so it seems i can play some people on the warzone but not others.
i have played shawlax carcher and verbal wtihotu a problem but i cant play mickar jonboy or chris.
when i launch either as host i get to race selection screen but they cant get in. or if they are host i cant get into race selection
when we try playing bypass as host i get a drect play error as soon as i click new multi, and if the other person host they get the same.
i dont have a firewall and my windows one is deactivated. today though chris showed me how to check if my ports were set correctly and they all failed.
47624 FAILED!!!
2300 FAILED!!!
2301 FAILED!!!
2302 FAILED!!!
2303 FAILED!!!
2305 FAILED!!!
2350 FAILED!!!
2400 FAILED!!!
Finished.
Some ports failed.
i went onto my firewall and have added each port tcp and udp. i have run the port check again and get same result.
can soemone help.
i am running windows vista
having trouble
Moderator: thunderchero
I'm having similar problems
Believe it or nor, have never played game over Internet B4 but played over local lan for years
I've done same steps, i.e. checked all ports and set up as TCP & UDP but get same error when entering warzone and doing port test
Despite this and after several attempts, I managed to get started in a game with carcher last night with him hosting
Once we got started all was well until we met each other around turn 9 and our ships appeared on combat screen
Then it froze!!
We tried to restart many times without sucsess and from this point were unable to even start a new game
Since this I've been trying to set a static IP address on my system as per ruthless_ferengi's post elsewhere
I have no problem getting the needed info and setting up my static IP
Until I go to use it and find that my ISP server does not allow static IP addresses!!
Unfortunately, the company I work for provide my broadband connection for work use, so it may not be a good idea for me to phone the ISP for help
So, anyone got any ideas!!
Pigman
Believe it or nor, have never played game over Internet B4 but played over local lan for years
I've done same steps, i.e. checked all ports and set up as TCP & UDP but get same error when entering warzone and doing port test
Despite this and after several attempts, I managed to get started in a game with carcher last night with him hosting
Once we got started all was well until we met each other around turn 9 and our ships appeared on combat screen
Then it froze!!
We tried to restart many times without sucsess and from this point were unable to even start a new game
Since this I've been trying to set a static IP address on my system as per ruthless_ferengi's post elsewhere
I have no problem getting the needed info and setting up my static IP
Until I go to use it and find that my ISP server does not allow static IP addresses!!
Unfortunately, the company I work for provide my broadband connection for work use, so it may not be a good idea for me to phone the ISP for help
So, anyone got any ideas!!
Pigman
-
trevtones
- Commander
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This THREAD might be useful if you havent seen it yet.
If the ports are opened properly your port test should pass. Also it could be your router that's causing the problem which was the case for nighthawk.
If the ports are opened properly your port test should pass. Also it could be your router that's causing the problem which was the case for nighthawk.
The_Nighthawk wrote:I'm using a D-Link WBR-2310 (pretty sure that's what it is, I'm writing this from work). Flocke tracked down the manual somewhere online and went through it looking for fixes, but nothing worked (obviously!).
Last edited by trevtones on Sat Jul 26, 2008 12:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Don't let your reach exceed your grasp! 
-
trevtones
- Commander
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Pigman wrote:Since this I've been trying to set a static IP address on my system as per ruthless_ferengi's post elsewhere
I have no problem getting the needed info and setting up my static IP
Until I go to use it and find that my ISP server does not allow static IP addresses!!
He doesn't mean a static IP address for your external IP, he meant set a static IP for your computer. Go HERE for help.
Your router needs to forward the ports to your individual computer that you'll use to play BotF.
Don't let your reach exceed your grasp!
trevtones
Thanks for your reply but I already used your link (in fact I printed it out) and followed it step by step, very carefully (or so I thought) and after doing so I couldn't connect to internet as message came back saying that the server I was connecting to is not configured to accept static IPs
I've not had to mess around with IPs much before and never with assigning ports, but I can learn
However, as I've already tried the link you gave me, I'm obviously looking for another solution
Desperately seeking help!!
