Friend unable to connect to my server. (No longer an issue).

[Dervaon]

I have the ports forwarded and everything else. He was able to connect when we played this months ago but today it isn't working, since then nothing has changed beyond the fact he can't connect. For him it says server not responding.

Not sure what information to add here that would be useful. Suggestions?

Edit: 20/05/2019

A couple of days after I made this discussion me and my friend tried to make a server again and everything was fine, I really don't know what the issue was but all I did was restart the router.

[Snoopy]

See This,
Synergy may not be using the same port as before.

[Dervaon]

I read that earlier today and again just now but it doesn't solve the issue. I have ALL of the ports the game uses forwarded.

However something doesn't seem to think so. As far as I know I've forwarded all the ports, the router page says so, I can see they are as I can see all the ports and which computer they are assigned to, all of them work fine except Synergy.

[Snoopy]

Maybe This will help.

[Balim]

Make sure Windows Firewall isn't blocking it, and check your anti-virus for any sort of network firewall.

If you want to do a for sure test for Windows Firewall and anti-virus, start up the server, have your friend ready to connect, turn off your firewall and anti-virus and see if they can connect. Then re-enable both. If it worked, check settings in your anti-virus for application layer blocks, port blocks, and incoming blocks and make an exception for synergy.exe and 27015 app/port.

[Dervaon]

Checked the firewall and anti virus and it wasn't being blocked.

I should have added this context. When I host a server I don't host a dedicated one, it's only hosted so long as I'm in the server so to speak. Thus I also host multiplayer games for us on Garry's Mod and many others, another example is Left 4 Dead 2 (I do local host to avoid the mods on dedicated servers). BOTH those games use the port 27015 and have no problem. It's on Synergy that had the issue, it also had the issue with ANY of the ports.

Of course this issue happened yesterday and thus I have no idea if it is a thing that will fix it self or not.

Thank you for replying through :).

[Snoopy]

Using a listenserver.cfg is basically a replacement for the built-in menu item 'start a server'.
As long as the cfg exists Synergy will initiate the server whenever you load a map.

Maybe check the console over for possible issues after starting the server, whether you use the cfg method or not. The console should show what port it's using if the server is initiated, but it will likely only show your local IP.

Once started open the servers list, right click your server and select 'view server info' to see the public IP:Port. If it's not showing up in the Internet list verfy it's in the Lan list and make sure filters are set properly. If it's not in the Lan list either (and filters are not hiding it) then there may be an issue with your network/router.

I would also verify the cache for HL2, the episodes and Synergy, just to eliminate the possibility of a corrupt file.

[Dervaon]

I launched the server by going through the menus, I'm unaware of any cfg method.

Console showed the port it was using, it was using the port I set in the menu. It showed my IP, public and the other one + port. Example 111.111.111.111:27015 (Public: 222.222.222.222) Something like that. Server appeared for me in history and it was an internet game, filters were all fine, but it didn't show in internet or lan list. Some files were missing from episodes, but they are fine now.

Issue with router may be case, I'll probably restart it at some point and see if that sorts it. I also have a few other issues with my computer as a whole that cannot be resolved, I can assure that as I've spent many hours trying with 0 success. So software involving router may have issue. Impossible to say for sure but, it's odd that it's limited to Synergy and nothing else. I'll poke around and see what happens. If it gets resolved I'll post an update.

[Snoopy]

The cfg method is explained in the link i provided in my first reply above, it's posted in Help and Support under 'Manually Setup a Listen Server (How To)''

[Dervaon]

Somehow I completely missed that.

If this issue persists after resetting the router or whatever then I may look into it.

Thanks for the help.

[Balim]

Unfortunately, using L4D2 and GMod aren't good tests for port forwarding, as both those games use UPnP and SteamWorks NAT punch through. Meaning neither of those games require port forwarding, even setting it to Local Server or Lan still has limited external functionality to allow friends/and or randoms to join.
There is still a possibility that the port is not forwarded at all, for any application.

[Dervaon]

Eugh, damn the complexity of ports. While both games may not need port forwarding, I certainly had to in order for friends to join as they were unable to before I forwarded the ports. L4D2 was fine regardless.

Perhaps, in which case I don't understand why because I've done everything required to make the port forwarded. I know I have as it worked perfectly fine a month ago, between a few days ago and a month ago I hadn't touched Synergy or anything to do with ports, so I really don't know what could have changed this.

To be honest, while it is a pain, it's not a huge loss, since this issue occurred out of nowhere perhaps there is a chance it will resolve on it's own accord. Either way, as stated, it's not a huge problem. But thanks for the suggestions and help any way :).

[Squidge]

I only had to forward 27015(tcp/udp) on my router to my local IP.

Dedicated or Listen Servers
TCP local port 27015 (default): SRCDS Rcon port
UDP local port 27015 (default): gameplay traffic

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8571-GLVN-8711

Hope that helps.

[Dervaon]

Sorry I should have updated this. I did forward those ports so as far as I could tell everything was fine.

Also a couple of days later me and my friend tried again and it worked perfectly fine. So I really don't know what caused the issue, think it was just one of those things really!

Thank you anyway :).