How to host in multiplayer & play w/ friends

Quick tutorial with pictures, showing how to setup your own server, so you can play with your friends or strangers.

Introduction

You have probably tried to host a server, and your friends are not able to join.

You ignored a mysterious note about network ports.



How do I ensure the game has accessibility through these mysterious ports?

It might seem complicated, but it's very simple if you follow the steps ahead.

Keep in mind, I'm not an expert. But I believe these steps will work for you, as well as they've worked for me.

Let's get started!

Getting Started

UPDATE: If your router allows UPnP, it will save a lot of time. Skip to the Hosting part, if that is the case.

You begin by searching cmd in the Windows Start button.



When you have opened cmd it should look as below.



Type "ipconfig" and press enter.



Now, here you have two addresses you're looking for:
IPv4 Address & Default Gateway.

Firstly we need the Default Gateway to access the router.
For me it is 192.168.1.1, but you may have different. So make sure you actually go through these steps

You should keep the cmd open till we've finished, you'll need IPv4 later.

Let's move to the next section.

Port Forward

Now that we got the Default Gateway address, we need to type it in the browser URL bar.
Doesn't matter what browser you're using.



When you press enter you'll come to a site asking a username & password.
Most likely the username & password will be both "admin".



Just press login

Now comes the tricky part, because every layout is different depending on the router.

But what you are looking for is Advanced Setup, and under that NAT/Port Forwarding/Virtual Server Setup.
It can take a while to find it because of layout and name differences.



When you've finally found it, try to find a button somewhere where you can add a new port.

This is where IPv4 address comes in, so open cmd.

When you're ready to port forward, make it look something like below.



Another Example:



As we saw in the introduction, Arma 3 has two ports: 2302 and 2303.
Make sure you have both ports open.

Then you save and you're ready to go and start hosting!

One last reminder. The IPv4 address usually changes every week or so. So if you want to play after weeks, you may need to update your port forward.

Hosting

If you know how to host, you don't need to read this section.

Now that you've done all that work. All you need to do is launch Arma, and go to multiplayer.
When you're in the server browser, click on 'Host' to create a local server.



UPDATE: If your router allows UPnP, enable it and you don't have to worry about any of the port forwarding.

We have solved the mysterious network ports. Now you can choose the host name, what your friends will search to find your server.

Of course make sure you're hosting through the internet, that's the reason you've gone through all of this.

You don't need to put a password, but if you don't, strangers are able to join the server.

Now you are ready for endless fun playing with your friends!

If you're still unable to get your friends to join, I recommend to simply get the third-party software called Hamachi[www.vpn.net] to ease up the frustration. But I recommend this as a last resort.

Check out my missions you can start with:
[CO-04] Contract In Chains
[CO-04] Last Stand - Bunker
[CO-04] Last Stand - Compound
[CO-04] Last Stand - Town
[CO-04] Terrorist Hunt - Village
[CO-04] Terrorist Hunt - Factory

Have fun! :)

[Ayso]

@daledantony this is pretty standard games nowadays have just made way easier than the old ways

[Dale Dan Tony]

why is this so complicated compared to every other game that let us play no issue

[AnViL]

I've tried hosting a server with UPnP enabled, and it fails every time. I've tried manually port forwarding, and again, hosting a server for my friends fails, we even tried Hamachi, and it didn't work.

[Blue Phoenix]

Just make sure you ONLY have the two ports open for Arma 3 AND ONLY Arma 3 or you might be hacked! I would use port forwarding as a last resort. Most games don't need this in order to work. There are MANY other things that could be the cause of a bad connection. If you aren't experienced with port forwarding or messing with your router, find someone that is, or you could change a setting and mess up your whole internet connection and have to purge the router settings by holding the reset button for 30 secs, etc. If you are going to experiment with this, PLEASE make sure to backup the router configuration to a file. Again, if you don't know how to backup your router settings, then DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING! You have been warned!

[RooksOn]

i have enabled the upnp theres no error when i create the server but my friend cant find me how to fix this?

[bossgothegamer]

will this make it anyone can join whenever?

[Baltikum]

cant believe this shit is needed to play game - this is like early 1999 or 2004 - assholes bohemia

[BRAVO]

hi im new to trying out multiplayer. i cant find my friends server. is it because im using mobile hotspot to play? thanks in advance bro

[ohexra]

hey, thanks man that really helped a lot. added to favorites and liked.

[tigerboom10]

nowadays you jsut have the UPNP options, right? it does the port forwarding for you if i'm correct.