Want to play!!
Pigman
Thanks for your reply but I already used your link (in fact I printed it out) and followed it step by step, very carefully (or so I thought) and after doing so I couldn't connect to internet as message came back saying that the server I was connecting to is not configured to accept static IPs
I've not had to mess around with IPs much before and never with assigning ports, but I can learn
However, as I've already tried the link you gave me, I'm obviously looking for another solution
Desperately seeking help!!
Want to play!!
Pigman
May have solved problem??
Was using my work PC as I work from home and my only internet connection is provided by my employer (I couldn't make changes on my work PC maybe due to limited priviledges) but have managed to forward ports on one of my own PCs which I have now connected via my works router/modem and now when I run Port Test in eWarzone, all Ports Pass!!
So carcher
Either we can try again, or if anyone else wants to see if we can start a game to prove if it works or not??
Pigman
Was using my work PC as I work from home and my only internet connection is provided by my employer (I couldn't make changes on my work PC maybe due to limited priviledges) but have managed to forward ports on one of my own PCs which I have now connected via my works router/modem and now when I run Port Test in eWarzone, all Ports Pass!!
So carcher
Either we can try again, or if anyone else wants to see if we can start a game to prove if it works or not??
Pigman
-
trevtones
- Commander
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In response to your post in the tournament thread.
The guide that I did up "how to play MP" is how I set up the game to play and it has helped other people get MP working. The problem is that not all of us are using the same equipment. Different OS's, routers, patches, etc... Like I said earlier we tried everything in the book to get nighthawk connected but unfortunately he had to drop out of the tourney because of his router, or at least we think it was his router.
I highly doubt that your dynamic IP address is causing the problem, I don't even know of anyone else who has a static IP address and we can all play with dynamic. That is unless I'm missing something about dial up broadband. But I can't see it because if I start a game with someone today, when we continue that game later on my IP address will have changed and warzone finds the IP automatically. But from what you've said about your physical setup I'd say your situation is unique.
You understand computers and networking so it's pretty basic how MP works really. As long as Botf can communicate across the routers on those ports the game will work. Somewhere along the line the packets are being dropped. It is very strange that you can play for 10 turns and then it stops.
You said that your company provides a router to you and that's your only internet connection, that may very well be the problem. In fact that's what I think it is because if you follow the steps in my guide the game should work for you barring something interfering like a bad router.
Another possibility is that warzone is not working for you but there are other ways to play. You could play direct IP with someone (if you don't mind handing out your IP address :-) ). You could try hamachi (there are a few people who still use this software). There's also kali but I've never tried it and I think you have to pay for it.
Anyways good luck with getting it sorted. It would be a shame because you haven't really played BotF until you've played MP.
The guide that I did up "how to play MP" is how I set up the game to play and it has helped other people get MP working. The problem is that not all of us are using the same equipment. Different OS's, routers, patches, etc... Like I said earlier we tried everything in the book to get nighthawk connected but unfortunately he had to drop out of the tourney because of his router, or at least we think it was his router.
I highly doubt that your dynamic IP address is causing the problem, I don't even know of anyone else who has a static IP address and we can all play with dynamic. That is unless I'm missing something about dial up broadband. But I can't see it because if I start a game with someone today, when we continue that game later on my IP address will have changed and warzone finds the IP automatically. But from what you've said about your physical setup I'd say your situation is unique.
You understand computers and networking so it's pretty basic how MP works really. As long as Botf can communicate across the routers on those ports the game will work. Somewhere along the line the packets are being dropped. It is very strange that you can play for 10 turns and then it stops.
You said that your company provides a router to you and that's your only internet connection, that may very well be the problem. In fact that's what I think it is because if you follow the steps in my guide the game should work for you barring something interfering like a bad router.
