Dedicated Server - Can only join non-steam version

[goodluckNito]

I'm trying to host a dedicated server for my group of friends, after doing a ton of troubleshooting last night I was able to finally connect to my server but only using the StartServer64_nosteam.bat version.

If I use StartServer64.bat the cmd log processes normally and the server starts. I can see the server pinging in my favorites list (but not in public), and trying to join results in either hanging on connecting or responds with 'failed to establish p2p connection'. I've tried connecting to the Steam server through my public, private, and loopback IPs with no luck.
Ports 16261-16265 and 8766-8767 are forwarded to my PC.

I was able to have myself and 3 friends join my nosteam server but I just cannot figure out why the Steam server won't respond for me.

[Beard]

Have you unblocked the Steam ports 8766 and 8767 in the firewall as well?

[goodluckNito]

Originally posted by Beard:

Have you unblocked the Steam ports 8766 and 8767 in the firewall as well?

I have no firewall enabled, however I just tried setting an Inbound Rule for them anyway - still no luck.

[Beard]

I am not sure what to suggest in that case, it seems like your PC or your region for some reason doesn't let the Steam P2P work properly? Can you try switching the Steam Download Region and see if that helps? It can rarely fix Steam connection issues.

[Zze☔]

I host using the non_steam version and still play through steam..

however are you and your friends trying to connect from the same LAN network? because if not the only IP they should be trying to connect to is your public / external IP..

a firewall and port forwarding are two completely different things, if you have no firewall that simplifies things.. (however not great practice especially if you plan on hosting this all the time.)

with that said if you have a router on your network you will absolutely need to port forward for it to work correctly.
Port forwarding allows external internet traffic to route to the internal IP of the computer hosting the server.

with the ports correctly forwarded to the correct internal IP of your host computer. your friends that aren't apart of your local (LAN) network would need to connect with your external (WAN) IP.

you and or anyone else on the LAN side will need to connect using the internal (LAN) address of the host... and only if your are playing from the same computer that you're hosting from is when you'd use a loopback address. :) hope that helps some.

also P.S you'd need to create an inbound and out bound rule... traffic flows both ways :P