Can't Join Multiplayer TCP/IP Game. Why? Someone Please Help!

[Excelsior]

I was trying to play SMAC v4.0 with a friend using the TCP/IP mode with me hosting it and he joining. It worked fine all week, but now it doesn't and we can't figure out why. He says that he finds the game but that when he tries to join it, he gets kicked back to the main menu. We've tried with him hosting, but I can't even find the game, much less attempt to join it.

We have both reinstalled the game and the patch to no avail. My firewall isn't the problem as it is set to the same settings as when it was working previously. Furthermore, we have tried it without the firewall entirely. I haven't got a clue what the problem is. One day it works fine; the next day, this.

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help.

[Darsnan]

Hi Excelsior,
my first thought would be that someone has a different IP address than in the previous game, however from reading your comments it sounds like your knowledgable enough to have checked that already. Secondly, to narrow the problem down farther, have you both tried doing an IP game with a third party hosting or joining (i.e. not really to play the game, but just to see if there are any problems linking up under these scenarios)? This might help narrow the problem down by seeing if its just one of you that is experiencing the problem. If you want, I can do this for you. Other than that, don't know what to say, other that hope you get the problem fixed soon!

D

[Excelsior]

Thanks for the reply.

Already checked the IP, yes.

"If you want, I can do this for you."

Sure that'd be a help. We've been meeting at the MoO3 chatroom, and we are planning to meet back there in about 20 minutes. Are you free; could you meet us there?

http://forums.delphiforums.com/masteroforion3/chat

[Darsnan]

Unfortunately I am going out to dinner now. When I get back I'll drop you a line here. Should be before 8pm est.

D

[Excelsior]

Okay. I'll be over in the chat until about 9:00est. I use the same username over there, too, except with an '84' appended to it.

[Excelsior]

OK. Thanks to Darsnan we've managed to narrow the problem down to something with my computer. When I tried to join the game on Darsnan's computer I got the "game not found" error. I don't know what might cause that, though...

[Excelsior]

OK. This is really strange, but the problem resolved itself. We just tried one more time a moment ago, and it now works. I did nothing different. Oh well. All's well that ends well.