...and boy do I feel feel dumb :o After spending untold hours trying to figure out why friends could not connect to my hosted game, I called my ISP to see if it might be something related to the cable modem.

It turns out they are no longer providing static IP numbers. No wonder when I would enter the original static IP's they provided into the TCP/IP settings nothing would work. What a bummer! I wanted to be able to host games using the cable modem.

So, I have to ask an ingnorant question. Is there a way to work around this somehow? If not, how many of you are using a 56k connection? How is the game running? The reason I ask is because the troubleshooting guide say's a DSL/Cable connection is preferred.

Zeph

If your ip is being dynamically assigned you can still just check what it is--with winipcfg under win 9x, for example--and then host and provide that ip to your friends. They should be able to join by ip, if at all.

I've tried so many different ways to get this to work my head is spinnin'. I'll be the first to admit I don't know beans about TCP/IP and IP's so please bear with me.

I'm running WinXP Pro, have a cable modem, and I'm currently using a D-Link DI-704 router for the network (I borrowed it since I couldn't get the Linksys BESFR41 to work either). TCP/IP is set to obtain IP and DNS automatically. In the D-Link setup, I have to set a static IP of 192.168.100.2 in order to get access to the cable modem (Surfboard external) connect/setup page, which is web based. This is per the ISP's instructions.

I've added port forwarding in the D-Link for port 28070 (current port; I've tried all the ranges) to the IP address the router assigns the computer (192.168.0.100). When I start a multiplayer game and set up as the host, I open the console to check the port and IP; 28070/192.168.0.100. In WinXP, I have to open a command prompt and use ipconfig to check the IP since Winipcfg is not available in XP. It shows the IP as 192.168.0.100. I don't see what the dynamic IP is from the ISP.

I have given friends both 192.168.100.2 and 192.168.0.100 to try. They start they're multiplayer game and select join. I assume they are supposed to enter my IP as a favorite but they are unable to find my game. I just don't know what else to do to get this to work.

Is anyone getting this to work with WinXP, a cable modem and either the D-Link or Linksys routers?

Zeph

Assuming the port forwarding is set up properly, you need to give your friends the IP that the router gets from your isp. 192.168.xxx.xxx are what is called a private IP, generally not routed because many people use them at the same time. There should be a way to get the routers ip from it somehow, i'm not entirely sure what methods you could use to do that, although there are many websites that will report the originating IP to you when you visit them, so you could try that.

I found a program that gives me the IP address from my ISP. I started a multiplayer game as host on 1 machine and tried to join from another machine using the new IP. I still can't connect though. I get no server info and when I select join, it just sits there waiting for the connection.

I used Port Detective to make sure port 28070 is open and it is. By chance, would I need to change the IP address that the game is using? When I check the console, it say's it's using the IP address of my computer. If I do need to change the IP in the game, what is the command?

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of finding the IP address assigned by my ISP. I feel like I'm finally getting closer to making this work.

Zeph

You could try this, its what I use for FTP and other stuff, and have used it to host q3 games too

http://www.deerfield.com)

Look for, download and install DNS2GO. It will assign an actual name to your current IP address, whatever that IP is. And its free for non-commercial use :)

So for instance you could register zephyr77.d2g.com and all peeps would have to do is connect to that and the port# regardless of your IP.

Theres other such programs out there, but I like this one for the extras you get with the main program.

HTH

Yep, DNS2GO is the best way, i used to use it when my IP was dynamic everytime i connected.. and you get a cool dns entry :P

Thanks pF.VoOdoO and Chronic. I signed up for DNS2GO and it looks good. This will make it much easier for friends to find my IP.

Finally, friends are able to connect to my hosted game however, they keep getting the message "Connection Interupted". It's almost constant; to the point where they cannot even play online. They are connecting with 56k modems.

I realize there are a lot of reasons this could be occuring, but was wondering if anyone has any troubleshooting advice that might make their connections better.

Thanks!
Zeph

wow you people do things the hard way!

inside your gateway/router there should be a status page that gives you your IP. Given you have the login...
Once you login to the gateway/router look around a little.


-skeeeeep