Opening router ports

[bassman jr]

Hi, I’m bassman jr and my dad bassman said to post my problem here.
I have had halo pc for a wile now I like to play online. But, when I try to starts my own games, people can't join them. My dad has tried to switch routers and tried to open ports and when we do a port open checker thing, it just wont work. If any body has had the same problem or has a solution, please contact me (REMOVED PER MEMBER REQUEST)
thx :D

[PrntRhd]

Tell your dad I munged your posted email address. It is not safe to post email addresses on public forums.

[bassman]

Thanx PrntRhd ;)
I just told him to edit it out but he does not have edit available.

[saphalline]

What specific router do you two have? Do you know if the firmware is up to date?

I'll get my friend Orion in here on this one. He has a lot more experience in networking than I do. You might have to wait until Sunday, though. The next couple of days are busy for us.

[bassman]

Thanks Saph,
We have a Linksys WRT54G v.4. Firmware is up to date and I used the "Application and Gaming setup to set the desired ports and protocals. Checked "Enable" and he is using an online port checker to test. The test comes back "Unable to access" and when he sets up a game, nobody joins.
Not sure what I am missing but it is getting a bit frustrating :rolleyes:

[jlreich]

Check your software firewall as well to make sure the game has full in and out access. You may also have to setup the same open ports on the software firewall as well.

Hope that helps.

[bassman]

OK, using ZoneAlarm for firewall. All listings of game have internet and server access. Set up gamespy as Trusted in firewall zones (trying it now as internet) and still nothing. One of the problems we have is we do not have a second machine capable of playing Halo so we can not check to see if his game is even listed and accessable. The only way to test is to wait for a while and see if anyone joins. He has been told by several players that they get people within several minutes at longest.
I just really don't know anything about setting this up other then what I have learned trying to do this. Frustrating :rolleyes:

[jlreich]

I haven't been in Gamespy for awhile but it isn't always certain to get players in your game. It also depends on how many users are in the room as well.

Is it Halo1? I have Halo1 and Gamespy, if you like when you see me around sometime you can PM me or jump in the chat room, start a game, give me the name etc. and I can try to join.

I am about to install Halo as I haven't installed since I did my last build. But I going to be going out of the house soon so maybe later this evening we could give it a try if you like.

[jlreich]

Yeah I just installed and played for a minute on GameSpy. Not very many people in the room for Halo. When there's not that many people they tend to crowd into just a couple rooms.

Like I said let me know if you like to give it a try later. :)

[Orion]

If you've already tried opening certain ports, it may not just be a problem with your own setup; sometimes certain ISPs will block certain traffic. Not very common, as far as I know, but it happens.

As unpleasurable as it may be, one of the only ways (that I know of) to make sure for certain the problem is not on your end is to take the router out of the picture, and disable your firewalls (Zonealarm as well as Windows Firewall, if it's on). if it worksat that point, then the issue is in your equipment. If it still doesn't work, then either it's on your ISP's side, or related to the issue jlreich brought up. Just try not to run it like this for long, because that will leave you exposed to attacks while you're testing.

Anyways, if the problem is on your end, there's a few things to try.

First, just a rundown of the ports you need open:
Gamespy:
* 6667 (IRC)
* 3783 (Voice Chat Port)
* 27900 (Master Server UDP Heartbeat)
* 28900 (Master Server List Request)
* 29900 (GP Connection Manager)
* 29901 (GP Search Manager)
* 13139 (Custom UDP Pings)
* 6515 (Dplay UDP)
* 6500 (Query Port)

Halo (these are for the game itself. likely already open...I would be shocked if..oh...say...80 is closed...):
• 80 (Transmission Control Protocol [TCP]) - Halo looks to see if there is a Halo update available. If there is an update, Halo downloads the update through this port.
• 2302 (User Datagram Protocol [UDP]) - the game host listens on this port.
• 2303 (UDP) - the game client connects to the game host through this port.

DirectX has a few ports to open too:
Connection Ports for Client Configuration Ports for Host Configuration
Initial UDP Connection 6073 Outbound 6073 Inbound
Subsequent UDP Inbound 2302-2400 2302-2400
Subsequent UDP Outbound 2302-2400 2302-2400

Note, that the DirectX ports are managed using uPnP, so you may want to check that your router has uPnP enabled.

Now, I'm not sure whether you have the WinXP firewall turned on or off. Many people forget about it...I know I have. If you have zonealarm, windows Firewall seems to be a little...redundant...and not in the best way. I would suggest making sure it's off, or configuring it as well to make sure the executables are granted permission as well as opening the ports.

Once you've tested that, report back whether it helps.

