A Land Far Away

Hopefully someone here might point me in the right direction, as I haven't had much help from the bioware boards.

Both the computers I use connect to the internet through wireless pc cards that connect to a linksys router. They have no problems connecting to nwn games, but I have never been able to host a game on either comp. No one is ever able to even see them on gamespy, (yes I've made sure they were all posted to gamespy in the options).

Any thoughts, options, points in the right direction?

I had the same issue with mine. I finally found out I have a non-broadcast IP and my ISP is full of anti-gaming Nazis that won't even let you pay for one that you can use to host.

I'm sure that's entirely unhelpful though. Hope you have better luck than I did.

Did you open all necessary ports on the router?

Port forwarding?

For hosting, I'd recommend against a wireless connection to the host- even in the best of case, packet loss is going to be commonplace- fine if you're just transmitting commands to your character, a serious concern if you're sending-receiving critical files like .bic files over the wireless network. It's a larger concern for servers using Netdrive, shfs, or AFS to map remote character vaults than for "local" servervaults, but generally just good practice to keep a hardwired link to a hosting machine.

To the specific problem, though- you need to make sure you have your router's firewall set up to forward inbound internet traffic to the computer that is running nwserver.exe. This is typically done by entering a config web applet for the router, ex: connecting to 192.168.0.1 or something similar, and giving it a password/login to access the router settings.

Once in, look for Firewall Settings/Rules or Port Forwarding. There may also be a "status" screen from which you can read what the "external" IP address is, the one that your players will need to try to direct connect to if the server doesn't post to gamespy. This should start with something other than "192.168." - those numbers are always an indication of internal addresses- usually the external (internet) IP is like 24.7.x.y or 67.112.x.y, whichever.

The actual nwnserver.exe window should show you something along the lines of "192.168.0.101:5121" - meaning it's address within your network is 192.168.0.101, and that it's listening for connections on port 5121.

To set up the firewall rule/port forward, you want to tell the router to allow traffic from *.* (whole internet) on port 5121, to pass to 192.168.0.101 (or wherever your server is, on port 5121. TCP/IP and UDP, IIRC, though not sure if that matters. Most routers reject internet data requests by default for security purposes, so you need to specifically allow them to pass through for the game port number, and direct them to the right computer on the internal network.

The individual router interfaces will vary, mine have been SMC, Dlink, and Netgear ones, though Linksys should be pretty comparable.

Hope this helps clarify.

Yea, I've already opened the ports 5120 to 5200 on my router for both tcp and UDP(the only options I have available, either tcp, UDP or both) and unfortunately that' hasn't worked.

You've confirmed that they're being forwarded to the correct internal network address? With wireless networks especially, these internal IP addresses can change across reboots and such. So, the server machine may be 192.168.0.101 one day, and 192.168.0.102 the next, depending on what order they were turned on, for example.

Similarly for your external IP address- most ISPs give a dynamic address that will change occasionally (from as much as every day, to as little as 1 change a year). Need to confirm at game-time what address your players should be trying to direct connect to, and also check to make sure your port forwarding rule is pointed at the right machine come game-time.

Also possible your ISP blocks inbound "gaming" traffic upstream of your router, in which case you can try mapping everything to a weird port (25,000 or something out of normal ranges), though your players will have to direct connect to that (ex 67.12.45.254:25000). Also possible they block inbound traffic by a more nebulous criteria, in which case you may be S.O.L. - if you want help troubleshooting later tonight, I'll be in #alfa-builders.

Yes, I'm fairly certain they are being forwarded to the correct internal address, as the web applet for the router lists it as 192.168.1.101, and that is the same that shows up on NW server and server details when I check it under lan games.

Do you have a software firewall (zone alarm or some such) on your hosting computer ?

Each time I've tried to host something on my PC, the problem was there while I was searching in the router.

Even the windows XP default firewall can be a problem if it is not correctly configured for inbound traffic.

Note that sometimes you have different settings for full inbound traffic and inbound traffic that goes after a connection/send from the inside (like for browsing, playing NWN...).

I have had no luck attempting to host from my own home with a linksys router. Multiple competent people tried to help me in chat and in my home to no avail. *shrugs*

I know this isn't a helpful post....just an empathetic one.

Never had much luck hosting with mine either fwiw.

Yea. It is incredibly annoying. meh. at least theres mass effect to keep me occupied for a while

The GS ports are in the 25000 range, I do not know the exact numbers though.
Also, if there is a DMZ function in the router, try using it. it means the router's firewall will not protect the server.

I have never had a problem hosting through a linksys router/modem. The appropriate settings are at www.portforward.com. just put in your settings for the game you want. That opens the router ports. Then you have to stop your software firewall. Yes, stop it. NAT is a very effective firewall as long as you don't have open ports, and all firewalls I have used just kill NWN hosting.

borgia