Regarding connection issues in PC (Windows 10) for Ubisoft’s “For Honor”, including improving NAT

[YnHakeshu]

Peace to all,

This is a brief set of recommendations which I found helpful to improve connectivity and solve issues in online gaming for Ubisoft’s “For Honor”. It includes methods to improve NAT connectivity in the cheapest possible manner. This is achieved in the cheapest manner possible, without VPN, bought static IPs, etc.

Why I wrote this?
I am myself only an average gamer, not a geek in these issues. Have tried to solve the issues with online gaming; especially in Ubisoft’s games since the time of good old Ezio; when the Assasson’s Creed delved into online play. Since those days, frustrated gamers like me who could not solve such issues have simply written off those games as single player only, despite having a great concept for the online modes. With “For Honor”, this is primarily designed to be played online; hence I tried harder and found some helpful tips, hoping this might help any fellow gamer as well. Forgive me if it does not.
Before we begin I live in a location where hardly any players play this game in my region, yet these tips have helped improve connectivity.

What does it address?

- Any and all variants of weird number errors; which Ubisoft throws at us while playing online, especially “For Honor”. These suggestions are worth giving a shot.
- If you could connect for many hours without a hitch and you suddenly find the servers giving error.
- If your NAT type shows red and strict, you can try these.
- Even after these changes, you may have to repeat them, as Ubisoft and Windows have a bad combination of reversing these automatically in a periodic manner, in a number of irritating ways.
Basics

Always safe to have your configuration settings of router and internet adapter backed up or even written down, in case one has to roll back. Kindly note; all changes made are at your own risk.

About Static IP:
Kindly note, there are two types of static IP, internal and external.

External static is usually bought from your ISP, generally at a monthly rental. In case you haven’t done this, they assign an IP which usually remains static for your device as external static IP for about 24 hours. For these changes, I do not have a static IP given by my ISP, as it’s paid. This is as cheap a set of tricks as possible, but they do work as my own NAT went from red to green and the connection errors got removed. This is one the reasons why those sudden connection losses can still occur even after these changes.

Internal static can be set in your device, here Windows PC, where your router is forced to assign a local IP as static for your particular device. Open your “Network” settings by right clicking on connection icon or from start menu and choose “Change adapter options”. Choose the adapter you are using to connect, preferable to have LAN Ethernet rather than wi-fi. Right click and choose “Properties”. Choose “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPV4)” and enter an IP address manually (do not choose automatically obtain IP address) within your range of default gateway (see below). Remember this, as it will be used later in router settings. This is your particular device’s Internal Static IP.

DNS Settings
You will note that after entering the above, the second entry below is also to be done manually, namely DNS. It is preferable to change this to Open DNS or one of the other ones available for free. I use open DNS for my changes, as its free and well “Open”.

Ipconfig:
Open Command prompt (Windows key + R followed by “cmd” and run) type “ipconfig” and press Enter.
Should list your Internet settings (see the sub column with the name of your adapter used to connect to the internet): In descending order…
- Default gateway Ex: 192.168.1.1 is usually the gateway to your router. Type this in your internet browser and Enter. Should lead to the login page of your router, which can be accessed by the login and password set for your router, either the default company one or one which you or your engineer setup at the time you started your connection for the first time.

- Subnet Mask: This is usually auto-assigned and is the same that would have come in your manual entering of static IP.

- IPV 4 Address: This should now correspond to the Internal Static IP you set earlier.


The Juicy stuff – changes which might get through those errors and upgrade your NAT type.

Port Forwarding
This is one irritating thing which the people at Ubisoft have asked us gamers to do since Assassin’s Creed’s online modes, which I took an eon to grasp even the basics of.
So here is what I understood. Ports are like windows or gaps which are assigned to specific applications so that there is smooth passage of information, here for the purpose of gaming.
Ports however are usually blocked by default, in order to give us more security. Hence in order to make the Ubisoft Net codes work, we poor gamers must make it work ourselves, since God alone knows why they haven’t been able to make their online modes work smoothly without this, which most other online games can do just fine.
So cutting the chase, open your router settings, (Default gateway address in your browser and enter the credentials), find your “Advanced Network settings” tab or a similar name, which is unique to each router type. There in a column must list Port forwarding rules. This same page sometimes ask for your static IP, but here you must leave it blank or 0.0.0.0. as this is generally the External one, unless you bought it from your ISP.

But each port that you forward asks for a device IP also, which is the static IP you gave your device earlier. For each port number to be forwarded, you need to enter this internal static IP as well as the TDP or UDP, preferably keep both types option enabled if you aren’t sure.

Here are the port numbers that I found from multiple sources:

This lady’s video (Sansen’s world) was extremely helpful, and lists various other details if you want more elaboration of the above steps…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6SqNgdSnno
Here are the Ports she suggests to open…
13000, 14000, 14008, 3075, 13200, 13005, 14001, 14020, 14021, 14022, 14023, 14024, 10010.

Some other ports which have worked for other helpful users…
TCP: 80, 443, 14000, 14008, 14020, 14022, 14027, 14028, 14043, and UDP: 3075, 3074

From Ubisoft’s official page, these are the ones needed…

Game Ports:
UDP: 3074

Uplay PC:
TCP: 80, 443, 14000, 14008, 14020, 14022, 14027, 14028, 14043
https://support.ubi.com/en-US/Faqs/000026170/PC-Connection-Issues-FH-PC

Kindly note that if you checked for your post being open on the external IP, it would still show as closed, like any of the online port testing websites. But this should upgrade your NAT type to green and solve most of the connection issues in game “For Honor”. Not entirely sure how that works, but it apparently does.

Enable UPnP

This is another security breach which Ubisoft wants us to make in our connections.
It basically enables smooth internet traffic for peer to peer, but at the cost of security risk.
Can be enabled from the Advanced Router settings; in one of the tabs. Please check for your particular router what steps are listed to enable the same.
Enable DMZ

Another trick is to enable a Demilitarize Zone for your gamins, basically allowing greater access to external IPs at the cost of security.
I have personally not done this, but apparently it helped some users.
Here are a bunch of steps for the same…
https://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/1817914-NOOB-FRIENDLY-TUTORIAL-How-to-Open-Your-Ports-(Open-NAT-Type)-Forums

Switch off and Switch on hardware trick

This does work for many of us, simply switch off everything on your PC, steam, For Honor, Uplay etc and switch off your router for 30 sec and then switch on. Bang! Connection issues solved.
In my noobish understanding, this happens because in case your router has already assigned the static IP you input for your device to another device, in case say our desktop was switched off, then even on starting your desktop your router may not directly give it the same static IP you wanted (and for which all the ports were enabled) unless you restart the router. This may be needed multiple times.

Redoing the whole Static IP and DNS thing.

This can happen on update of Windows 10, due to the silly auto-update, it can change your adapter settings to default without warning you. In case you are getting errors again, please recheck the steps and settings. This may also happen after a major For Honor or Uplay update, so be wary.

Conclusion

Hoping this works out for any fellow gamer. Again, I am only collecting and forwarding what helped, it may or may not work for you.
Also, for consoles, this trick may also work by giving the particular console the said IP address and then forwarding ports for the same, but I have not tried that myself.
All the best and Happy gaming
Peace