Another possibility is that warzone is not working for you but there are other ways to play. You could play direct IP with someone (if you don't mind handing out your IP address :-) ). You could try hamachi (there are a few people who still use this software). There's also kali but I've never tried it and I think you have to pay for it.
Anyways good luck with getting it sorted. It would be a shame because you haven't really played BotF until you've played MP.
Don't let your reach exceed your grasp!
Thanks trevtones
I'm interested in getting into tournements and would be happy to try anything
Direct IP or Hamachi might be a good idea
I just discovered that my employer uses a firewall from Zone Labs, which could very well be the problem and I will look into it
You misunderstand one thing, however
I've been playing MP BOTF since we first bought software around 1999/2000 at home initially over a serial connection and eventually on our home LAN and I agree that BOTF is much better against a human opponent
Will go through your "how to play MP" carefully and see if I'm doing anything wrong
BTW, all of the crashes so far in the three games that we managed to get started seemed to occur when I met my opponent in battle
In each case I had met other empires in battle first and had successful combat
Don't know if this means anything
Thanks for taking the trouble to respond, it is very much appreciated
Regards
Pigman
I'm interested in getting into tournements and would be happy to try anything
Direct IP or Hamachi might be a good idea
I just discovered that my employer uses a firewall from Zone Labs, which could very well be the problem and I will look into it
You misunderstand one thing, however
I've been playing MP BOTF since we first bought software around 1999/2000 at home initially over a serial connection and eventually on our home LAN and I agree that BOTF is much better against a human opponent
Will go through your "how to play MP" carefully and see if I'm doing anything wrong
BTW, all of the crashes so far in the three games that we managed to get started seemed to occur when I met my opponent in battle
In each case I had met other empires in battle first and had successful combat
Don't know if this means anything
Thanks for taking the trouble to respond, it is very much appreciated
Regards
Pigman
-
Flocke
- BORG Trouble Maker
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- Location: Hamburg, Germany
- Contact:
Man, what a damn connection trouble here.
You can easily control if dynamic IP from ISP is the reason by checking if it really has changed! On main community site https://www.armadafleetcommand.com/onscreen/botf on the right there's a "Site Info" with your actual extrenal ISP IP. Just above the login input field or if already logged in above your avatar.
Just print it down somewhere, play until crash, reload page and look if it has changed!
I bet it hasn't!!
So for case dynamic ip from ISP isn't the problem, you can control your internal LAN ip as well.
Just open a consol / command window by going to Start->Execute and type in cmd
Then in the DOS prompt type in ipconfig /all
All your LAN connections with ip get listed including the one you're using for connection with router.
Type it down, play until crash and control if anything has changed.
If that's not the case, and I don't believe it, static LAN ip isn't the problem, too.
So only Firewalls are left, including Firewalls by router and company.
The reason why all people tell that you need to have a static LAN ip is that whenever your router gives you a new LAN ip, you have to change the portforwarding in router to the new LAN ip of your computer, else all the incoming botf packages would be sent to the old LAN ip, either connected to another computer or to the big nowhere.
An internal dynamic LAN ip of current computer given by router normally only get changed if having more than one active computer connected and rebooting the current one.
And external dynamic WAN IP by ISP in most countries doesn't get changed very often, say every 24 hours or so - not every 10 minutes.
Because even warzones dx port test tells about having troubles, and you're not able to relaunch, it has to be an connection interference by either ip change, or a firewall that starts to block every incoming new packages from a given ip - in your case probably after it has detected a bad package it doesn't like. And that's what I believe.
Many firewalls ban an ip whenever they think they have detected an attack and pittily the old packages sent by botf often get misinterpretated by firewalls as potential attacks.
If a single botf opponent got blocked you still should be able to play with others or wait until he got debanned by firewall or has a new ip. (Normally a firewall debans after a few minutes)
However, what I'm not sure about is warzone... the warzone tests should still pass cause warzone only launches and doesn't have anything to do with botf connections after you're in game as long as you're not using the bypass option. It only tells botf which ips the opponents are having and establishes a direct ip connection (as far I know).
