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**Panag** · December 20, 2002, 16:27

Originally posted by isak

No, that's not very clear I'm afraid - a firewall blocks traffic to and from your computer - a game played over internet needs to generate traffic to and from your computer. If you want to play the game, you need to disable parts of your firewall. There is absolutely no way to avoid this - not for any game or any firewall.

The problem was solved a long time ago, and the solution is simple - disable your software firewalls, and disconnect the hardware firewalls - then, and only then will they no longer give you problems (i.e. require setup) playing games over the internet

They work behind the non-pro edition of ZoneAlarm too, if you remember to give the required programs access to the internet and possibly allow some as servers too.

The fact that they do, is not through brilliance of the game developers, but only the (allegded) brilliance of the firewall programmers.

hi ,

have you ever heard of letting traffic true but being checked , ...... there are some firewall's here you can do this , .......

and ahem , with C&C the did look to all the firewalls on the market , ......
something someone should have do in this case also , ......

have a nice day

**isak** · December 20, 2002, 16:35

Originally posted by panag
have you ever heard of letting traffic true but being checked , ...... there are some firewall's here you can do this , .......

Yes, and again it is a feature provided by the firewalls in question not the games or other software.

and ahem , with C&C the did look to all the firewalls on the market , ......
something someone should have do in this case also , ......

What exactly do you mean by this? I don't see setup directions for all firewalls, if that's what you mean - in fact, what i saw is this

From Westwood Support
If you do not know how to configure your firewall, please consult your firewall documentation, contact your system administrator, or contact your Internet service provider.

So basically, Westwood also say that if you have a firewall and can't figure out how to make the game work through it, it really isn't their problem.

Which, btw, I think they are totally entitled to say.

**Panag** · December 20, 2002, 16:44

Originally posted by isak

Yes, and again it is a feature provided by the firewalls in question not the games or other software.

What exactly do you mean by this? I don't see setup directions for all firewalls, if that's what you mean - in fact, what i saw is this

So basically, Westwood also say that if you have a firewall and can't figure out how to make the game work through it, it really isn't their problem.

Which, btw, I think they are totally entitled to say.

hi ,

they just simply took all the popular firewalls and try to play with the walls on , ......

when later some did some upgrades and other stuff , some patches where made , when you want to play on the net , you shall be asked to download these , ....

as far as a firm being responsable , well if you sell a product and dont care that half your customers cant do anything with it , well you aint going to get good PR , it IS their bussiness , .....

have a nice day

**isak** · December 20, 2002, 17:10

Originally posted by panag
they just simply took all the popular firewalls and try to play with the walls on , ......

But that doesn't mean you still don't have to setup the firewalls to use the game. Firaxis did the same, btw.

when later some did some upgrades and other stuff , some patches where made , when you want to play on the net , you shall be asked to download these , ....

When who did upgrades and to what?? Which patches? This is not very clear to me, I'm afraid. Are you talking about firewall upgrades, game upgrades, firmware upgrades here?

as far as a firm being responsable , well if you sell a product and dont care that half your customers cant do anything with it , well you aint going to get good PR , it IS their bussiness , .....

They do care, but they cannot assume responsibility. If you buy a firewall (software or hardware) and don't know how to use, it is really no-one's problem but your own.

Besides, what can they do? There are countless firewalls (software and hardware) available - do you want them to check the game with each and every one and write detailed instructions on how to set them up?? That is really not their business, IMHO. If the firewall manufacturer/programmer didn't provide detailed instructions on how to do port forwarding or DMZ or similar, then it is a matter between the user of the firewall and the producer, and not something that a 3rd party (game or software developer) should be dragged into. If you get 'missing dll' errors when starting up Windows, and you have Civ3 installed, are you also going to call Firaxis/Infogrames about it??

**Acererak** · December 20, 2002, 18:10

Originally posted by panag
hi ,

with C&C firestorm its not needed to open those , .......

no ports should be open , do you want to give your carkeys to the guy at the bar when you go for a swim , no , they could have thought about this when they made it , .....

have a nice day

Have you any idea how TCP and UDP actually work? In order for one machine to talk to another via either TCP or UDP, they must have ports open. Period. That goes for communicating with anything: games, surfing the web, chatting, etc.

Now, in most cases, if you're not hosting, you normally don't need to explicity open any ports because no one needs to contact you. Most routers and firewalls automatically allow incoming traffic back to the originating port on your computer, provided your computer initiated contact (which, if you are simply joining a game is usually the case). So even if you are just browsing the web, you have ports that are implicitly open, no matter how briefly.

If you're hosting, by definition, you want other computers to connect to you. Unless you have a completely open system, you must open ports on the router and possibly set up rules on your firewall. There are some routers/firewalls out there that have some built in logic for games (e.g. Quake) and provide a simple interface to allow you to play Quake. Behind the scenes though, they are really opening ports up and doing port forwarding. There's no way around it.

There are also firewalls that inspect the packets that come through them. This is called SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) and is an advanced technique most users are not qualified to do and not all routers and firewalls support it. There's also little need for it if you're just playing games and surfing the web.

Giving my car keys to the guy at the bar? Far from it. I know what's going on behind the scenes. You, obviously, are blissfully unaware.

Enjoy your self-certified mastery of networking....you are the only one who believes it.

Have a nice holiday.