In the mean time, I'll do a little more research on Halo and it's individual...quirks...

Orion

[bassman]

OK jlreich and Orion, thanx so much for your help. Here is an update:
WinXP firewall is off (and has been). Gamespy is allowed in "Zones" in ZoneAlarm (as "trusted" not "internet" yet). Even though Port 80 was open before ( stumbled on this info trying other things) I have opened it in the router, along with 2302-2303. As for the other ports you are recommending, I had not seen any info to open these yet so maybe I should check them. I do not exactly know how to check them for open or closed. This is an area I have never messed with.
Now, I got brave and took down all the walls. I put the necessary comp in DMZ and turned off ZoneAlarm on the same machine. He tried the game and had no one join. I do not know if there was a limited number of people there so that is another thing to check. He has several friends who play Halo all the time so he can always find someone to check from their end (thanx for the offer jlreich).
It really stinks that someone like myself, who knows as much about these crazy machines as I do, can not get this figured out and kids who can not even tell you basic specs about their machine are capable of doing this :mad: :rolleyes:. Couple my embarasment with lack of time and desire to work this out, and my kid is pretty disappointed. Please help a dad be a hero ;)
Thanks fellas

[Orion]

the site I grabbed the ports from are listed on the links on the gearbox site:
http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/index.php?p=support&faq=2#22

check the three sites listed, I just cut and pasted the port lists from them.

However, if the problem existed still when you put the computer on the DMZ, and disabled all the firewalls, then the problem almost certainly doesn't exist on your end. What you did when you disabled the firewalls is essentially opened every port available to the computer-all 65000+ of them, inbound, outbound, TCP and UDP. what you are doing when you add a site or a port to a list of safe ports and programs, is selectively opening those ports. So if the problem still exists when you open every port, the problem will still exist when you open selected ports.

I would say at this point that either there is simply no one joining the game, or that your ISP blocks outbound traffic on those types of ports-many ISPs don't like people hosting their own servers, whether an HTTP server, or a game server. didn't used to be a problem, with upload speeds being so slow on dialup, combined with the fact that IP addys kept changing. With the advent of broadband, though, people suddenly try starting their own servers. A common example of blocked traffic is bittorrent or other P2P traffic. My college limits the bittorrent traffic allowed, making it non-attractive to dorm residents; this also affects people in my position of NetAdmin, because certain programs (notably linux distros) use Bittorrent for distribution. I have never heard of an ISP blocking game traffic, like Halo, but it's not impossible.

Of course, Halo for the PC hasn't been predominating the gaming scenes that I have travelled lately; Halo 2 (console) has taken over from Halo, and other PC games with more advanced tech have kind of stolen Halo's thunder. I would wonder if maybe people just aren't joining. Try opening those ports, and coordinating with a friend or two to join up. that will be the definate test of whether it's working or not.

One last thing occurs to me-how are game servers found in the Halo online world? If by dns, you may have a problem there. ISPs don't set a dns name for your computer to inherit. the only way I have found to access my computer from anywhere else is to enter the IP addy. If you have cable, this very rarely changes. I don't know how often it changes on DSL, but it changes every time on dialup. I would be shocked, however, if you are accessing via dialup.

Anyways, because those IP addys are variable, some programs have trouble with that. I don't know if HAlo is one of those, but I would wonder about it.

As far as stuff you can do, though, I don't know that there's much, considering you've ruled out the firewalls as the problem.

PS: I would imagine if you had to open port 80, it opened inbound port 80. you send an outbound packet to port 80 every time you access a web page; it's the HTTP port. unless you have an HTTP server, you dont' need port 80 inbound open. if you want to read the web, you need outbound port 80 open.

Orion

[bassman]

Thanks Orion. I know there are literaly hundreds of games on at any time he goes on. Still lots of people playing Halo1. He has actualy D/L HaloCE and many of the maps that go with that. His buddies have told him it never takes more then a minute or two to get players.
I am beginning to think it has to do with the IP configuration from SBC. Although it stays the same unless I disconnect, it stall may be causing a problem simply because it is dynamic. I'm not ready to go to static IP just so he can host :p

Thanx again
Frank

[Orion]

Hey, just kind of a duh question, but it occurred to me, in some multiplayer games, they have a "private game" kind of option. Like putting a password on the game, or making the game hidden-kind of like diabling ssid on a wireless bridge. he is making sure his game is open to all, right? I remember a friend had the same kind of problem with Halflife deathmatch, turned out the password option was being set.

Oh, and I did a search for any problems being reported with SBC, halo, and hosting a game, but turned up nothing.

Orion