

I'm at home.
Forgive me if you've done this but on mine, I have to check the internal IP addy of the computer I want to host on, create a d2 tcp/udp thing on port 4000, then allow d2 to go to the internal IP.

I don't know. The IP address I post in the MP thread is an address (is that what u mean by addy?) that ipchicken.com/whatsmyip.com gives me. It is different to the address that shows up in-game (top right hand corner when u hit the tab key)

I'm at my tethers end. (Almost:smiley:)
I just updated my firmware so I will try and host a game now. 'Stay tuned boppers .... '(What movie is that line from?)

[Thyiad]

addy=address

The address ipchicken etc gives you is your EXTERNAL IP. The address that shows up in game on the map is the INTERNAL IP.

So you need to tell your router to create a d2 function on port 4000 and then direct that d2 function to the INTERNAL IP.

[DaveW]

@Thy, I adjusted the internal addy to the game IP on the router. That didnt work. So I adjusted the other TCP and UDP settings to the internal IP address. Still no luck. Apart from that, everythings fine. LOL. However I do recall having o set a static IP addres. It is different to the game displayed IP address. Any suggestions?

[Thyiad]

Dave, if you're ever around on msn poke me. But this is what *I* did:

Turn off windows firewall

Checked what my internal IP is (displayed in game)
Checked what my external IP is (through whatismyip)
(Static or dynamic IP doesn't matter providing you always give out the up to date external IP address)

Go into the router admin panel

Ensure that the computer I want to host on shows up on attached devices (IE you can see the internal IP address)

Create a service called d2 on port 4000 of type tcp/udp

Create a firewall rule inbound that allows the d2 service on the internal IP of the computer that I want to host.

The only time you should really have a big issue is if you are at uni or something who have a firewall you can't get past.

[barren]

I honestly don't know where else to go with this problem I've been having trouble with a friends computer. I've tried battle.net forums and a bunch faqs but nothing can help me so I'm using the SPF forums as my last ditch tech support effort.

Here's the problem, when I lan with D2 my friends tcp/ip screen is always greyed out with the message "Cannot find a valid TCP/IP address". With starcraft we can't play with IPX either, "unable to initialize network provider" even though he has ipx installed and configured identical to mine, but it works with UDP. I've reinstalled the protocol, checked every single option and have tried other lan protocols like hamachi but it's always the same: greyed out tcp/ip screen with that message.

help!

[silospen]

I honestly don't know where else to go with this problem I've been having trouble with a friends computer. I've tried battle.net forums and a bunch faqs but nothing can help me so I'm using the SPF forums as my last ditch tech support effort.

Here's the problem, when I lan with D2 my friends tcp/ip screen is always greyed out with the message "Cannot find a valid TCP/IP address". With starcraft we can't play with IPX either, "unable to initialize network provider" even though he has ipx installed and configured identical to mine, but it works with UDP. I've reinstalled the protocol, checked every single option and have tried other lan protocols like hamachi but it's always the same: greyed out tcp/ip screen with that message.

help!

Hey Barren, been a while since I did windows networking problems, but back in the day I used to be pretty good at it all.

Need 2 things off you if you'd like me to help out:
1) Version of windows
2) Email me screenshots of the various windows network settings which arent working (to silospen@gmail.com) (Unless you are 100% sure that they are identical to your working network settings).

The emailing screenshots is easier than describing it, because there are so many dammed options :P

More questions:

Does Bnet work for you?
How is your friend connecting to your computer? (EG PC -> PC over a crossover cable, PC -> switch -> PC with patch leads, etc.

[DaveW]

Well well well, guess who has a separate modem and router? Strange, never saw that before. I didn't set up the wireless router, my partner did. Didn't realise that the old modem was feeding the internet connection to the router. I dont like wifi so I have a cable feed. I have been configuring the router, not the modem. So my question now is, do I need to configure both router and modem or just the modem.
(Im getting a headache just thinking about it)

[MrNiceGuyCRB]

Forward the ports to your LAN address. Obtain a static IP (basically set your own LAN address) and it should work. Don't think the ports will work without the static IP.. The modem shouldn't need configuring. The firewall should be part of the router and yes disable windows firewall..

http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=177

feel free to pm me
also your dns can be your default gateway (router IP)

[DaveW]

Finally sorted my port issues and can host MP games. After reinstalling XP, it made configuring alot easier. Look forward to playing with everyone.

[DaveW]

OK, I can't host games anymore .... lol. Is there a guide for forwarding ports for a dual modem/router combo? The router connects through the modem to the internet. That means another intermediate step between my lappy and MP hosting. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers.

[Thyiad]

I went from an ADSL combines router/modem to a cable modem and then separate router. They were both set up the same way. Modem first, though.

[relliKniaP]

Ok guys i have a techical issue lol.
I could not play with my buddy over TCP/IP. We installed hamachi and now we can play BUT only i can host, so his quests arent active. My mate got wireless router

Any ideas?

[Thyiad]

I run with wireless in the garage and wired in the house. I don't use Hamachi but have the ports open on my router.

If you are hosting and you are partied you should both get the quests. (OK with the council you need to be close-ish .. but in general.)

Judging by your last post, you both have the firewall off. If you didn't he wouldn't be able to join.

Does he ever host? Do you get quests if he does?

[relliKniaP]

If you are hosting and you are partied you should both get the quests. (OK with the council you need to be close-ish .. but in general.)

Yes, i am hosting and yes, we are both in the same party.
But he gets something like "Cannot complete quest in this game" in his Quest Log. My Quest Log is normal.

Does he ever host? Do you get quests if he does?

Ill be more precise. Both of us can host. But i cant join his game while he can join mine. I get the usual "Cannot connect to Server" message when trying to join his game.

Btw, theres no need to open ports if Hamachi is used, right?

[relliKniaP]

But he gets something like "Cannot complete quest in this game" in his Quest Log.

Ok i obtained additional input from my mate about his Quest Log and Quests.


Pictures of quests in his Quest Log that he did in the past (before we played together for the first time) are normally greyed out and completed.
Pictures of all other quests in his Quest Log are coloured as if they are active (?!) and below it sais.....

"Cannot complete quest in this game. Please create your own game or join another one."


He can do quests to a degree but he cant finish any quest.
For example, we collected all of the Khalims Relics (including Flail), but he cannot target The Compleling Orb even though its there.
He cannot take Lan Esen's Tome even though the thing that holds the book is there.
We kill Council but he doesnt get "Quest Completed".
We kill Mephisto but he doesnt get the Soulstone drop. or "Quest Completed".


EDIT: I am ahead of my friend in the storyline... does that explain something?

[Thyiad]

Yes. If you have already completed a quest, he cannot complete it while you are hosting. Both people will only get the quest if the host hasn't completed it.

I'm somewhat puzzled why he can't host through hamachi. Are you sure he's turned off windows firewall, sometimes the little git turns itself back on.

[relliKniaP]

Both people will only get the quest if the host hasn't completed it.

Lol ill make sure i remember that tnx

Are you sure he's turned off windows firewall, sometimes the little git turns itself back on.

I remind him to turn firewall off quite often lol, so much that he starts yelling at me
Anyway, isnt firewall irrelevant when using hamachi? Ive seen that being said on the boards

[Thyiad]

It's been a LONG time since I used Hamachi. So I'm afraid I will pass on that. But IIRC yes it shouldn't make a difference but my attitude is to blame Windows and Gates at any opportunity. I'm usually right.

[relliKniaP]

Hmm, since my mate got wireless router... maybe he needs to configure something in Start Meny > LAN > Wireless Network Setup Wizard? Or maybe myself (since i cannot join his game when he hosts)?

[Thyiad]

I can host/play one one wireless machine and three wired ones.

I set up the outgoing ports so I can have all four machines running/playing on another host at the same time.

To host, all I do is ensure the port forwarding is going to the right machine. Wireless didn't make a bit of difference to me.

I WILL say that Netgear has the easiest to set up equipment that I have ever seen. Getting their wireless up took 3 minutes. Very very easy.

[rawrpny]

Can someone help me with this? I've been trying to get it working but it isn't. My friend and i are trying to play tcp/ip connection but when one hosts, the other can't join..and vice versa.

i followed the instructions on portforward.com to my router and everything but it said i needed a spark isp or something so i started the instructions and i got up to the part where it told me to look into the properties of the internet protocol and copy down the ips, but the check mark is on auto-configure..can someone help me?

[Drystan]

@rawrpny

I'm guessing you mean a "Static IP." Yes, you do need to set up a static IP address.
I'm also guessing you haven't followed the guide on portforward.com completely.

Simply, you have to set up a static IP. To do this, move the check mark from auto-configure (which I assume is "Obtain an IP address automatically" or similar,) and type in the numbers that you wrote down earlier.

If you didn't write down any numbers, go back to portforward.com and go through each step again.
The step I am refering to is:
Step 3:
The command prompt may look different on your screen, but it doesn't really matter. Type ipconfig /all in that window, and then press the enter key. This will display a lot of information. If it scrolls off the top you may need to enlarge the window.

Step 4:
I want you to write down some of the information in this window. Take down the IP address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, and Name Servers. Make sure to note which is which. We are going to use this information a little bit later.
It appears as if you have skipped that part. The numbers obtained in this step are used for the static IP setup.