The port 47624 frequently doesn't pass the warzone dx port test for all people, that's a bug in the test itself. But the behavior of the other ports should have kept the same and still pass as before the crash.
Don't have a clue on that right now. If warzone's server got blocked as well, you shouldn't even be able to chat in there.
Edit: But maybe the chat warzone client is using has it's own server. Than it could make sense that you get these port troubles whenever you played with bypass and game server of warzone got banned by firewall. Dunno how it's programmed...
If you find the reason, don't forget to tell about so all can benefit from
------------------
Besides this, as someone has told me to do, I recently tried the demo from GalCivII and I really..... hated this damn crap (sorry, only spoken for me, I know others really like it).
So I'll keep with botf and all these connection troubles all the people have really sucks.
I really hope I'll find a general solution for mp with a new emulating dplayx.dll sometime in this year and I'm sure that there would be many, many more players online for playing botf.
Ok, I can't assure anything but that it's quite high on my priority list and I may fail but I'll try my best (not started yet, beside collecting some background information). If I've nothing done till next year burn my ass and call me a looser! Yes, this is a bet and I may better not have done this
You can easily control if dynamic IP from ISP is the reason by checking if it really has changed! On main community site https://www.armadafleetcommand.com/onscreen/botf on the right there's a "Site Info" with your actual extrenal ISP IP. Just above the login input field or if already logged in above your avatar.
Just print it down somewhere, play until crash, reload page and look if it has changed!
I bet it hasn't!!
So for case dynamic ip from ISP isn't the problem, you can control your internal LAN ip as well.
Just open a consol / command window by going to Start->Execute and type in cmd
Then in the DOS prompt type in ipconfig /all
All your LAN connections with ip get listed including the one you're using for connection with router.
Type it down, play until crash and control if anything has changed.
If that's not the case, and I don't believe it, static LAN ip isn't the problem, too.
So only Firewalls are left, including Firewalls by router and company.
The reason why all people tell that you need to have a static LAN ip is that whenever your router gives you a new LAN ip, you have to change the portforwarding in router to the new LAN ip of your computer, else all the incoming botf packages would be sent to the old LAN ip, either connected to another computer or to the big nowhere.
An internal dynamic LAN ip of current computer given by router normally only get changed if having more than one active computer connected and rebooting the current one.
And external dynamic WAN IP by ISP in most countries doesn't get changed very often, say every 24 hours or so - not every 10 minutes.
Because even warzones dx port test tells about having troubles, and you're not able to relaunch, it has to be an connection interference by either ip change, or a firewall that starts to block every incoming new packages from a given ip - in your case probably after it has detected a bad package it doesn't like. And that's what I believe.
Many firewalls ban an ip whenever they think they have detected an attack and pittily the old packages sent by botf often get misinterpretated by firewalls as potential attacks.
If a single botf opponent got blocked you still should be able to play with others or wait until he got debanned by firewall or has a new ip. (Normally a firewall debans after a few minutes)
However, what I'm not sure about is warzone... the warzone tests should still pass cause warzone only launches and doesn't have anything to do with botf connections after you're in game as long as you're not using the bypass option. It only tells botf which ips the opponents are having and establishes a direct ip connection (as far I know).
The port 47624 frequently doesn't pass the warzone dx port test for all people, that's a bug in the test itself. But the behavior of the other ports should have kept the same and still pass as before the crash.
Don't have a clue on that right now. If warzone's server got blocked as well, you shouldn't even be able to chat in there.
Edit: But maybe the chat warzone client is using has it's own server. Than it could make sense that you get these port troubles whenever you played with bypass and game server of warzone got banned by firewall. Dunno how it's programmed...
If you find the reason, don't forget to tell about so all can benefit from
------------------
Besides this, as someone has told me to do, I recently tried the demo from GalCivII and I really..... hated this damn crap (sorry, only spoken for me, I know others really like it).
