Server issues, friend can't join

[Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm]

Hi, I've been trying to set up a small server for me and one other person to play on together and we have been having some issues. I have tried following the instructions in the popular steam guide that is linked a lot, tried every different way of doing it (steam server/non steam server/launching from different exes etc) and have no success.
With the standard ways we were getting a problem with a p2p error which was fixed by using a different exe (I think it was manually choosing the 32 bit launcher) for the server launcher. All this allowed us to do was for me to join the server via my local IP and gave my girlfriend the standard cannot connect error.
I have done all of the port forwarding necessary, portforwarding the correct ports (the standard one plus a few extra for how many players as well as a separate one the guide mentioned for non-steam ones I think)
Does anyone have any ideas on what I might have missed/what might fix the problem? I am happy to take screenshots etc of what people want but I am unsure of what you might need screenshots of. My girldfriend isnt currently here to get screenshots or try to join the server, but will be later on in the day (could be in 10 minutes, could be a few hours) so that might limit things a bit but I thought I'd be best posting this now to get some responses before she's available.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer :D

[Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm]

OS - Windows 7
Firewall/anti virus - just standard windows protection, I manually let zomboid and server software through it through
screenshots - http://imgur.com/jGDySiP and http://imgur.com/TFPXLdl

girlfriend recently has Sophos but uninstalled it

edit: we are doing it over the internet

[Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm]

Which way do you want me to open the server? I tried through the dedicated steam one and it did not work (although it said in the CMD that it was called servertest so I am guessing this one might not use the ini file changes.

[Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm]

Ok I did it all, and I cannot find the server in the browser. In the server window it seems to have launched correctly?

[Crohns Racing]

Originally posted by Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm:

Ok I did it all, and I cannot find the server in the browser. In the server window it seems to have launched correctly?

Sounds like a firewall problem but what the hell do I know?

[Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm]

Originally posted by Born to be Mild B-Day 2 days:

Originally posted by Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm:

Ok I did it all, and I cannot find the server in the browser. In the server window it seems to have launched correctly?

Sounds like a firewall problem but what the hell do I know?

I've checked and all things related to zomboid are allowed through the firewall

[Crohns Racing]

Maybe you should rent a server.

[Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm]

The server is saying that it is steam enabled

The ipconfig came back with 192.168.0.5 which is the value I have been using.

Searching through the server information I did find a couple of lines that say something has failed and I will copy them here

require("timedactionshelper) failed

require("NPCs/SadisticAIDirector/SadisticAIDirector") failed

require("TrapSystem") failed


After turning the firewall off it did the same thing as before

[Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm]

Originally posted by Born to be Mild B-Day 2 days:

Maybe you should rent a server.

Honestly I don't I should have to rent a server to play the game in 2 player co-op, I would understand if my hardware was unable to run it or something but my rig is more than qualified

[Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm]

we both have only IPv4 connectivity

[Brybry]

Originally posted by Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm:

With the standard ways we were getting a problem with a p2p error which was fixed by using a different exe (I think it was manually choosing the 32 bit launcher) for the server launcher.

If you installed the Project Zomboid Dedicated Server through steam then DO NOT launch it through steam or through the provided desktop shortcut.
If you do then it will launch the server logged in under your steam user's credentials (I think) and then you'll see the P2P error you originally saw (as steam thinks you're playing the same game twice -- I think.)

Manually launch (or create a shortcut to):

%programfiles(x86)%\Steam\SteamApps\common\Project Zomboid Dedicated Server\ProjectZomboid64.exe

or

%programfiles(x86)%\Steam\SteamApps\common\Project Zomboid Dedicated Server\StartServer64.bat

Obviously use 32bit exe/bat if you're on a 32bit machine/OS but I'm assuming you're not.

I think your port forwarding looks fine.

Check if your girlfriend can connect to a public server. If she can connect to public servers fine then it's probably not an issue on her end.

Originally posted by Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm:

Ok I did it all, and I cannot find the server in the browser. In the server window it seems to have launched correctly?

Check that the versions are the same. If you are running the IWBUMS client (currently 33.10) then you will not see a (current default) 32.30 server in the public server browser.

For testing:
- Start the server (see above)
- Launch the project zomboid client
- Click 'Online'
- Under Add Server put:
Server name: Test
IP: 192.168.0.5
Local IP: 192.168.0.5
Port: 16261
Account Username: Test

- Click 'Add'
- Double click the 'Test' server entry in the list

Does that work for you? If not what exact message does the client give you?

[Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm]

My girlfriend (and myself for that matter) can join online public games.

Following your steps allowed me to join the game pirvately

We are both running the default client (absolutely everything is vanilla), the game I am hosting is called 32.30

I have tried to join using the external IP as well and it does not work with that. Th error message I get is 'The server failed to respond' my girlfriend gets the same error when trying to connect

[Brybry]

It pretty much has to be firewall settings or port fowarding then but you said you turned your firewall off and your port fowarding looks good according to bskyb documentation.

Are you sure you are trying the correct external IP? https://www.whatismyip.com/ is usually pretty good (it would only be wrong if you're behind a proxy - http://www.whatismyip.com/proxy-check/ )

You could try putting:
IP: yourexternalIPhere
Local IP: 192.168.0.5
but if that were the issue (NAT loopback) then it should give a different message and that wouldn't affect your girlfriend (assuming she's not in your house.)

[Jarl Frederick Von Moosenhelm]

the IP is right (just double checked again on the site you linked), and I have tried it with my firewall just straight up turned off.

I finally tried to use Hamachi which works flawlessly though and took us 5 minutes to install and get into the server so at least we can play now, Hamachi shouldn't be too bad for only 2 players.

Are there any downsides you know of for hamachi and project zomboid? If not I might just use it and give up on ever getting the 'proper' way working.

[0ero the Hammer Slayer]

As far as I know there are no downsides to using himachi other than it just being not "proper" in my opinion.

Hm. I don't know how you guys join servers, do you add a server to your list? You put in the IP and etc, but what do you put in for the port when you add the server to your list? I remember this being a problem before because when I was setting up a server we weren't sure which ports to join the server with.