If you need help, it may also be an idea to take a screenshot of where you're at, and specifically what you've done and have, list your modem brand and model, as well as be more definitive on terminology, because I personally have never heard of a "spark isp," and as far as I know, it doesn't exist. I personally set up my own router, and never came across one because a spark isp isn't needed (or exists as far as I'm concerned.)

Hope this helps, and GL with it. :thumbsup:

[MonkeyDice]

I have a Hamachi server setup with my friend and we're both connected though it. When he goes to join my game, he gets the Unable to Connect error. Do firewalls affect it even though we're already on the same LAN(Using Hamachi)? Like, what IP is he supposed to enter? The one Hamachi gives us? If anyone else wants to come join us thats cool. We are EST so if your like PST or anything else we probably wont be on at all the same times, just something to think about. I'll be sure to make an official post when its all up and working.

Hamachi Info
Name: Jonboyd2 (Case Sensative)
Pass: 1234

Contact me at
AIM / Xfire : MonkeyDice7

Thanks in Advanced.

P.S. If you go to AIM me, please let me know who you are. I'm currently dodging IM's from some haters so please say more than "Hello." or "Hi."

[Thyiad]

Lose windows firewall.

Welcome to the Forum. Have a read of the Stickies so you understand about our MP rules and please post what mods you play when you set up a game.

[lionheartthebrave]

Hello there

Thinking about MPing in the future, I decided to give myself a static IP address and forward the necessary ports; however the router I'm using is owned by a housemate, who doesn't know the password of it (it's not the default)

Is it possible to "reset" a modem, so I can access it.

Also, what, if any, of this is required to join MP games?

Thanks for any help in advance

[Drystan]

*groans at lost password* Ummm. I think if I hold the power button in on my router for 5 seconds, it resets. I don't know if that works though.
Hopefully, you have a user manual somewhere? Otherwise, try searching for the modems name on google. There's often some form of online manual or forum/thread on the topic.

To join an MP game, one only requires the router/ports set up properly, IP address of the host from www.whatismyip.com , and sometimes for the firewall to be turned off. I know windows firewall can cause a lot of problems.

[Thyiad]

There's usually a pin hole at the back or similar. Try that.

[lionheartthebrave]

Yeh found it. Now to convince the housemates to "risk" a reset...

EDIT: Thanks Drystan and Thyiad

[MelMan]

RE-POST... Made a new thread, that got closed. Hope you can help me out!

- My Homie and I just went back to SP after a couple of years on Ladder! But how do we find each other on the internet? Can we play TCP/IP or shall we play Open B.Net? On Open I can create a game, and he can join, but if he creates a game, I can't join? I have a router, so I've forwarded a port and turned of my firewall! He don't have a router, so he just turned of his firewall! What else can we do so he can create, and so we can play TCP/IP over the internet? -

[scottee]

Okay, I need some help with my router. I'm using a D-Link EBR-2310, if that matters.

So I'm trying to set up port forwarding with my router, and I can't access it. None of the suggestions that I've received so far have worked. My IP address as shown by ipconfig command is 192.168.10.136, so I tried .10.1, .0.1, .10.10, and at least a few others. Every time, I get taken to the MSN search page. How else can I go about figuring out how to access my router? Thanks for any replies,
scottee

Oh, one more (possibly) important piece of info- I used the linkies in Thy's MP guide, used the directions on the port-forwarding page linked there. Pursuant to suggestions on that page, I changed my settings for TCP/IP from "get IP address automatically" to "use static IP." I used the address listed above (192.168.10.136), as that was the one that website suggested I use. Then, about 5 mins later, I set it back to automatic and restarted, cuz I lost internet. I dunno what exactly that means, but it happened.

[pharaoh]

Sounds like you've got subnetting set up there, Scottee. I'm actually going to be taking a break from the computer, but if you could do something for me, it might help me help you. I'm assuming you're using Windows (Win2000/XP/Vista). If not, then ignore the rest of this post.

Open up a command prompt (Start > Run > type 'cmd' then ENTER). You'll be left with something that looks like a DOS window, if you ever used DOS. Anyways, type 'ipconfig /all' at the prompt. You should see something that looks similar to the following, though your numbers will of course be different:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : sphinx
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-14-A5-EF-18-A4
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.200
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 64.59.144.16
64.59.144.17
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : March 10, 2008 10:18:19 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : March 17, 2008 10:18:19 PMYou may also see information for more than one connection. This will probably be the case if you're using a laptop, as many have both wireless and wired network adapters. It'll also be the case if you have a 'virtual' network adapter, such as through VPN software like Hamachi (if you don't know what I mean here, it's probably safe to assume you're not running such software).

If it's the case that you have more than one network adapter listed, you will need to know which you're using (easy to discern if only one is connected). If you're using a desktop machine, odds are you've got a single connection, and you're hooked up to the router with an ethernet cable (looks kinda like a phone cable, only a bit fatter).

Anyways, you'll see that I've highlighted several lines. Write those down on a piece of paper or something; you'll need them. There's one that says 'default gateway'. This address here should be the address of your router; this is what you enter into your browser's address bar. Anyways, write down those numbers and either post them here or PM me, and I'll check back in a bit, okay?

One other thing- I looked online, as I was thinking of checking the manual to see how similar the configuration interface is to mine (I have a D-Link router too, but a different model than yours). I found this page; if you check it out, it will tell you how to determine if you have a 'revision A' or 'revision B' model. Knowing that would help too.

[scottee]

Thanks for the quick reply, pharoah!

Okay, I've the necessary info. Ip address= 192.168.10.136
subnet mask= 255.255.255.0
default gateway, DHCP and DNS all= 192.168.10.1

I'm not sure if you meant to post a link to a webpage in your edit, but I'll take a look around and see what I can come up with as far as which revision I have.

Edit: meant to mention that I'm running XP.

[pharaoh]

I'm not sure if you meant to post a link to a webpage in your edit, but I'll take a look around and see what I can come up with as far as which revision I have.You're absolutely right; I did intend to post a link. Here it is (http://www.dlink.com/products/support.asp?pid=478&sec=0#manual). Thanks for catching that.
Edit: meant to mention that I'm running XP.Okay, good. That means that what I tell you will hopefully be applicable. :)

[scottee]

Okay, I have revision A. For other info that I apparently forgot to add in earlier, this is indeed a desktop-type machine, and it is indeed hooked up to my router with ethernet cables. My wife's 'puter is also hooked into the router; in fact the only reason we got it was to be able to share DSL service. Though I doubt this matters, we use A Siemens Speedstream 4100 that we got from the phone co. As I said, I tried typing the IP address given for my DNS server into my browsers address bar, and it took me to a search engine, not to the router interface. I dunno.

Edit: Huh. I got tired of doing the same thing over and over and getting the same result, so I tried something different. I opened up a different web browser, typed it in, and up popped the password screen for my router. Well, I'm going to go try to finish up and see how far I can get now.

Edit2: Oh yeah, the other part. When I did what portforward.com said to do to set up a static IP address on my 'puter, I lost internet connectivity shortly thereafter. Why would that happen? I followed the directions precisely.

Edit3 :rolleyes: Okay, so the one thing that I missed was that I did not enter DNS servers when I set up the static IP, but my computer only lists one under ipconfig/all. As I noted above, it is the same as my default gateway and DHCP server. I'm now starting to get really confused, so I may just leave this for the morning when I can call my ISP and see what the heck is really going on.

[pharaoh]

Okay, I have revision A. For other info that I apparently forgot to add in earlier, this is indeed a desktop-type machine, and it is indeed hooked up to my router with ethernet cables. My wife's 'puter is also hooked into the router; in fact the only reason we got it was to be able to share DSL service. Though I doubt this matters, we use A Siemens Speedstream 4100 that we got from the phone co. As I said, I tried typing the IP address given for my DNS server into my browsers address bar, and it took me to a search engine, not to the router interface. I dunno.
No, I said the default gateway, not DNS server. From below, though, it sounds like you typed it in properly (especially since both are the same address, in your case).

As for the DSL modem, that doesn't matter. It might matter insofar as configuring the router to work with the modem, particularly if your ISP uses one of the more exotic connectivity schemes, but that's already taken care of (you're online now, after all).
Edit: Huh. I got tired of doing the same thing over and over and getting the same result, so I tried something different. I opened up a different web browser, typed it in, and up popped the password screen for my router. Well, I'm going to go try to finish up and see how far I can get now.

Edit2: Oh yeah, the other part. When I did what portforward.com said to do to set up a static IP address on my 'puter, I lost internet connectivity shortly thereafter. Why would that happen? I followed the directions precisely.See below.
Edit3 :rolleyes: Okay, so the one thing that I missed was that I did not enter DNS servers when I set up the static IP, but my computer only lists one under ipconfig/all. As I noted above, it is the same as my default gateway and DHCP server. I'm now starting to get really confused, so I may just leave this for the morning when I can call my ISP and see what the heck is really going on.Failing to set a valid DNS server will cause this. It's not that you're not connected; rather it's that your computer can't find sites you try to visit. When I explain about DNS below, and compare it to a phone book, you'll see what I mean.

