Soren's Advice on MP Connection Issues

[snoopy369]

Soren Johnson, lead designer of Civilization IV, sent the following suggestions for people who are having connectivity issues with Civ4 :
[q=Soren]

Troubleshooting Connectivity:



If you are encountering problems when connecting to multiplayer games over the internet, chances are strong that you are not the cause of the problem. It is likely that players running firewall software that rejects incoming connection attempts may have already joined the game. Since these players do not have their firewall configured correctly, their computers are rejecting your attempt to connect. Therefore, it is vital that all players who wish to play multiplayer games ensure that their firewall is set up to allow Civilization IV to construct the necessary peer-to-peer network.



If you are running firewall software, please verify that CivilizationIV.exe is listed on the "Exception List" of your firewall, and that incoming messages will be accepted for this process. If your firewall software does not offer an exception list, please open port 2056 for UDP traffic on your firewall. This will allow the required traffic through.



Although Civilization IV contains logic to negotiate around many firewalls and NAT devices (routers), it can run into trouble under certain circumstances. The solution Civilization IV employs works with a vast majority of routers, but does not work with all brands. Very old
models may have more problems than newer ones. Additionally, Civilization IV will have problems negotiating through 2 levels of network address translation (ie. a router behind a router). Also, negotiation may fail if you or an existing peer is running the game on a very large and busy LAN.



Thanks
[/q]

[Gyathaar]

He also posted the following here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=3587172#post3587172

one bit of news... we have confirmed that there is a bug involving some uncleared data. Basically, sometimes (not always, but a reasonable amount of time) if you try to join a game and fail or abort (by backing out or timing out), you will no longer be able to connect to any other game, ever. This can be fixed by restarting the app. (backing out of the GameSpy lobby and coming back doesn't fix it - you need to exit out of the game entirely...) At any rate, sorry about this problem... it'll be fixed in the next patch.

[CanuckSoldier]

We are still really looking for confirmed cases of a set group of people that reliably always have problems with connecting to peers/hosts consistantly(with each other), and have no firewall/router/NAT problems(or have them properly configured so they aren't probblems). If you are in such a group please contact myself and I'll walk you threw the process we need to help us track down this possible issue and fix it.

CS

[iSkratch]

Great.

Why won't he comment on the MASSIVE WIDESPREAD FATAL BUGS.

Edit:

Firaxis has qa testers? Coulda fooled me.

[DanielZKlein]

One quick question: I've noticed out of synch errors only while playing with a mod (grave's megamod in this case); am I imagining things or can a mod really introduce OOS? I thought the mod only changed interface and scripting things, nothing on a netcode level?

[CanuckSoldier]

Originally posted by DanielZKlein
One quick question: I've noticed out of synch errors only while playing with a mod (grave's megamod in this case); am I imagining things or can a mod really introduce OOS? I thought the mod only changed interface and scripting things, nothing on a netcode level?

Mod's have to be loaded by every player in the game, but if that is happening it shouldn't OOS, but then it might be a bug in that mod, have you tried other mod's to see if it's all mods you play or just that one?

CS

[CanuckSoldier]

Originally posted by iSkratch
Great.

Why won't he comment on the MASSIVE WIDESPREAD FATAL BUGS.

Edit:

Firaxis has qa testers? Coulda fooled me.

I'd refute your post with a detailed reply but I've already addressed many similar broad and inaccurate states here.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=153626&page=2

CS

[deity]

Re: Soren's Advice on MP Connection Issues

Additionally, Civilization IV will have problems negotiating through 2 levels of network address translation (ie. a router behind a router).

So this is my situation. I have an ADSL modem with an address of 10.0.0.1; which is connected via its one ethernet port to a router that assigns addresses on my home network in the 192.168.1.1...99 range.

This explains why I can't host but I can usually play. Sometimes I have to join last.

[CanuckSoldier]

You likely will have a higher probability of problems but if you do properly forward port 2056(or other ports if you've changed it) threw both routers you should still be able to play with most people, although in my experience you'l have issues with others with unconfigured routers as well.

CS

[marvinkosh]

This is sound advice. I was out of luck trying to play Civ 4 multiplayer before setting the port forwarding.

While it seems highly technical, the actual steps required to set it up are not that difficult to achieve.

1. Check your router manual to determine how to actually configure it.

2. Check which IP address you have assigned to your computer (ideally, have a static IP). You can find this out by getting details on your current connection, or by running ipconfig at the command prompt.

3. The configuration will vary from one router to another, and in my case the manufacturer has skimped on a detailed user manual. However if you try a Google search with terms like the model of your router plus 'port forwarding' you may come up with something that looks like what you need.

4. Obviously, you want to forward port 2056

[jonp]

MP issues

CS,

Can you contact me about the problems I am having with mplayer?

I have a machine at my house that is set up as a pitboss server with port 2056 open.

I have 2 guys that I am playing with and all 3 have no problem logging on and playing but when I try to log in (from my girlfriends house) we have all kinds of sync problems and contacting peer problems. Both of the guys only have a cable modem and have turned off the windows firewall. They can play fine as long as I dont try to log in so I just kicked myself from the game.

Please contact me at : jonp at tampabay dot rr dot com

Thx
jonp

[CanuckSoldier]

Re: MP issues

Originally posted by jonp
CS,

Can you contact me about the problems I am having with mplayer?

I have a machine at my house that is set up as a pitboss server with port 2056 open.

I have 2 guys that I am playing with and all 3 have no problem logging on and playing but when I try to log in (from my girlfriends house) we have all kinds of sync problems and contacting peer problems. Both of the guys only have a cable modem and have turned off the windows firewall. They can play fine as long as I dont try to log in so I just kicked myself from the game.

Please contact me at : jonp at tampabay dot rr dot com

Thx
jonp

You have mail.

CS

[SorvinoBackhand]

Port 2056

So how do I open port 2056 ?

(I have no idea what that means.)

[CanuckSoldier]

Well you have to know if and what firewall or router you are using, then opening port 2056 is dependant on that info.

CS

[SorvinoBackhand]

I have a Linksys Router, and I use Norton Antivirus 2005, with Windows Firewall. Pretty basic stuff.

Any ideas ?