So I'll keep with botf and all these connection troubles all the people have really sucks.
I really hope I'll find a general solution for mp with a new emulating dplayx.dll sometime in this year and I'm sure that there would be many, many more players online for playing botf.
Ok, I can't assure anything but that it's quite high on my priority list and I may fail but I'll try my best (not started yet, beside collecting some background information). If I've nothing done till next year burn my ass and call me a looser! Yes, this is a bet and I may better not have done this
Thanks Flocke
Could be that IP address is a red herring but have now ordered a static IP from my ISP if that makes sense (that'll probably throw in another problem!)
With reference port forwarding, well according to my ISP, I don't have a router, I have a USB modem, Zyxel Prestige 630-C1, ADSL USB Modem (Annex A), if that makes any sense, so port forwarding would seem to be irrelevant to me and maybe another red herring
A bit of background
Until I got my new job 3 and half yrs ago, I didn't have an internet connection and was paranoid about viruses and other attacks, but I have had a home LAN for many years and built my own PCs and configured my LAN to work without outside help (so hopefully I'm not a complete muppet)
With my new job came Laptop, docking station, USB modem and Broadband, to be able to work from home and in car (but Internet comes on employers terms with their security, firewalls etc...
But at this point I had no internet experience and until last week had never tried to play a game over internet!
Interestingly, my work PC always fails all port tests in warzone, yet I was able to start a game with carcher. It's the fact that we couldn't get back in after crash which made me suspect dynamic IP issues
I then put one of my own PCs onto my work USB modem and used same logon/passwords to get onto Internet. With my own PC only 47624 port fails port test and it even passes this about 30% of time
Started 2 different games but never really able to progress after crashes
I'm starting to agree that Port Test may be yet another red herring, but I do have a strong suspect for the problem
What is my latest suspect?
While trying to play a UDM 3.0 G game on my home LAN that my son and I started a while ago, I noticed that the version numbers on main menu screen didn't match (mine said UDM 3.0 H)
A fresh reinstall from scratch on a clean system and copy the saves back solved the problem and we were able to carry on from where we were with no problem (apart from the usual synchronization errors and other crashes that happen anyway and even then we can get back in with no problem)
So I started to check version number on main menu screen on all systems and all MODs and now suspect that when I started my UDM 3.0 H game with carcher, the version number was 1.02 and my Vanilla games with RSE_Macky and carcher I think had UDM 3.0 H as version number
Now I'm not sure if Joker's patch provides the version number or whether it comes from the trek.exe, but I'm now going to very carefully reinstall all MODs on all systems
One question
On UDM 3.0 H, I was having persistant and repeatable crashes with combat drone and thunderchero modded the Trek.exe to try to solve this
I offered to test his mod so he gave me link to his 4 shared folder and I ran the tests (very extensive tests they were and I was able to prove that he had solved this problem)
My question then is this....If I'm running this latest experimental trek.exe for UDM 3.0 H and others over warzone are running earlier versions of trek.exe that have been written for UDM 3.0 H and work fine on their systems, would this create a problem?
2 versions of trek.exe, both written for UDM 3.0 H, but different...will it crash?
OK, after I've reinstalled BOTF very carefully, I'm going to try another time on warzone, if anyone's patient enough to try and play a game with me......and I'll let you know what happens
Regards
Pigman
Could be that IP address is a red herring but have now ordered a static IP from my ISP if that makes sense (that'll probably throw in another problem!)
With reference port forwarding, well according to my ISP, I don't have a router, I have a USB modem, Zyxel Prestige 630-C1, ADSL USB Modem (Annex A), if that makes any sense, so port forwarding would seem to be irrelevant to me and maybe another red herring
A bit of background
Until I got my new job 3 and half yrs ago, I didn't have an internet connection and was paranoid about viruses and other attacks, but I have had a home LAN for many years and built my own PCs and configured my LAN to work without outside help (so hopefully I'm not a complete muppet)
With my new job came Laptop, docking station, USB modem and Broadband, to be able to work from home and in car (but Internet comes on employers terms with their security, firewalls etc...