**Asterothe** · December 24, 2002, 05:12

Hey Acererak thank you very much.
I have been waiting for this for days.
At last somebody cared for me

.

Originally posted by Acererak

I host Direct IP games behind a Linksys router without any problems at all. You just have to open up the proper ports as mentioned in the readme.txt file that comes with the 1.14f patch.

To "open" up the proper ports, I use port forwarding.

Jot down the IP address of your computer. You can obtain this by opening up a command prompt and typing "ipconfig". The IP address will be 192.168.1.xxx.

Log onto your Linksys router.

Click on the 'Advanced' tab.

Click on Forwarding. Here is where you forward the ports specified in the readme.txt file.

The Ext. Port column lists the External Ports (those on your router) that you want to forward to your computer. You can put in a range or specific port numbers. (Obtained from the readme.txt depending on if you're hosting or using direct IP or Gamespy).

Check both the TCP and UDP check boxes if you are unsure about the specific protocol being utilized.

In the IP Address column, you want to fill in the 'xxx' from your IP address you noted above.

Next, check the 'Enable' checkboxes for each port forwarded. (For security, you should uncheck the 'Enable' checkboxes when you're done playing. THe next time you want to play you can simply recheck these boxes)

Finally, click apply.

e.g. Since I host Direct IP games, I open the following ports:
2302 (TCP and UDP)
6500 (TCP and UDP)
131319 (UDP)

That's all there is too it.

**WarpStorm** · December 24, 2002, 09:05

Anyone having problems may consider installing DirectX 9.

from MS DirectX site
Q. Are there any immediate benefits to installing DirectX 9.0?

A. Improvements to DirectPlay let computers within a Windows Me or Windows XP Internet Connection Sharing network connect with each other, as well as with players elsewhere on the Internet. Users with modern UPnP network routers no longer need to configure them for DirectPlay, because DirectPlay will open and close the multiplayer gaming ports as needed.

Q. Are there any known issues with regard to DirectX 9.0?

A. Due to enhancements in the way DirectPlay functions, it is strongly recommended that all users who want to join or host multiplayer games upgrade to DirectX 9.0. A user with earlier versions of DirectX may have trouble joining or hosting games, or my see a significant performance reduction when playing with users who have 9.0 installed.

**isak** · December 24, 2002, 09:26

Thanks for that tip, Warpstorm - didn't know it was released yet

**WarpStorm** · December 24, 2002, 09:54

I do have to point out that once installed a new version DirectX is nearly impossible to remove if you are on Windows 98. On the newer OSs you can (and should) set up a restore point. I'm not saying MS writes buggy code. I'm saying have a backup plan.

**Panag** · December 24, 2002, 14:15

hi ,

Dir X 9 works great

have a nice day

**isak** · December 25, 2002, 08:58

I have updated the first post, collecting some of the info from the 1.14f readme and this thread (as well as the 'twin' thread on CFC).

Let me know if you have suggestions, comments, critiscism or any other kind of help to offer.

**4eyes** · December 26, 2002, 15:17

Crashing to desktop with 1.14f patch installed

Hi,

I keep crashing to the desktop after I play online for a couple of hours. I dont get an error message at all so I dont have any idea how to solve the problem.

The 1.14f (euro) patch is allready installed but the problem is still there.

System:

AMD 2000xp
Chaintech Apogee
Chaintech Geforce 4
3x 512 DDR
Asus DVD player
2x 80 GB IBM Deskstar (not in raid)
Creative Audigy
Windows XP professional

Hopefully someone has a solution to this annoying problem.

(sorry this was to be posted in "ptw patchf bug & crash reports" topic)

**Panag** · December 28, 2002, 13:59

Re: Crashing to desktop with 1.14f patch installed

Originally posted by 4eyes
Hi,

I keep crashing to the desktop after I play online for a couple of hours. I dont get an error message at all so I dont have any idea how to solve the problem.

The 1.14f (euro) patch is allready installed but the problem is still there.

System:

AMD 2000xp
Chaintech Apogee
Chaintech Geforce 4
3x 512 DDR
Asus DVD player
2x 80 GB IBM Deskstar (not in raid)
Creative Audigy
Windows XP professional

Hopefully someone has a solution to this annoying problem.

(sorry this was to be posted in "ptw patchf bug & crash reports" topic)

hi ,

try to delete all the civ files , look manually for files like infogrames , civ , civilization , etc , .... delete them , reboot and reinstall , give it a try , if you still have problems post again , .....

have a nice day

**Stygian** · January 22, 2003, 18:56

anyone got it working with linux as router?

Hi folks,

I've got a linux-router with some 2.2.x-kernel doing masquerading.

Joining and playing a game works fine but hostings seems not possible.

I tried portforwarding and tcpdump shows packets received to my local pc but civ3-ptw (1.14) seems to send answers or messages from port 2302 only to broadcast address 255.255.255.255.

Any ideas or hints on how to get it working?

Thanks,

Thomas

**JRWMD** · February 4, 2003, 18:57

Hotseat crash

I am able to play and host games on Gamespy (yes it took some doing...)

My Civ buddy is not able to connect to me, however, either via Gamespy or direct IP.

We found that he cannot even host a hotseat game; the game immediately crashes when he tries to set it up. Civ3X has to close, please send info to MS etc.

This does not sound like a firewall problem, but I just thought I'd ask here if anyone had any ideas.

TIA, JR

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