As for it being confusing, it's not as bad as you might think. I hope you've got coffee, because I'm going to give you a crash course in networking. :)

TCP/IP, which is a term I'm sure you've heard of, is a method of networking different computers together. IP stands for 'internet protocol', or alternatively, 'internetworking protocol'. Basically, it is a set of rules for two or more devices (called 'hosts') to communicate over a network. Each host will have a unique IP address, which is how other hosts know how to find it. TCP, which stands for 'transmission control protocol', is something I'm going to skip (basically, it's a layer on top of IP that provides error checking and other reliability features). The internet is just one big (really big!) TCP/IP network.

Anyways, as I said, each host (usually a computer, but other 'smart' devices on a network, such as a router or networked printer, are also hosts) has an IP address. The term 'host' here has no relation to hosting games; think of it as a peer on a network. Whether a host acts as a server or not depends only on who initiates a connection; the client initiates it, and the host 'answers'. Think of it like calling someone. You need to know their phone number, but they don't need to know yours. All they need to do is pick up the phone. Likewise, when you're connecting to another host on a network, you need to know that host's IP address, but they don't need to know yours. An IP address is usually expressed as four 'octets', separated by decimals. An octet is a technical term for an 8-bit byte; since a byte isn't always 8 bits, the term 'octet' is used to avoid ambiguity. Each number will be from 0 to 255, inclusive.

The 'default gateway' is the address of the device your computer is connected to. If you connected your computer directly to your DSL modem, this would be the address that your ISP has assigned to you. As it is, your computer is not connected directly to the internet. Instead, it's connected to the router, so the device your computer is connected to is the router; thus, the default gateway is the address of your router. More specifically, it's the local (private) address of your router. Your router also has an external (public) address that the rest of the internet sees. Each of these is actually called an 'interface', and commercial routers can have many interfaces, each with many devices connected. Each interface is actually a connection to a different network; in your case, one network is your local area network (LAN) of up to four devices, and the other is the big ol' internet. Normally, for D-Link routers, the default local IP address is 192.168.0.1; as yours is different, someone (presumably the person who first configured your router) changed it. I don't know why it was changed, but it really doesn't matter; it should work fine as is.

The IP address that you see for your computer, 192.168.10.136, is what your router has assigned to your computer. Your wife's computer is going to be 192.168.10.xxx. Now, when and if you assign a static IP address to your computer, this is what you'll be changing. You will not be changing the address your ISP has assigned to your router; you will be changing the address your router has assigned to your computer. Whenever you connect to another host, you send and receive data in 'packets' (think 'envelope'). Just as an envelope has a recipient address and return address, so too do your packets. They contain the destination address, so that the various routers on the network know how to direct (or 'route', hence the name 'router') the packet, and they also contain a return address, so that the host knows where to reply to. There is also information about what 'port' a packet travels on; ports are roughly analogous to multiple phone lines that share the same telephone number, with the latter being the equivalent of an IP address.

The 'DHCP server' is, again, just your router. DHCP stands for 'dynamic host configuration protocol', which is a fancy way of saying it's a mechanism for dynamically (ie automatically) obtaining an IP address and other information. Your router got an address assigned to it from your ISP, and likely did so via DHCP. Your computer gets its address from the router (the whole internet is a hierarchy like this). Basically, when your network adapter initializes itself, it just hollers out to any device that will listen, asking 'please give me an IP address'. The DHCP server is the device that answers this request.

A DNS server is like a phone book. In the same way that you can use a phone book to translate 'John Smith' into '555-1234', a DNS server translates a domain name (such as 'diabloii.net') into an IP address ('89.107.69.68', in the case of diabloii.net). Now, your router doesn't actually do this directly. Just as you were assigned a DNS server address by your router, your router was assigned one (or two) by your ISP. Basically, all it does is look up addresses that way, unless it already knows them (which would be the case if it's recently looked it up, and still remembers). If you happen to know what DNS server your router talks to, you could plug that in directly; however, as long as your router can find a valid DNS server, you can just use your router's address.

Now, to put this all together. When you connect to the internet by directly plugging your computer into the DSL modem, you'll get an IP address that is unique for the internet. No other device on the internet will have this address. However, when you connect it to your router, you might get the same address that I get when I connect my computer to my router. How does this work, if addresses have to be unique? Well, they do have to be unique, but here's the catch- they only need to be unique within a given network. On your side of the router, the computers all have unique addresses in the form of 192.168.10.xxx, and on the internet, they have addresses in the form of yyy.zzz.zzz.zzz, where yyy is not 192, and zzz is any valid octet.

Now, when you connect to a host on the internet- say, one of google.com's servers- your router does two things to the packet you're sending out, before sending it out. First, it replaces the 'source address' (192.168.10.136) with the router's address (whatever your ISP assigned you). Second, it records information in an internal table. When the host replies to you, it's actually sending it back to your router, not directly to your computer- remember, your router replaced the address in the packet information. When your router receives this packet, it consults the internal table, and if it's a valid reply (ie, a reply from a host that you've contacted, on that port), it directs the packet to your computer. If it's not a valid reply, it discards the packet.

What this means is that if a random host on the internet tries to connect to your computer, it will not be a valid reply, and the router will discard it. This offers a great degree of security, because malicious people trying to gain access to your computer will be stopped at the router. Think of the router as a hotel desk clerk who has been directed to ignore all incoming calls for guests. Now, the downside to this is that if you want to receive such an incoming connection, you cannot- at least, not without a bit of work. This is where port forwarding comes in.

Setting up port forwarding tells the router not to discard certain incoming packets, but rather to forward them on to a computer on your side of the router. It's like telling the desk clerk that if calls come in for room 123, to put them through.

Since opening up ports in this way can (in theory) defeat the security offered by a router, you should only forward ports if you have a valid reason. In practice, as long as you're only opening the ports you need to, it's not really a security risk. Basically, if you use some program that expects incoming connections on a specific port, it's okay to open that port (that's why you'd be running the program, after all).

If you follow the link I gave you (the one I forgot to post the first time), you can download the manual for your router. On page 23, it'll tell you how to set up forwarding for your router. What you want to put is the following:
Make sure the checkbox is checked. If you're paranoid about leaving the port open when not hosting games, you can enter the router config again, and toggle this off/on as needed. This saves you from having to type in everything each time you want to host. However, I just leave mine on; it's not like I have exploitable services listening on the D2 port.
For 'Name', put a descriptive name, such as 'Diablo II Hosting'.
For 'IP Address', put your computer's local IP address (192.168.10.xxx). Ideally, you will set up a static IP address so you don't have to change router settings each time. This would be analagous to always staying in the same room at the hotel, so calls to 'room 123' always reached you when you were there, rather than missing you because you were in a different room. See the note below for what address to use.
For 'Start Port' and 'End Port', put '4000'.
For 'Type', select 'UDP' from the drop-down box.Save your changes, and the router will take a moment to apply them. Next, you will want to set up a static IP address for your network adapter from within Windows. Since you've done this, I won't re-explain how. If you need a refresher, page 61 of your router manual explains this. However, I will tell you what numbers to use. For IP address, try 192.168.10.200. For subnet mask, use 255.255.255.0. For default gateway, use your router's address of 192.168.10.1. For preferred DNS server, use your router's address again.

Now, why did I pick 192.168.10.200 as your local static IP address? Well, each DHCP server (remember, a DHCP server is a device that hands out addresses to hosts that request them) maintains a collection of available IP addresses. If you know the exact range it hands out, say from 192.168.10.100 to 192.168.10.150, then you can easily pick a number outside the range. It's probably safe to say that your router won't hand out more than four addresses at a time (after all, it's only got four ports, and you've only got the two computers hooked up), but what we don't know is whether it hands them out in sequential fashion (likely), randomly, or what have you. Thus, a safe bet is to just pick a high address that you can be confident is outside the range of available dynamic addresses. Plus, 200 is an easy number to remember, much easier than something like 154 or 226.

Now, assuming you've successfully set up the forwarding, and your static IP address, you should be able to host- unless you've got the Windows 'personal firewall' turned on. Assuming you're up-to-date on your Windows updates (running Service Pack 2 and all the other crap), then this is how you turn it off:

First, open up the Security Center (either Start > Control Panel > Security Center, or Start > Settings > Control Panel > Security Center, depending on how you have your menus configured; for me it's the latter). Down at the bottom, where it says 'manage settings for', click 'Windows Firewall'. When the dialog box pops up, select the 'General' tab, and click 'off' for the setting. Now, Windows might complain when you do that, and give you some message about horrible doom striking your computer; let's get it to shut up and stop hassling you. See how the Firewall choice is now listed in red, and it says 'OFF'? Well, right under that there is a button labeled 'Recommendations'. Click it. In the dialog box that pops up, there is a checkbox labeled 'I have a firewall solution that I'll monitor myself'; check it. After all, the router acts as a hardware firewall, which is a much more effective solution than a software firewall like the Windows built-in one. I mention this to reassure you, in case you were worried about turning it off. If you weren't behind a router, I'd say to just leave it on, but you are, so it's okay to turn it off.

