Failed to join a game

[Mrtikka]

Hey!

Everytime I try to connect to any game I get the error: Failed to join game. I have tried port forwarding, updating everything possible, setting my firewalls (turning them all off completely). Router is thomson TG789VN.

[kahossss]

The same problem here

[athene2]

Hi.
I also tried it with port forwarding and so on. Also using a thomson (but tg585v7).
The intresting thing:
- I can host games and some players can join (but not my friend).
- 2 out of 15 times, I was able to join a game... the other 13th times it said, that it failed.

Any ideas how to solve it?
(Or how my friend can join, because all other games can be joined by my friend)

[Mrtikka]

Hello athene!

Thomson routers and aoe 3 are notorious for not working well together (or so I read from forums...) and this is what worked for me:

Step 1: Download uTorrent

Step 2: Open the program, go to options>preferences>connection. There is a "port used for incoming connections" set that to 2300 and uncheck "randomize port each start.

Step 3: Go to options>preferences>bandwidth set your maximum upload rate and download rate to 1.

Step 4: Find yourself a legal torrent (for an example: archive.org), start downloading (you have set the download and upload speed to as small as possible, so it won't use up all your internet), leave uTorrent running and log on to aoe 3 and try to play.

This works for thomson routers and worked for me. I hope this works for you too, tell me if it doesn't.

[athene2]

Thank you for your Answer.

I will try it soon.
So, you just open a port and use it all the time with a small package and then aoe3 also uses it.

Thx again.

[Mrtikka]

Exactly, thomson routers for some reason don't want to open it for you, even if you set it correctly from router settings.

[athene2]

Okay.

Unfortunatley this solution is not working for me. uTorrent works fine at the correct port, but AoE still has the same behaviour.
I also tried to totally open my port via the firewall, but also this didn't work.

[Mrtikka]

Override Port
--------------------

The Override Port will let you specify a port to use instead of relying on UPnP or
the game's port discovery process. This port is useful when you have multiple PCs
behind the same NAT and you want to use port forwarding. To use Override Port,
follow these steps:
1. Open the My Documents\My Games\Age of Empires 3\Startup folder.
2. If there is no user.cfg file there, create one. To do this, click File, click
New, click Text Document, and then type user.cfg.
3. When you are prompted to change the file name extension, click Yes.
4. Right-click the file, and then select Open With.
5. In the Open With dialog box, click Notepad, and then click OK.
6. Type a new line: OverridePort=[a port number that you specify]. For example,
type OverridePort="2301"
7. On the File menu, click Save.
8. On the File menu, click Exit.
9. Configure your router to forward the port that you specified to the IP address
of the computer that you are using.

Then do the uTorrent trick and see if it works.

[athene2]

No, still not working. I already tried it out, with some different ports and uTorrent.
I really don't get it, what problem AOE has during connecting.

[Mrtikka]

I don't know what could help then. I know that this is an error which plagues thomson routers specifically. If you have another router lying around you could look if your thomson has a "bridged" mode, and then connect the other router accordingly. (For an example, I can ask my ISP to set one LAN port bridged)

[flyingcrystal]

same porbler here my other computer can join games but my new computer cant so i dont think its with my network

[Mrtikka]

Then it most likely is firewall/antivirus. Make sure to put age of empires 3 file(s) into exceptions

[Accio]

Same problem here.... i opened all the necessary ports, still joining like 10% of the games.... :(

Its not the firewall nor the antivirus

[Grizzledorf]

this just started happening when trying to play with 3 people. first person can enter in with host. 3rd person fails to join game

[flyingcrystal]

[SOLUTİON] guys i solved the problem firstly close all firewall and antivirus then open steam click on library right click on age of empires 3 select properties click on local files then click the verify game integrity of game cache this worked for me i cant join any games and now i can join every game hope it works for you

[kidz]

Hey!
First of all sorry to bump this again but I just want to say that I discovered the problem with this situation.
The problem is something about port fowarding that doesn't work properly and the only solution that I found is activating DMZ.
I have a Thomson TG784 and I don't know if is the same procedure but here we go:

1. Go router settings, login, etc.
2. Select "Home Network"
3. Select "Devices"
4. Click on your pc that you are going to play AoE3
(5. Important: Verify if "IP Address Assignment" is set DHCP)
6. Click on "Assign the public IP address of a connection to a device"
7. Click "Edit"
8. On that list you select your PC and then apply.

Don't forget, "I would recommend turning DMZ on only when you go to play, and then turn it off straight afterwards every time. Furthermore, make sure you have good firewall software to protect your computer, and perhaps close unnecessary programs to prevent them from connecting to the internet and further placing the security of your PC at risk."

I hope that you can finally fix this annoying error and we will see on AoE3. :)

Sorry for my english.

source: http://aoe3.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=11,37774,,10