Port forwarding... UR BREAKING MY BALLZ!!!!!

[Hubi]

I'VE DONE ALL THIS CRAP...


Enable UPnP on Your Router: This is the preferred option as UPnP is a protocol that automates port forwarding to your computer. If your router supports this then enable this setting and the game will auto configure your router.
Manually Forward a Port on Your Router: Login on your router and forward TCP port 14800 to the local IP of your computer. Some routers have additional firewall settings make sure TCP port 14800 isn’t blocked.
Enable DMZ on Your Router: If the above doesn’t work, try to place your computer in the DMZ of your router. Only do this when you run a proper firewall on your computer!
Check Firewall Settings If you still have issues it might be that the firewall on your computer is blocking the connection. Make sure AoW3.exe is added to the exception rules and public access is enabled. Double check if the exception rule itself is enabled. On company / university networks you might not be able to configure the router. It’s very likely you cannot play AoW3 multiplayer from these locations. (But you might be able to host a Local / VPN Game)
Multiple computers behind the same router: Age of Wonders will automatically configure your router when UPnP is enabled. If you manually forwarded ports on your router you need to make sure that each computer uses a different port number and forward the different ports separately. In the Launcher you can change the port number the game uses under “Misc Settings”.


But still "bad connection"... wtf is going on ?

[Hubi]

Ok... i really have to say im veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery dissapointed... i wasted yesterdays whole evening to try this getting to work... but no... it's not working... i start regretting that i bought this game... in my whole gaming career i have never seen something like this...

[Hubi]

... it looks like that i have to use the first time in my life HAMACHI for a PAID GAME... cracy times...

[Arnout]

Sorry to hear you're having trouble configuring an open connection on your router.

What kind of internet connection do you have? And what kind of router do you use? Did you set-up portforwarding in the past for other games?

Sounds like there might be something of software (like Anti-Virus, Firewall) blocking the connection?

It might also be that your router is incapable of handling NAT or UPnP properly. Old routers generally have this problem. These routers might not have the amount of bandwidth new routers have. You can try restart your router/modem. This means turning it off for a few minutes in order to flush the routers RAM and NAT table.


Other causes and likely solutions

• Programs which may interfere with Steam, the game and your network.
  
• Wireless connections are not recommended for online gaming. To ensure reliability, make sure you are using a wired connection to the internet while playing online.
  
• You're on an univerity or school network
  
• You're on busy (shared) Internal Network. If there is a lot of internal traffic on your local network this can cause a poor connection even if you have you're ports open.
  
• Close programs FileSharing programs, other P2P programs* like Skype, and background 'updater' programs like Google, and Adobe updater. These applications open large amounts of sockets purely for passive listening and eat up alot of your computers available bandwidth.

Please also note that playing Age of Wonders III multiplayer requires that all people that join one session have an open connection. One player with a poor connection is allowed. However if you join a Multiplayer session after this player has joined, you’ll have poor connection as well. This could explain your poor connection as well.

[Hubi]

Ive got a 300mb connecton using a asus router rt-n66u, i configured port forwarding (as said in the manual) (port 14800) to my local ip (ive got static ip), i activated UPNP (or whats it called) too... i deactivated my zonealarm firewall and checked that my windows firewall is off too (and deactivated my avira too).. they only thing i didnt try is putting my router in to DMZ (i dont want to do this when my firewall is off)

Close programs FileSharing programs, other P2P programs* like Skype, and background 'updater' programs like Google, and Adobe updater. These applications open large amounts of sockets purely for passive listening and eat up alot of your computers available bandwidth.

What ? skype ? i was in skype with my buddy when we tried to configure our routers... do you really think skype could be the problem ?

when i do "netstat -a" i dont see anything listeing on the port 14800... how can i check if the port 14800 is really open ? (i think i should see it as "listening" when i do "netstat -a" ?

thanks for your help

i've got a "UPC-CAblecom" box as modem and then my router connected to this... do i have to open ports on my "cablecom" box too ?

[Arnout]

Best to either use Manual Portforwarding or UPnP. I would recommend setting it up manually and disable UPnP.

I would leave the Windows Firewall on and create inbound exception for TCP port 14800 to make sure the port is open. You can do this by opening a command prompt and type 'control firewall.cpl'. Then Goto advanced settings -> Inbound rules. Add TCP port 14800 and just to be sure check if Age of Wonders III exes are still allowed here as well. The exes are normally found here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\AoW3\

Skype alone won't interfere with your connection. However, in combination with many 'updater' programs that open a lot of connections and listen on many ports, this may indeed cause a problem and explain (random) bad connections.

You can verify if port 14800 is really open using: http://www.canyouseeme.org/ . It should say the connection is refused (No route to host, blocked or timed out means the port is closed)

You might want to google 'asus rt n66u port forwarding'. Some users have reported problems with the router and needed to disable the hardware firewall of the router[www.tomshardware.co.uk] as well.

[Arnout]

About the UPC-Cablecom box: if this modem function as a router it means you have 2 routers in your connection setup. You need to login to the Cablecom box and set the router to 'Bridge mode'. Please consult the manual of the modem on how to do this. This link[support.upc-cablecom.ch] might help!

[Marik]

Why is AOW3 the only game I've seen on steam that has these kinds of issues? Is the server set up in a different kind of way from most games or something?

[Morphic]

Originally posted by Marik:

Why is AOW3 the only game I've seen on steam that has these kinds of issues? Is the server set up in a different kind of way from most games or something?

There's no "server". It's all Peer 2 Peer connections.

There's tons of games on Steam that have the same connection type, Terraria, Starbound, Age of Mythology, Dark Souls, Dungeon of the Endless ... those are only the ones I got that have P2P online.

P2P is equally awesome; since the game will always have online ability, and horrible; since it's finicky, requires basic tech knowledge and is dependant on all players involved.