Whew. What a long post, even for me. I'm thinking of making this into a guide. I find that if people understand the why behind the how, it often makes things much clearer. Hopefully, you'll now be able to host some games, and get to see my boltress in all her glory. Zap zap! :)

[scottee]

pharoah-
Holy cow, that was the coolest thing ever. Though I was actually aware of quite a bit of the information in that post, I've never synthesized all that information into a coherent framework before. Also, I've never seen someone who understands networking well enough to explain it and who can actually explain it clearly , concisely, and with little enough jargon that even a savage like me can understand it :wink3:

I'm bookmarking this page now, and: respecet + a lot!

Hopefully a little later on I'll be able to throw up another test game and see if I've gotten all the stuff right.

Thanks again!
scottee

[scottee]

okay, wtf.
so I tried a new test game to see if I had everything set right, and it didn't work. I ran back through everything to see where I went wrong, and now whatismyIP.com is giving me a completely different IP than it did before. I thought these things were pretty much set- do they change on a daily basis or something?

[pharaoh]

It depends on your ISP. I had a period with cable where it seemed they changed it every other day, but for the longest time it's been quite stable. Still, if you're able to get online here and post, it's working. The best thing to do, once you've got your hosting issues worked out, is to check your external IP address (you can do so with whatismyip.org (http://whatismyip.org)) before hosting a game, and post that address in the MP thread. That way, if it's changed since you last hosted, you won't be giving out an invalid address.

What you need to keep in mind is that your ISP is in charge of what address they assign for you, but that's only the address the router gets for the outside world (ie, the external side of your router). All the stuff I've been having you adjust is on your side of the router; the rest of the world (including your ISP) cannot see any of that, nor do they need to. If they change the address they've assigned to you, then that'll change the address you need to give others when hosting a game, but it won't mean you need to change any of those port forwarding settings.

Do you still have the static IP address set up, or are you back to a dynamic one? Assuming you've got a static IP address set up, and you can still connect to the internet, everything's working fine. The only thing you need to do when setting up your static IP is make sure it's on the same network- time for another lesson, but a much shorter one this time.

IP addresses have two main components. The first is the 'network address', and the second is the 'host address'. Imagine you want to find a specific suite in a specific apartment building. You need to know the apartment number (analogous to the network address), and the suite number (analogous to the host address). Remember, a host exists relative to the network it's on, which is why addresses aren't globally unique, only unique for a given network.

Anyways, those four octets that form an IP address actually make up a big 32-bit number. If you remember your 'subnet mask', this specifies which bits make up which. I'm not going to go into binary math here, but suffice to say, a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 means that the first three octets make up the network address, and the last is the host. In other words, on your LAN, you could have, in theory, 255 hosts. Actually, because of technical reasons (the addresses 192.168.10.0 and 192.168.10.255 are reserved addresses), you could have 253 (or 252 besides the router). In reality, though, you're not going to have this many, mainly because you can only connect four devices directly to your router.

For a commercial router, say in a big business where many computers are on the same LAN, they may well have a different subnet mask. For example, a mask of 255.255.0.0 would allow well over 65000 hosts. This is how they can support the number of computers they need. Subnetting is also be used for (in fact, is primarily used for) dividing one bigger network into multiple 'sub-networks' (hence the name). For example, 192.168.0.0 might be the subnet for management, while 192.168.1.0 is the one for human resources, and 192.168.2.0 is the one for the payroll department. Each of these networks will be connected by one or more routers, which serves to isolate the networks from one another.

What this all boils down to is that your network address, in your case, is 192.168.10.0. Any host on this network, including your router, will have an address of 192.168.10.xxx. You could set up your router to use, say, 192.168.0.1 instead- that's what mine uses- but this means you've changed part of the network address, and would have to ensure all other hosts were adjusted accordingly (ie, 192.168.0.xxx). If your router was set to use 192.168.10.1, and your computer was set to use 192.168.0.200, then they'd be on different networks, and thus wouldn't be able to see each other (unless, of course, you changed the subnet mask, making it so they were on the same network).

[scottee]

Man, I'm going to be just about ready to go out and get a job setting up networks by the time I finish figuring out how to do this thing!

Okay, I am indeed set to use a static IP address, and this time I put in the DNS server. For the secondary DNS server, since it wouldn't let me put in the same address as for the primary, I entered 192.168.10.10, which I'm pretty sure it would be unable to find, so if my router ever went down it would start looking for another device that isn't there, right? But all the same, that shouldn't hurt anything.

I did manage to access my router and set up port forwarding according to the directions at portforward.com or whatever that website is. Here (http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa215/scout989/Router_issues.jpg) is a screenshot of the router control center after I set up port forwarding. However, I went to whatismyIP.org, got my IP, and tried to host a game immediately afterwards with that IP, and was unable to do so. What gives?

[pharaoh]

Man, I'm going to be just about ready to go out and get a job setting up networks by the time I finish figuring out how to do this thing!Hehe. I'm turning you into a bona-fide nerd. ;)
Okay, I am indeed set to use a static IP address, and this time I put in the DNS server. For the secondary DNS server, since it wouldn't let me put in the same address as for the primary, I entered 192.168.10.10, which I'm pretty sure it would be unable to find, so if my router ever went down it would start looking for another device that isn't there, right? But all the same, that shouldn't hurt anything.I'd just leave it blank. If your router goes down, you won't have a network connection, so it's a moot point whether the additional device is there or not. If you feel like it, you can check your router settings (probably on the 'status' tab, but I've only skimmed the manual, so I'm not certain) and find out the DNS address(es) assigned to you by your ISP. You can then plug those in when setting up your static IP address. Here's a screenie (http://members.shaw.ca/r.sheppard/images/dlink.png) of how it looks on my router; yours of course will look different.

On another note, if your ISP changes your assigned IP address when they shouldn't (each address is assigned for a set period, called a 'lease term', and it's not supposed to change until it expires), you can probably do a 'DHCP renew' from here, too. If everything is working, and then suddenly you can't connect to the internet, but can connect to your router, you can try this. It's not relevant to setting up hosting, but I thought I'd throw that out there in case it helps in the future.
I did manage to access my router and set up port forwarding according to the directions at portforward.com or whatever that website is. Here (http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa215/scout989/Router_issues.jpg) is a screenshot of the router control center after I set up port forwarding. However, I went to whatismyIP.org, got my IP, and tried to host a game immediately afterwards with that IP, and was unable to do so. What gives?From that, it looks like it should work. You don't need the second rule; that's only for playing on battle.net, and even then, it's generally only needed for firewalls set to block outgoing packets (remember that your router won't normally restrict outgoing connections, only incoming ones). Also, you can set the 'type' to 'UDP' instead of 'ANY', but again, this shouldn't affect your hosting.

What's your local IP address? You need to make sure it matches the static address you've given for the forwarding. If it doesn't, this is your problem. If it does match, and you're still unable to host, make sure you turn off any software firewalls running on your machine, or at least open port 4000 (how you do this depends on the firewall software in question). I explained in my other post about how to turn off the Windows built-in firewall, but if you've installed third-party firewall software, such as ZoneAlarm, you'll need to either uninstall it, disable it, or open port 4000 (take your pick). I can't give you a step-by-step on this, but you should have a manual or other documentation for such software, even if it's online or on CD.

If you've got the Windows firewall turned off, made sure your local IP address matches the 'forward to' IP address in your router settings, and don't remember installing any third-party firewall software, my next guess would be that your ISP installed some 'value bundle' software on your machine. ISPs like to think they're helping people by offering things like virus scanners, firewall software, etc as part of their package. Generally this is true, but once people start trying to do more with their connections, it can often get in the way (not to mention these things often eat up considerable CPU resources as they sit there running in the background 24/7). If a technician from your ISP came by and did the physical installation, this might be the case. If you plugged everything in yourself, then this is unlikely, unless you installed some software from a CD they gave you. Again, if you did, there should be support documentation for it, either on the CD, or online.

If you've done all of the above, and still can't host, then it might mean your ISP is blocking certain traffic. This is quite unlikely, so double-check everything before you phone up and yell at some minimum-wage tech-support rep about it. :)

[Vang]

Oops, wrong forum.

[scottee]

So I definitely have the static IP and the IP for port forwarding correct, I just checked. I'm going to try hosting a game with my firewall disabled and see if that does it. In the meantime, have a look at this (http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa215/scout989/Firewall.jpg). The highlighted line was changed by me after I tried to host the game previously. Though I don't know what all of those things mean, it looked to me like switching that setting to what it is in the screenie might be what I needed to do? I'll report back after my next test :wink3:

[BobTheWarrior]

I tried that IP you gave me scottee about 12 times, never connected... :-(

edit: vang had to go, post an IP here if you want me to test it, won't be around much longer though I don't think.

[scottee]

No luck yet. I tried a couple more times to host, making sure that I had no firewall in place, and no dice. Unless SpybotSD is interfering (and I can't think how it would), I'm out of ideas.

[pharaoh]

So I definitely have the static IP and the IP for port forwarding correct, I just checked. I'm going to try hosting a game with my firewall disabled and see if that does it. In the meantime, have a look at this (http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa215/scout989/Firewall.jpg). The highlighted line was changed by me after I tried to host the game previously. Though I don't know what all of those things mean, it looked to me like switching that setting to what it is in the screenie might be what I needed to do? I'll report back after my next test :wink3:It looks like that's the kind of thing you need to do, but since I can't see the port or other details in that screenie, I can't say for sure.