But at this point I had no internet experience and until last week had never tried to play a game over internet!
Interestingly, my work PC always fails all port tests in warzone, yet I was able to start a game with carcher. It's the fact that we couldn't get back in after crash which made me suspect dynamic IP issues
I then put one of my own PCs onto my work USB modem and used same logon/passwords to get onto Internet. With my own PC only 47624 port fails port test and it even passes this about 30% of time
Started 2 different games but never really able to progress after crashes
I'm starting to agree that Port Test may be yet another red herring, but I do have a strong suspect for the problem
What is my latest suspect?
While trying to play a UDM 3.0 G game on my home LAN that my son and I started a while ago, I noticed that the version numbers on main menu screen didn't match (mine said UDM 3.0 H)
A fresh reinstall from scratch on a clean system and copy the saves back solved the problem and we were able to carry on from where we were with no problem (apart from the usual synchronization errors and other crashes that happen anyway and even then we can get back in with no problem)
So I started to check version number on main menu screen on all systems and all MODs and now suspect that when I started my UDM 3.0 H game with carcher, the version number was 1.02 and my Vanilla games with RSE_Macky and carcher I think had UDM 3.0 H as version number
Now I'm not sure if Joker's patch provides the version number or whether it comes from the trek.exe, but I'm now going to very carefully reinstall all MODs on all systems
One question
On UDM 3.0 H, I was having persistant and repeatable crashes with combat drone and thunderchero modded the Trek.exe to try to solve this
I offered to test his mod so he gave me link to his 4 shared folder and I ran the tests (very extensive tests they were and I was able to prove that he had solved this problem)
My question then is this....If I'm running this latest experimental trek.exe for UDM 3.0 H and others over warzone are running earlier versions of trek.exe that have been written for UDM 3.0 H and work fine on their systems, would this create a problem?
2 versions of trek.exe, both written for UDM 3.0 H, but different...will it crash?
OK, after I've reinstalled BOTF very carefully, I'm going to try another time on warzone, if anyone's patient enough to try and play a game with me......and I'll let you know what happens
Regards
Pigman
-
Flocke
- BORG Trouble Maker
- Posts: 3246
- Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2008 2:00 am
- Location: Hamburg, Germany
- Contact:
I dunno if thunderchero changed anything other than combat drone.
In general a different botf version always is very risky, but in this case, if only combat drone for tactical fight got changed, it may be harmless...
Anyway, having different botf/mod versions you should keep being able to start a new game if you have been able before. Although it's likely to crash after a few or even first turn.
The version label itself doesn't mean anything, it's just a string set in the registry and only is used for showing up in main screen of botf.
I've three botf folders with different versions on my system, including UDMIII and vanilla and version is always labled as UDMIII in botf main menu but I'm still able to play vanilla in mp by just swapping the botf folder without of any change in crash frequency.
Problems occure when there are wrong files in the botf installation folder. Be careful with these files, not only with stbof.res. When installing a new mod or reinstalling botf, better backup the whole folder before doing so!
Of course, completely removing and reinstalling is always the safest.
In general a different botf version always is very risky, but in this case, if only combat drone for tactical fight got changed, it may be harmless...
Anyway, having different botf/mod versions you should keep being able to start a new game if you have been able before. Although it's likely to crash after a few or even first turn.
The version label itself doesn't mean anything, it's just a string set in the registry and only is used for showing up in main screen of botf.
I've three botf folders with different versions on my system, including UDMIII and vanilla and version is always labled as UDMIII in botf main menu but I'm still able to play vanilla in mp by just swapping the botf folder without of any change in crash frequency.
Problems occure when there are wrong files in the botf installation folder. Be careful with these files, not only with stbof.res. When installing a new mod or reinstalling botf, better backup the whole folder before doing so!
Of course, completely removing and reinstalling is always the safest.