Why do I have to open ports and such just to play with friends?

[Mexicutioner]

I can assure you I am not the only one who is not familiar with the opening and closing of ports. This kind of procedure makes it a pain to play with friends and turns off alot of people and potential customers from the game. Next time you guys make a game make sure people and there friends can play together hastle free and your game will be 100x more sucessfull.

[Mmm Brains]

Man you are STILL complaining on these forums? You need a new pastime!

[Mexicutioner]

The game still has its issues, and forums are meant to adress problems.

[[BtBz] Dr. Puffy ㋛]

I havent had issues in my time playing the game, its freaking awesome.

[$cno0B!]

You have to open ports just to host because some routers are configured that way. On decent routers it takes a minute to open and close ports.

[Mexicutioner]

What I dont understand is how come dungeon land is the only game that I have that requires me to do this? Other games do not require you to open ports to play with friends, unless they are older online games but DL isnt old its fairly new.

[Accipiter Chalybs]

A few games that require opening ports to host your own game:
-Team Fortress 2
-Garry's Mod (and for that matter most older Source games)
-Terraria

from what I've read on the issue hosting without opening ports is fairly complicated - I think the company would also have to own their own servers to connect the players, which could be quite expensive.

[JohannZA]

The problem is that the procedure for opening ports can be massively different from one router to the next. Heck, you could have two routers from the same brand and one set of instructions may prove useless on one and useful on the other.

Mexicutioner, I've been through several routers and the first thing I do when I get a new one is to find out how to open the ports. It's a pain, yes, but seeing as I am often the one hosting games for friends, it's something I have to live with.

Also note, opening ports can assist with increasing the effectiveness of matchmaking in games that do not use dedicated servers, e.g. almost all console games with multi-player features.

Lastly, the process of opening certain ports is also referred to as "port forwarding", and you may find tutorials for your particular router if you searched for the term plus your router brand and model number.