I did, however, see from the screenshot it has a 'register' option. I guess that means it's unregistered shareware, and thus you haven't yet invested money in it. If this is true, it's a good thing, since my recommendation is to uninstall it. You can always install it again later if you want. As I said before, if you were not behind a router, I'd recommend using a software-based firewall, but as you are, it's rather pointless.

Basically what a software firewall does is blocks incoming connections (unless the port has been opened). Most will also block outgoing connections, unless the program initiating the connection (your web browser, for example) is on the list of exceptions. The intent here is that if your computer gets compromised with a virus, spyware program, or other piece of malicious software, the firewall will prevent that program from disclosing sensitive information. However, there is a big flaw in this logic.

There are only two ways an outgoing connection will happen. The first is if a permitted program starts it (in which case the firewall will not block it anyways). The second is if your computer becomes compromised, and some program tries to open an outgoing connection without your knowledge or consent. Now, the flaw in the logic is that the second case only happens once your computer's security has already been compromised; in othr words, it's too late for the software firewall to do much. If malicious software has a foothold in your computer, it can bypass the firewall fairly easily. It can attempt to add itself to the firewall's list of allowed programs, it can masquerade as a permitted program, or it can simply disable the firewall entirely. This is especially easy if the program is running with administrator permissions, and since most home Windows users never change the default account settings, any program run under their account, with or without their consent, inherits administrator permissions.

Are software firewalls complete useless? Not completely, but they're not very effective, either. Ideally, a firewall will be a dedicated machine that sits between your computer and the internet, and blocks traffic that doesn't match specific criteria. Your router has a simple version of this built in, but we'll save that for another day. As for software firewalls, they're better than nothing, but worse than many alternatives. Another downside to a software firewall is the resources it consumes; it has to sit there, constantly monitoring all your network traffic and running programs (to see which programs attempted which network access). This means it's using memory and CPU time that could be better used for other things, not to mention doing a far worse job of things than your router will do for you (and your router won't have any CPU overhead on your computer, either).

Your router will automatically block incoming connections, as I explained in my first post. Many, including yours and mine, also have a firewall component that allows you to configure them to block outgoing connections as well. There's usually not much need for a home user to make use of this, but common practice for many businesses, schools, and other such places is to block all ports except ones they wish to allow access to. This is known as a 'default deny' approach; it offers greater security than a 'default accept' one (which only blocks ports that are specifically forbidden). This is why many students can't do email (unless it's web-based, like gmail or hotmail) or play online games on a school's network, but they can browse the web (port 80, the HTTP port, is generally left open).

Note: I use the term 'software firewall' to refer to a software-based firewall running on the computer it's intended to protect. All firewalls will be composed in part of software that governs their behavior, but a firewall running on a machine dedicated to the task is not referred to as a software firewall. These full-fledged firewalls are generally referred to as 'real firewalls' or 'hardware firewalls' to distinguish them from their less-effective kin. Sometimes they're just called 'firewalls', which shows the disdain many computer geeks have for software firewalls, as they don't even consider them to be firewalls.

@scottee: Are you going to be around for a while? I've got to go out, but I'll be back in a bit, and I can try to help you some more then, if you're around.

[scottee]

Pharoah, you're a saint. And I, I am tired of this computer and how stupid it is making me feel, so I am going to bed. I'll be online again (no doubt) within a few hours, when I decide I can't sleep, but for now that's my story :wink3:

scottee

[pharaoh]

I am tired of this computer and how stupid it is making me feel, so I am going to bed. I'll be online again (no doubt) within a few hours, when I decide I can't sleep, but for now that's my story :wink3:

scotteeAhh, don't sweat it. There's a big difference between lack of specialized knowledge, and stupidity. Besides, you're not the only one who has trouble; I (with distressing regularity as of late) have intermittent problems hosting. I know I have everything set up properly, but sometimes it just fails to work- people just can't join, or worse yet, they get dropped from the middle of a game. I'm pretty sure my ISP is doing something that causes problems (not that I'm saying they deliberately interfere with me getting my D2 fix; that would just be paranoid), but I'm not quite sure what.

[BobTheWarrior]

@scottee-

I know you want to get your hosting up through your router, but I was curious if you'd ever hosted a game? I'm wondering if you need to bypass your router and try hosting a game just to see if you can. It's possible your router is setup correctly and something else is interferring with our connections to you.

If you haven't tried this already, I would say disconnect your modem from the router and connnect it directly to your PC. Verify you can still access the internet. Also, shut down (completely) any firewalls (including windows) and antivirus and spyware and adware programs that you might have running. Go as bare-bones as possible and try to host a game. If we still can't connect, then I think it would have to be something external (i.e. your ISP blocking traffic or something).

If your bare-bones test works, reboot and try it again with all your software firewalls and antivirus and whatnot running and try to host again. If this works than we've probalby narrowed it down to the router. If not, stop programs one at a time until your hositng works.

If you've already tried this, nevermind....

I might be around this evening, might not. I'll post here if I can test with you.

[scottee]

@ Bob- thanks for a great idea! I haven't tried anything lik,e that yet, I'll have to see if I can do that. See, when I installed the router so I could network my and my wife's computers, I had to mess with the modem a bit- switch it to "bridged" mode, which I didn't understand but just did as I was told. I'm going to try connecting to the internet without using the router; if that works, then I'll try the test you mentioned. However, I may have changed things so that I can no longer just connect directly to the modem, but must use the router.

Just to make sure: if I do this, I'll need to first take my computer off of "static IP" mode, then probably reboot after connecting to modem? Since I won't be connecting thru the router, I won't have to worry about port forwarding, if I understand correctly.

Lastly, would it be worthwhile doing the "barebones" (i.e. no firewall/virus scanner/whatever other programs that could possibly block access) before trying to bypass the router, or does it seem most likely that I'll have to bypass the router to make this work at all?

Wow, thanks for all of the help through this long and ungainly process!

scottee

[pharaoh]

@ Bob- thanks for a great idea! I haven't tried anything lik,e that yet, I'll have to see if I can do that. See, when I installed the router so I could network my and my wife's computers, I had to mess with the modem a bit- switch it to "bridged" mode, which I didn't understand but just did as I was told. I'm going to try connecting to the internet without using the router; if that works, then I'll try the test you mentioned. However, I may have changed things so that I can no longer just connect directly to the modem, but must use the router.I'm not sure what this 'bridged' mode is.

When a packet is sent out across a network, it normally goes to all other devices that are directly connected to that device. Devices that aren't the target either simply ignore it, or (if the device is a router) forward it on according to certain rules. Imagine you have a dumb network (ie, no smart device such as a router) with four computers, A, B, C and D. Now, A sends out data meant for B, but C and D 'see' it too (they just pretend they don't). Normally, this works fine, but if you have a busy network, you get 'collisions' because the underlying media (cables, etc) can only handle one 'signal' at a time. If A sends to B at the same time C sends to D, you get a collision, and the both hosts will have to re-send. There are algorithms that try to avoid deadlocks (ie, when re-sending, if A and C waited the exact same time, there'd just be another collision, so the rules specify random wait periods and other mechanisms). Collisions are a normal part of any network, but when they become too frequent, it will negatively impact performance.

A bridge is a network device that connects two network segments. The bridge is smart enough to know what devices are on what segments, and pass through data accordingly. Imagine if A and B were on one segment, and C and D on another. Then when A sends to B, the bridge knows this doesn't have to be sent to the second segment, and will thus not collide with C sending to D. A collision will still happen if A sends to C while B sends to D, but with proper planning (laying out network segments along logical boundaries, such as departments in a business, for example), they can be drastically reduced.

Now, what this means for your modem? I have no idea. It's obviously not a bridge in the normal sense, so it must be some weird DSL thing (I'm on cable, so I'm not sure what's up with that). I don't understand why you'd need to set the modem up differently depending on what it's connected to, but I do remember while back when my girlfriend was on DSL. Telus, her ISP, restricted what device (based on MAC address- I'll explain this below) could access the internet. When I got a router for her and hooked it up, I needed to register the MAC address of the router, and de-register the MAC address of her computer's network card. Maybe it's something similar for you.

As for what a MAC address is, it's just a 48-bit address (written as XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX where each X is a single hexadecimal digit) that specifies the unique hardware ID of a network device. MAC addresses exist at a lower 'layer' than TCP/IP, and thus a MAC address is 'below' an IP address. Some devices use them for various things. For example, with my router, I can set it up to only allow devices with certain MAC addresses, so that even if someone got around the other security measures and tried to connect wirelessly, they wouldn't be able to.
Just to make sure: if I do this, I'll need to first take my computer off of "static IP" mode, then probably reboot after connecting to modem? Since I won't be connecting thru the router, I won't have to worry about port forwarding, if I understand correctly.Yes, you will need to use DHCP to dynamically assign an address to your computer, unless your ISP has assigned you a static one (in which case you will need to enter that information). However, given that you were getting two to three different IP addresses over the last day or two, judging from what whatismyip.org told you, we can conclude your ISP does not provide you with a static address (many ISPs charge extra for static IPs, anyways).

