Hosting & windows firewall question (non server):

[Attack Kitty]

- been trying to host a multiplayer game (not a dedicated server, just basic hosting).
- In win10 I have 7d2d and steam allowed in the windows firewall (7 Days to Die, 7daystodie, Steam, Steam Web Helper)
- friend can't join my game, but I can join his.
- Ideally I'd rather host (new computer, much better able to handle hosting)
- obviously there's a lot of things it 'could' be, but on a hunch i tried briefly turning off windows firewall, and then my friend could join my games just fine.

So.. something in windows firewall needs to be allowed to work. Something which having the aforementioned 4 allowances doesn't address.

Obviously I didn't leave windows firewall disabled. But I need to know if there is anything else which needs allowing for someone to join my hosted games. EAC is off on my own and friend's game, so it's not that. It's also not an internet issue, and doesn't seem to be router related issue (at least not directly). It's something in windows firewall, beyond those 4 'allow' rules.

I can click invite, select him, and invite, and he can click join game, but it ends up timing out if I have windows firewall running.
Google searches bombard me with server config and port forwarding info, but my problem seems to be explicitly with windows10 firewall. I assume there is another 'allow' exception I need, but I'm stumped.

I do not know if this is a steam issue or a 7d2d issue honestly (I could try more testing when my friend is next online).

Anyone have any insight or suggestions?

[Ape]

I do not know about windows firewall but I have had free comodo firewall and had problems joining similarly to this, and the reason was the firewalls "stealth mode" setting. When it was enabled it also didn't allow my friend to join in or see me in certain games.
Could there be something similar in windows firewall?

[Mardoin69]

Also, open up your Router / Modem and be sure you have ports forwarded for 7d2d set to 26900.