Friends can't connect to dedicated server...

[TheMystic6]

I recently made a dedicated server for my friend and I, and port-forwarded properly (I think). Then I allowed all the firewall rules for 7777 and 27015.. No matter what I do, CanYouSeeMe.org always says port closed, reason: connection timed out.

What is confusing me is why my friend cant even connect to my non-dedicated session, which shouldnt require port forwarding. What is going wrong? It keeps saying connection timed out.

[TheMystic6]

Originally posted by joris_590:

i just tested the link with my servers and it said its also closed but it still works, what you could do is (to look if the server works), go to https://ark-servers.net and find your server in the list, if it doesnt you have done something incorrect ( or any other server website)

ps do u use a dedicated server tool or just the batfile ?

Just a batch file. I don't like ASM, it feels clunky to me and I can never get it to work with mods correctly.

[TheMystic6]

The server doesn't show up in the website, I honestly have no clue what I did wrong. I port forwarded both ports, set up the rules in the firewall, set the modem firewall to low.. I'm clueless at this point.

EDIT: even tried disabling antivirus

[TheMystic6]

I read some people were saying that they had to leave the IP section blank when port-forwarding, and they have the same problem as me. In my modem settings there is no IP section, only Protocol, Global Port, Local Port, and Base Port. I'm wondering if it is automatically assigning the WAN IP.

[Joris_590]

it took me some time to figure out how to forward myself, im not really a know it all about forwarding,

maybe you need to reboot the router to apply the settings ?
maybe the IP on the bat file is wrong
maybe the firewall still blocks it

those are the only things i could think about atm
its somethimes a little thing that you forgot,
i hope you find it

[TheMystic6]

Originally posted by joris_590:

it took me some time to figure out how to forward myself, im not really a know it all about forwarding,

maybe you need to reboot the router to apply the settings ?
maybe the IP on the bat file is wrong
maybe the firewall still blocks it

those are the only things i could think about atm
its somethimes a little thing that you forgot,
i hope you find it

IP in bat file? I only have the ports in there, no IP. Ive tried rebooting the router, no luck. I dont see how it could be the firewall, i even completely disabled it at one point. Im beginning to think something is using one of those ports, or my router doesnt have the ability to port forward without a source IP.

[TheMystic6]

Originally posted by joris_590:

i ment the forwarding wrong not the IP, ( sorry), but you should google a bit maybe you find the answer :)

Its hard to help without seeing what you did, is this your first time portforwarding ?

No, I've port forwarded before, I know what I'm doing but as always with technology, you do something right and nothing works

EDIT: as a test I ran a minecraft server and it worked fine, the port check tool said success.

[TheMystic6]

Originally posted by joris_590:

well use those ports for ark, then it works no ?

You mean the minecraft ports? Minecraft only uses one, 25565.

[TheMystic6]

I may have discovered something wrong... when I go into the steam server list and click LAN so the server shows up, then look at the IP, it shows my local IP, not the WAN IP. I'm wondering if the server is mixing these two up somehow, I'll just add a line in the batch file to force the IP to my current WAN.

[TheMystic6]

So, I had it working... It was showing up in https://serverranks.com/'s listings... it said online when it was up and offline as soon as I closed it, like it should be. I shut down my PC for the next couple days because I was busy. Then, excited to play, I invited my friend a little bit ago, launched the server, checked the same website, and no, not working, can't find my server. Friend keeps getting "server not responding" message. My modem had been restarted for maintenance one of the days, which changed both my private and public IP's, but I thought it would automatically adjust (since you don't have to put those anywhere in server settings). Port forwarding didn't change. Firewalls didn't change. Stuck again...

The weird thing I'm noticing is, when my friend clicked "Join Game" on me then got the error message, I told him to go into steam and click View>Servers>Friends... He said it didn't show anything except some numbers, I told him to read those numbers off, and it matched my LOCAL IP to my computer, followed by the port 27015.. why is it giving him my LOCAL IP and not the WAN IP?

EDIT: Could this be the result of my Local IP changing? The last two numbers went from .43 to .42... do I have to re establish the port rule in my modem's firewall settings each time it resets so it gets the right local IP? And also, what happens if I edit a port rule while the server is running on my PC? Does it have to be restarted to start working?

[Xedricas]

I had the same issue. I solved it with following port 27016

Steam > View > Server > Favorites > Add Server > Type Server IP in the bar: xx.xx.xx.xx:27016

[donmuerte]

I've always made sure I forwarded 7777, 7778, 27015, and 27016. Also important is that they're UDP forwarding (or both TCP/UDP).

[TheMystic6]

I'll try 27016... also I did port forward both tcp and udp.

[Ancient]

Originally posted by TheMystic6:

I read some people were saying that they had to leave the IP section blank when port-forwarding, and they have the same problem as me. In my modem settings there is no IP section, only Protocol, Global Port, Local Port, and Base Port. I'm wondering if it is automatically assigning the WAN IP.

That's not port forwarding, that is port triggering and is different: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_triggering

The most important sentence to remember about port triggering is:

Port triggering is unsuitable for servers behind a NAT router because it relies on the local computer to make an outgoing connection before it can receive incoming ones.

Port Forwarding on the other hand will allow you to bind an incoming port to a specific internal IP. You then set up that machine with either a static or reserved DHCP IP so it doesn't ever change and voila, the port is forwarded properly and permanently to the correct machine (the ARK server in this case).

What specific model router or modem/router combo do you have? I'll see if I can find a manual and point you in the right direction.

[TheMystic6]

I know what I'm doing I dont need a manual, like stated above I tested it on a minecraft server and it works. For some unknown reason the ark server stopped working.

[Ancient]

Originally posted by TheMystic6:

I know what I'm doing I dont need a manual, like stated above I tested it on a minecraft server and it works. For some unknown reason the ark server stopped working.

Look, no offense but clearly you don't or this thread wouldn't exist.

A) Your server should be using either a static or reserved DHCP IP in the LAN. It's not if the LAN IP changes as you said it does here. You then want the protocols and ports to be forwarded exclusively to that one IP so that traffic always goes to the correct internal IP where the game server resides.

B) You're trying to use port triggering instead of port forwarding. That works with Minecraft because all Minecraft servers send authentication traffic to https://authserver.mojang.com and http://login.minecraft.net over the game port (25565) to ensure you own the game, which will then bind the server's game port to your internal IP dynamically, but only temporarily. ARK doesn't do that, nor do most game servers that require port forwarding. They do not send any outgoing traffic on the game port (7777) or query port (27015), so port triggering will fail to work with an ARK server because port triggering, by it's very design, requires initial outgoing port traffic (the trigger port) to determine which IP within the LAN it is supposed to direct further traffic on that port to.

However since you know what you're doing... Good luck.