One thing that you can do is see if your router offers 'static DHCP' (I know, 'static dynamic' sounds like an oxymoron). I didn't see it in the manual, but that doesn't count for much. How it works is like so: you configure the router to remember your computer's MAC address, and always assign the same IP address through DHCP. This way, you can set your coputer up to get the address dynamically, but even though it's dynamic, it's always the same (hence static dynamic). This is useful if you're connecting your computer to different devices. For example, with me, I wanted to host games, and thus needed a static IP address at home (otherwise, I'd have to edit the 'forward to' address all the time, which would get annoying very fast). However, when at school, and connecting to the wireless network there, I needed to use DHCP because the college's network assigned my address; I didn't get to pick and choose my address- this is as it should be.

Of course, if I had to change to a dynamic address for school, and come home and have to edit my settings for a static address, including typing in the address, DNS servers, etc, this would become just as annoying as having to reconfigure my port forwarding each time. The answer was static DHCP, since as far as my computer's concerned, it's simply using DHCP. It's just that when I'm at home, the address just 'happens' to be the same every time.

If your router allows this, and you set it up properly, then you won't have to fart around with computer or router settings when you change from being connected via the router to connected directly to the modem. You may have to change the modem settings, but as I said above, I'm not sure what's up with that; you'll need to ask your ISP about it.
Lastly, would it be worthwhile doing the "barebones" (i.e. no firewall/virus scanner/whatever other programs that could possibly block access) before trying to bypass the router, or does it seem most likely that I'll have to bypass the router to make this work at all?That would seem to make sense. However, if you're paranoid, and you end up doing barebones without the router, then you may want to minimize the hosting time. After all, if you're not protected by a router or firewall software, you're a sitting duck, hence my preference for configuring things to get it working with the router in place. Think of hosting without the router as a simple test- it can help determine if your ISP is somehow filtering/blocking traffic, and thus causing problems for you.

[smilts]

Hey was wondering if anyone could throw up a game just long enough for me to make sure I can join since I couldnt join Buraz's game.

Edit: Thank you for the test my net may have been acting up

[Thyiad]

Help connecting to bnet please.

I received this PM:
i install D2 and LoD and i open the game and i choose battle net and i cannot connect >? tell me why

Can someone suggest a few ways to help please. I'm off out.

[silospen]

Have fun :)

Sure it's not from that guy who was around earlier asking questions about the demo? Looks like his style.

a) You don't have an internet connection
b) Your firewall is blocking Diablo 2 accessing the internet
c) Your internet connection is a school/university/similar connection and doesn't allow this sort of connection

[Bedzo]

Have fun :)

Sure it's not from that guy who was around earlier asking questions about the demo? Looks like his style.

a) You don't have an internet connection
b) Your firewall is blocking Diablo 2 accessing the internet
c) Your internet connection is a school/university/similar connection and doesn't allow this sort of connection

ITS ME again :D:D ok i got internet connection i unblock D2 and i am playing from home :P did i need to first create a character?

[Bedzo]

ok the message from there is :battel.net is unable to properly identify your application version

[silospen]

Are you still playing the DEMO?

[silospen]

Incidently, I'm refusing to respond from this point forward, mainly because the last time I communicated with this guy I got an infraction.

[Thyiad]

Oh play nice silo. Or are you saying your technical knowledge isn't up to helping? We would understand if you said that ....

[silospen]

Oh play nice silo. Or are you saying your technical knowledge isn't up to helping? We would understand if you said that ....

No, my self control and temper isn't up to helping. I don't suffer idiots particularly well :azn:

[Thyiad]

No wonder we don't get along. :grin:

[Bedzo]

Are you still playing the DEMO?

NOPE I GOT THE FULL VERSION! and LoD if i have demo i will not have LoD

[Thyiad]

So can you connect to bnet now, Bedzo? It will automatically update to 1.11b for you.

Barb is a good starting character. Wander around hitting stuff.

[Bedzo]

:P i started amazon and i like it !! bow omg :D:D i kill blood raven now :P


sry off topic:(

[lionheartthebrave]

Hi again

Following this guide http://www.portforward.com/networking/static-xp.htm

Which of the following rows will tell me my Name Server Address http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.murrell87/query.bmp

Thanks in advance

[pharaoh]

Which of the following rows will tell me my Name Server Address http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.murrell87/query.bmp

Thanks in advanceDNS. It stands for Domain Name System. Think of it like a phone book that translates URLs into IP addresses (ie, diabloii.net to 89.107.69.68).

[Drystan]

This might help with the question, Bedzo...

ok the message from there is :battel.net is unable to properly identify your application version

do you put the crack ? [Source 15/03/08] (http://forums.diabloii.net/showpost.php?p=6335332&postcount=6)

We dont allow or discuss using hack, cracks or cheats here.

If you are using a crack/downloaded version etc, you have an illegal copy and can't go onto battle.net.


No wonder we don't get along. :shocked: I hope I got a mistake in understanding, or it was intended as sarcastic, but ...

Edit @ Thy: Hehehe. Good to know.

[Thyiad]

It was a joke. Think Thy, think sarcasm.

Oh and bedzo ... please confirm you have a purchased copy of the game.

[lionheartthebrave]

Riddle me this:

Got myself a static IP (thanks Pharaoh) and confirmed it by hosting a game, then forwarded the ports necessary using port forward, and tried to join Bob's MP Baal game, but couldn't. Any ideas?

EDIT: I suppose. I assumed it was my numerous recent reinstalls, so unistalled, cleaned the registry, and completely reinstalled, will try later if possible

EDIT2: ah Thyiad your site is up again just in time

[Thyiad]

It was down or he was rehosting?

[CodyIsHoid]

Hey, my ips keep switching also, I have noticed in many games, occasionally I can host and other times I can't. This is for LAN and for Online. I have my router and everything set up. But I don't understand why my computer can't host sometimes and can other times

[pharaoh]

Hey, my ips keep switching also, I have noticed in many games, occasionally I can host and other times I can't. This is for LAN and for Online. I have my router and everything set up. But I don't understand why my computer can't host sometimes and can other timesAre you talking about your local IP, or your public WAN IP?

For your public IP, just go to whatismyip.org (http://whatismyip.org/) and it'll tell you. If this is the address that keeps changing, your only option is to talk to your ISP, as they assign it to you. A static (non-changing) IP address will often cost more, if it's even an option with your ISP. However, with most broadband providers, while it's technically dynamic and may change without notice, it's often stable for days, weeks, or even months at a time. If they change it on you every hour, phone and complain; an IP address that changes without notice equals an effectively unusable service. I mean, just imagine if your telephone company repeatedly changed your phone number without any notice.

As for your local IP address, if you're running Windows, open up a command prompt (Start -> Run -> type 'cmd' and hit ENTER), and then type 'ipconfig /all' at the prompt, followed by ENTER. You should see your IP address listed there; this is your local IP address. In other words, it is the one your router has assigned to your computer (if you're using DHCP and getting it automagically) or the one you've previously set up as a static IP address.

If your local IP address changes, it will mess up your forwarding (as the packets are being forwarded to an IP address that no longer identifies your computer). To fix this, you have three options.

Your first option is to check your local IP address (via the command prompt) before you try hosting a game. If it's different from what the forwarding is set up for, change the forwarding to point at the new address. This method, while easy (I'm assuming you already know how to set up forwarding), is a pain in the ***, because you need to keep doing it each time you want to host. Still, it's a useful technique for verifying that you can host before you invest time in one of the other methods.

This brings us to your second option, which is to set up a static IP address. If your machine is one that is permanently connected to your home router (ie, a desktop or laptop machine that never leaves the house), this is probably your best choice. It takes a few minutes to get everything working, but once you do, you shouldn't have to fiddle with it again. If you're running Windows, open the status dialog box for your network adapter. If its icon is displayed in the system tray, you can just right-click and say 'status'. Otherwise, you'll need to access it through the control panel or start menu. This varies for how you have your Windows menus configured; for me it is Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Network Connections, followed by the network adapter, or Start -> Settings -> Network Connections, followed by the adapter. Once you've got the pop-up menu with your network adapters up, right-click the appropriate one and select 'Properties'. On the dialog box that pops up, there will be a button that says 'Properties'; click it. In the list of protocols (the items in a list box, possibly with scroll bars if enough items are in the list), there will be an option for 'Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)' or some similarly-named selection. Select it, and click the 'Properties' button, or optionally, double-click the selection. Another dialog box will pop up.

At this dialog box, select 'use the following IP address', and then punch in the IP address you want to use (probably either 192.168.0.xxx or 192.168.1.xxx), the subnet mask (generally 255.255.255.0), the default gateway (this was listed when you did 'ipconfig' at the command prompt, and is the address of your router as seen on your LAN; it is probably 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1), and the default DNS server (you can just use your router's address, ie, the default gateway). A piece of advice: for your IP address, pick one that's out of range of IP addresses the router assigns. Your router manual and/or configuration screens should tell you this, but if you're in doubt, just go with 192.168.0.200 or 192.168.1.200. This avoids your router giving out the address that you're using. Click 'OK' on the various dialog boxes, and see if the internet still works (try viewing a web page or something, and hitting F5/refresh to make sure it's not just displaying a cached version). If everything works, make sure forwarding is set up to point at the static IP address you gave above, and then try hosting a game (remember to check whatismyip.org (http://whatismyip.org/) before hosting, in case your ISP has changed your public address on you).

