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This has to be said somewhere. A number of threads beat around the bush and hint at it.
We solved our direct IP multiplayer problems by downgrading from patch 6.61 to 1.52.
Background:
We are behind some pretty hefty firewall/router setups, with no control over our port forwarding or accessibility. We installed and upgraded civ4 to patch 1.61. We then couldn't connect more than 2 computers in a direct IP game. It said something about not being able to establish a connection to the peer (non hosting) computer. The problem always migrated to the 3rd computer to connect, so it wasn't computer dependant.
To cut a long story short, we then downgraded to 1.09, and it worked with 5 computers. We upgraded to 1.52 and it still worked.
We solved our direct IP multiplayer problems by downgrading from patch 6.61 to 1.52.
Background:
We are behind some pretty hefty firewall/router setups, with no control over our port forwarding or accessibility. We installed and upgraded civ4 to patch 1.61. We then couldn't connect more than 2 computers in a direct IP game. It said something about not being able to establish a connection to the peer (non hosting) computer. The problem always migrated to the 3rd computer to connect, so it wasn't computer dependant.
To cut a long story short, we then downgraded to 1.09, and it worked with 5 computers. We upgraded to 1.52 and it still worked.