The third method is a bit more complicated, and not knowing how your router configuration screens are, I can't help much. However, look for something called 'static DHCP'. Basically, it is a way of using DHCP (ie, having the router assign an address to your computer, rather than the computer using a fixed address), while telling the router to always give the same address to a particular computer. There is more detail on this in one of my above posts when I was helping out scottee. The main point of static DHCP is when you want a static address at home (for hosting games or a web server, seeding BitTorrent files, etc), but need a dynamic address elsewhere (school, work, the local Starbuck's). Since you don't set up a static IP address on your computer, you don't have the hassle of always switching between static and dynamic addresses. If you've got a laptop that you move around, this is a great feature to take advantage of. Basically, once you set it up to assign an address to your computer, you then set up port forwarding as though you have that address set up with method #2 above.

[Antonio]

Hello, my name is Antonio and I have a hosting problem :grin:

The thing is that on my LAN there are three computers, all assigned static IP addresses. Is there a way to forward ports 4000 and 6112-6119 to more then one computer?

This is how my port forward table looks now:

DiabloII 4000 4000 TCP/UDP 4000 4000 192.168.1.12
DiabloII2 6112 6119 TCP/UDP 6112 6119 192.168.1.12
D2Toni1 4000 4000 TCP/UDP 4000 4000 192.168.1.136
D2Toni2 6112 6119 TCP/UDP 6112 6119 192.168.1.136


Now, if I understand this correctly, when my router receives a package on a port 4000 TCP/UDP it sends it to 192.168.1.12 computer, ignoring the 192.168.1.136 computer. Is there a way around this, besides manually changing IP addresses when ever I feel like hosting a game on mine computer, and thus preventing hosting a game on brothers computer? Like setting a range of ip addresses the package is to be forwarded to, not only one address. I'm not sure does this even make sense... :scratch:

Operating systems on both computers are WinXp, and the router is Kasda kd318mui.

[Thyiad]

I have multiple computers on this network and I re-forward the ports each time. Be good if there was another way though.

[lionheartthebrave]

Just a quick issue.

Got my new lappy, and have been trying to MP with people today, but my ping varies wildly from 60 to 4000, and I am sometimes dropped with the ping showing as 100.

Thinking back to the issues with my old laptop, I remember having major zonealarm issues, ie are you sure you want this to access the trusted zone, act as a server etc, but this time it has no issues, and hasn't asked any questions.

The Game.exe file has both access boxes ticked, but the rest for that and DiabloII.exe are all still question marks, could this be the reason I keep getting dropped?

Setup: I am connected to a router connected to a virgin media cable modem, with a static IP address.

EDIT: thanks Thyiad, I don't use Windows Firewall, I use zonealarm

[Thyiad]

Virgin had an outage in Northamptonshire (I know because I lost access for about 3 hours), it *might* be related to that if they have a problem in your area too. I host on a static ip using wired and wireless and apart from opening the ports on my router and directing the input to the relevent machine at the time, I don't do anything else. Having said that ... I don't use windows firewall. Ever. *shudder*

[BobTheWarrior]

I use zonealarm as well and have never had any issues getting or staying connect, or hosting for that matter. Once Diablo 2 was allowed to act as a server ZA has never bothered me again.

Since you're behind a router firewall, disable ZA temporarily and try to connect/host and see what happens. If all is well, you found your problem, if not you'll need to keep looking.

If ZA is causing your problem, you are probably safe running w/o it while you're playing D2, I use it because I'm paranoid, but some of the things I've read in this thead make me think I don't really need it.

[lionheartthebrave]

Thanks Bob, but I'm on my housemate's router now, which is the one he doesn't know the password to.

Therefore no MPing for me until I convince him that a reset won't turn it into a small brick

[Erlend]

I can join closed BNet games, but can neither host nor join open BNet games.

Steps done so far:
Turned off windows firewall.
Opened ports 4000 and 6112 through the wireless router.
Made sure the ports are forwarded for this machine's IP.

After all this... still cant host or join open BNet games. Anyone have any ideas as to what I can try next?

Thanks
~E

[nepeta]

Count your blessings, for open battlenet is the antichrist. Low-lives are there, those that are evil, they who are to mean to buy a legal copy, who think closed battlenet is hack-free. We've got a beautiful Dutch poem about turning to evil, but since no-one likes poetry, nor understands Dutch, let it suffice to say open bnet compares to Darth Vader as Darth Vader compares to my little pony.

[Erlend]

haha no worries. I am starting closed B-Net today anyway... screw open :)

[nepeta]

Good. Now get outa here :p The idea was, you silly, to stay here, but good riddance!

[Erlend]

hehe. I still use my SP chars for fun when I am at work... which means a LOT of the time. Closed B-Net is only for when I am at home on my desktop with nothing to do. Like... my days off. ;)

p.s.
Thanks for the <3 :P

[Tamboo]

I have a somewhat strange question.

I haven't been here in a while (perhaps should post a re-intro) but figured this would be the best place to ask.

I'm living with my parents for the summer and suddenly can't host. We do not have a router; the way my father explained it to me is that one of our computers acts as a "wireless access point" (he also mentioned something about a tick box for "internet sharing" on that computer) and he does not want a router because it would be harder to use the printer over the network. I'm not sure that I understand it all, so I hope I'm explaining this alright.

My father has access to the computer that is actually connected to the phone line (DSL) and he made an exception for port 4000 on that computer's firewall, but said that "forwarding" doesn't apply with the system we have. (I have also done this on my computer)



What I'm wondering is if there is anyone here with any experience in this who can provide me with basic/general information about how to work with this type of network (google has failed me), or knows of a reference I can look at. Please let me know if any other information would be helpful.

Thanks!
-Tamboo

[MmmmBob]

EDIT: NEVERMIND issue solved

[Animus]

I'm getting pretty frustrated trying to play TCP/IP with my friend. At her old address we were able to play. We used port forward to forward the ports needed for diablo II, and we turned off any firewall specifically on our machine such as mcafee. Doing all this it would not allow me to host, but it did allow her to host and I was able to join.

Now she moved back in with her mom. I use the same computer and everything that worked before. She uses the same computer, but a different router now at her moms. So we went and did port forwarding again for her moms router just like we did before. Except now neither of us can connect to one another.

I can successfully ping her using the command prompt so it's not some issue where our computers simply cannot exchange information at all. I really have no idea what else to do.

Also I'm a little confused about ip and subnet mask. Before when we played successfully we always used a site like http://www.whatsmyip.org/ to find our ip to give to the other. In one of the blizzard support archives it tells you to go to the command prompt and type ipconfig to find your ip and subnet mask. However the ip this gives is different from every other website and in fact gives the same IP for both myself and my friend. This IP it gives never worked once for us and is also the same one that is shown in the screen where you can select to host or join a tcp/IP game.

How do I get windows firewall to allow just diablo II through so I can host games instead of turning it off altogether

[Thyiad]

ipconfig is giving you an internal IP address << Ok if you're on a LAN to use without forwarding
whatismyip is giving you the external IP address << need this if in a different house

Check my MP Guide - link in the FAQ - for a brief run down.

As for Windows Firewall. I'll pass .. I just turn the thing off. Anyone?

(Welcome to the SPF!)

[Ockut]

For windows firewall..

Control Panel/Windows Firewall. Exceptions tab. Add program. Browse to diablo II.exe. Click OK.

That should do it.

[scottee]

If any 1.12 RRM/RWM SC users are around, would you mind trying to connect to a game at 68.73.158.234? I'm still trying to figure out my issues, and I tried something that may help. I'm just going to throw up a game with a char I never really played.

Game should be up for about an hour or so, unless someone shows up and tells me no dice.

Thanks?

[curi]

we are trying to play with 2 people over lan, via TCP/IP connection, but it's not working.

we have an apple airport router that we're both connected to. i opened port 4000 and 6112 to my computer. then my roommate tries to join my game using my internal or external IP and it just stalls. if he puts a bad IP address it errors immediately, so clearly something different is happening.

he can telnet to my computer, port 4000, and it connects no problem. we're both using OS X.

what do we need to do to diagnose the problem, or fix it? is the problem that he needs 4000 forwarded to his computer also? (for warcraft 3 hosting we had to change his computer to host on 6113 for everything to work nicely, so we could have different ports forwarded to our computers. diablo 2 can't do that i guess).

please advise. thanks.

[BobTheWarrior]

Are you both using the same version of Diablo 2? 1.12 is the newest version, it'll say your version number in the lower-left corner of the spash screen, I believe. You must be running the same version or it won't work.

If you're both connected to the same router, I don't think you need to forward any ports, just putting in the approprate internal IP address (probably 192.168.x.xx). Port-forwarding should only be an issue if you're connecting through the internet.

Also, do you have any firewalls on either machine? The router probably has one, but that should not be an issue. If you're running a software firewall on either machine, try disabling it and connecting.

I don't have any experience with Apple OS's, so I can't really help you there.

[curi]

oh my god, he never got the patch, but i did. it works now. thank you very much.

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

help help help i can't host and i don't want to spend another miserable minute on that awful portforward site

what am i doing wrong? :(

Clicky. (http://img126.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ashdfjasdgpd4.png)

windows fire wall has been tinkered with etc. etc.

D-LINK DIR-615

windows XP

help help help :(

[BobTheWarrior]

Those are the right ports, omg. I assume you've set your computer to a static IP of 192.168.0.199? (I don't remember how to do this, but I know it's required. Edit: 6th and 7th paragraphs of this post (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6362111&postcount=115)explain how to do it.)

My first piece of advice is to turn off everything resident in the system tray and try to host. You apparently have at least a router firewall and windows firewall. We can't know which is the problem when they're both on. So, turn off windows firewall and any other services you may be running, then try to host. If that fails, we know it's the router config. If that passes, we know it's a software firewall config. (Edit: thought I'd said (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6330147&postcount=92)this before)

I personally had the same problem, I could join but not host games. I disabled windows firewall and voila! So, give that a shot.

A few posts (pages?) back, Pharoah gave some very lengthy explanations which were quite helpful as well. Worth the read. (Edit: Like this one (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6328218&postcount=82), and this one (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6328947&postcount=89), and this one (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6330969&postcount=94))

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

Tried those and read over Pharoah's posts... anything else I'm missing?

Relevant images. (http://img299.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hellokittylp2.jpg)

[xALT]

tried adding game.exe to the exceptions of windows firewall?

[BobTheWarrior]

Do you need a space between your range and your indiviual port?
You have 6112-6119,4000
The example shows it should be 6112-6119, 4000

Edit: have you tried hosting w/o you router? i.e. plug the modem directly into the computer and host a game?

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

I added a space, let's hope it works.

Prior to the installment of the router, I used to be a frequent D2/WC3 host, so yeah, I can definately host without the router.

[BobTheWarrior]

put up a game, I'll try to connect, if you'd like.

edit: didn't get a chance to try, had an issue I had to sort out first. Looks like nebux tried and failed.

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

Already posted the IP in the MP thread. Can you join?

[edit] Still not working. GG me. =D

[BobTheWarrior]

Do you need to change the order? I can't imaging it would matter, but would 4000, 6112-6119 work?

Also, what do the check boxes next to the rules mean? On my router, I have to have the box next to the rule checked, or it's not on.

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

I checked the box. Thanks, hope it works this time.

99.247.150.32

Come with a character that has Normal Act IV Travincial WP please.

(thanks bob)

[monsteroog]

hey i need some help plz i'm using a wireless usb modem ( my cellphone )
to play online, i can join but i can't host...
i have read all the stuff

[BobTheWarrior]

hey i need some help plz i'm using a wireless usb modem ( my cellphone )
to play online, i can join but i can't host...
i have read all the stuff

You're connecting via your cellphone? I don't understand this comment.

What is your OS?
What software firewalls do you have running?
What Antivirus and/or Spyware do you have running?
What brand and model is your router?
Have you opened ports 4000 and 6112 - 6119 in all of your firewalls?
Have you added game.exe to the firewall exceptions list(s)?

[Cen]

Hello,

me and my Step Brother and Brother just installed Diablo 2 on all three computers. two with Windows Xp Professional (one of them is mine) and one with Windows Vista Ulimate. two of them are wireless and ones wired which is mine. my computer is the ONLY one my Bros. can't connect to while i host or i can't join theirs. our Router is a WPNT834 Netgear RangeMax 240 Wireless Router and our connection to the DSL modem is bridged. i have no problem connecting to the computer with Vista. it's only with the Laptop which is the one with windows Xp professional. i have made sure the Windows firewall has the .EXE in the list and so on exspect with the ports. i think that is unneeded i believe. all are updated with the latest patch.

[Retawd]

Hi, i tried hosting a game using TCP/IP but my buddy was not able to join. I opened ports 4000 and 6112-6119. We've done this through lan and it worked fine but when hes at his house it wont let him connect.

To open the ports i used my router's ip which is 192.168.1.1. That is also the ip my buddy tried connecting to... am i using the wrong ip or...?

Any help would be appreciated.

[lionheartthebrave]

@Cen: turn off Windows Firewall! Get Zonealarm or something like that

@Retawd: are you both connected to the same router? Otherwise you need to use the external IP, explained infinitely better than me here (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4904901#post4904901), under the "Posting game" section

[Retawd]

No, we are not connected to the same router. Hes at his house and im at mine. Also only the host computer needs to configure their ports correct?

After opening the ports, my buddy is supposed to use my actual ip to connect and not my router's ip?

[maxicek]

Please can someone try to join - trying to set up a second PC for PvP week.

Edit:

:scratchchin: Hmm... Maybe windows firewall. yuk. Oh well back to the drawing board.

Baals in other thread.

[nebux]

cannot connect to server

[Darkoooo]

cannot connect to server

same .

[maxicek]

Trying hosting again, please can someone try to join.

Thanks nebux for trying.
About the IP thing, that is what WhatIsMyIP tells me - is it not tied to my router?

[nebux]

you can't have 2 computers with the same ip
cannot connect again

[In the name of Zod]

dumb post - ignore me. Oooops.

[raigntk]

ok i registered for this website mainly becuase im looking to find out how i can host using wireless

i used to use broadband as the main connection to our computer but i recently installed netgear with it so that my sister could use her laptop to browse the internet and what not. since i installed it i haven't been able to host on open b-net anymore. so any help in how i could host again would greatly be appreciated.

and for the record this isnt for hosting tcp/ip but if thats the only way i could do that then i would like to know that also pleast.

[nepeta]

Welcome to SPF tech support ^^

Please define 'netgear'. If it is a router, find out which type, then go to www.portforward.com and follow the instructions :)

[Virtue]

*EDIT*

Was a one time thing.. Ignore this! =D

[maxicek]

Trying to set up my hosting again... Can someone please try to join (Hell)

Edit:
Thanks sorcerorbob for trying, it worked :)

[sorcererbob]

Yeah I joined, it works :)

[Cowseatchildren]

Ok, so I have tried hosting before but nothing seems to be working I have a linksys router I have tried port forwarding and I tried hamachi none have worked if anyone has any ideas could you possibly help?

[Rabisu]

So am I correct in assuming I have to use port forwarding if I'm using a router? (wireless or not, I'm sure)

Does hamachi work regardless?

I can't remember the router password, so Hamachi may be my only solution.

[Smips]

So am I correct in assuming I have to use port forwarding if I'm using a router? (wireless or not, I'm sure)

Does hamachi work regardless?

I can't remember the router password, so Hamachi may be my only solution.

You need to forward your ports no matter what, I think. Did you change your password? If not, common defaults are admin and password. If you did change it, you can hold down the reset button in the back.

[Rabisu]

Hmm... I don't like having to reset it, but I suppose that's an option.

Edit: I'll try that later tonight, but I'd like to try Hamachi first just to see.

[Igorokk]

In spite of several responses saying what a silly/stupid thread this is, and they arent wrong... Those same posters then went ahead and voted

YE GODS

Might we start a thread entitled Who caused the stale state of the MR forums? and get the same ridiculous answers?

Oh, and I didnt vote.

[sorcererbob]

Er... welcome to the forums. What are you talking about? Voted?

[Smips]

Oh, and I didnt vote.

Right, it just teleported you to the wrong topic for fun.

Couldn't resists :P.

[sorcererbob]

Ah yes, I recall that the forums still teleport you around after voting in polls. Lol; on his first post too.

[erbthelawngnome]

Hey, all. New here. I believe this is the right place to be posting, if not, please forgive me and point me in the right direction.

I have a (miserably slow 28.8k) dial-up connection (I can't do anything about that.) and my friend, who I want to be playing Diablo II LoD 1.12 with via TCP/IP, has a wireless network. Neither of us know too much about IP and ports, particularly when NAT is thrown in. Any help? I've been looking around, and I can't find any answers or any guides on how to do this...

[N'thraXX]

I use a program called Hamachi to play TCP/IP with my friends over the Internet. Not sure if any ports have to be opened when using Hamachi, anyone else? And can't say how well the TCP/IP will work with a dial-up though, I'd recommend that you skip the hosting at least.

[erbthelawngnome]

I've heard of hamachi before, but I really don't know a whole lot about it. I plan to let my friend host, and I'm used to a little bit of lag. Such is life with dial-up. Any specific advice about dealing with NAT (for someone inexperienced with such things)? Should my friend be hosting at his external IP? I apologize, I wasn't nearly specific enough before. I assume hamachi still requires a connection through IP. I don't know what IP my friend should host with. He can connect to my games (but lags out because my connection is slow) and but I can't connect to his. I assume it's a problem with me not understanding NAT, as we believe his ports are forwarded properly.

If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it immensely. In the meantime, thanks for the advice about hamachi, I'll see if I can make that work.

[maxicek]

I'm trying to sort out my hosting (again) can someone please try and join?

Edit:
Well either nobody tried or someone tried, failed but didn't post. I'll try later.

[Oscuro]

Not any problems (yet), but I've changed some network things and would appreciate someone testing if they can join (down, will try again another time) (normal sc 1.12 FAM). Thanks!

[smilts]

@Oscuro if you just need to test message me and I will join...