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Topic: how does one host an nwn game (Read 199 times) |
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Gulfwulf
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There's been a discussion over on Portforward about Comcast (I believe) fiddling with their Motorola Surboard modems to prevent them from being able to do things like port forward for hosting servers. I would call Comcast and find out if they mask your ip address or block any ports. And, if so, look into changing to a different ISP if possible. Otherwise you'll be better off looking for a player to host if possible.
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Mulu
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I'm discovering that residential accounts are purposefully blocked from hosting by the ISP. To host, they require that you pony up for a business account. That was certainly the answer from my tech support this morning.
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| « Last Edit: on: Mar 16, 2008, 3:21PM » |
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hoyasaxa
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So ennerviating...trying to decide b/t cablevision and verizon for internet in our new house....hosting will play a role in what i choose!
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| « Last Edit: on: Mar 16, 2008, 9:21PM » |
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Mulu
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on Mar 15, 2008, 1:46 PM, Gulfwulf wrote:
On that guide it starts with the statement:
Please enter the static ip you want to forward to: 192.168.1.____.
So my question to any who may know is, how do you determine the last three digits? Can you assign whatever you want, or does it have to match the internal IP address (default would be 1)?
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karvon
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It should be noted that if your ISP is masking your address, independent attempts to create a static address are doomed. Here in Japan, at least, some companies do offer accounts with static addresses for an extra fee. Sometimes it can be a bit expensive though - making commercial hosting a more appealing economical alternative.
Fortunately, here in Japan, there's intense competition in the broadband market and there are many companies to choose from when selecting an ISP provider. I know in many places in the US and elsewhere, the market is more monopolistic so you may not have any/many options.
Karvon
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Mulu
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Yeah, all I did to undo my ability to host games was to power down my router overnight.... It's funny because I've had the same IP for months but when I called tech support they said they only use dynamic IP's and you'd have to get a business line to have a static IP. Apparently I'd been flying under their radar as an exception for quite some time.
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karvon
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You don't have to have a static IP to host, and many here don't, but in such cases each time you start up the server, your IP address changes and you'll need to post it for players in case they can't see it on gamespy due to router/firewall issues.
Another fix that works for some, is to use the buddy list to connect with those they can't otherwise see on gamespy. You DC by typing in the user name instead of an IP address. As long as one person can connect to the server, then the rest can link in via that person, or any other, that's successfully gotten onto the otherwise hidden server.
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Gulfwulf
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The ip coming into your router doesn't matter, Mulu, because Gamespy will grab it whenever you log in. It's the ip that's assigned to your computer that matters for port forwarding. If that changes, then the forwarding gets broken. I think in your case, when you powered down the router, the ip address it grabbed was masked by your ISP.
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Mulu
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on Mar 17, 2008, 8:27 PM, Gulfwulf wrote:| I think in your case, when you powered down the router, the ip address it grabbed was masked by your ISP. |
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Is there a way to fix that, or am I just down for the count now?
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| « Last Edit: on: Mar 17, 2008, 8:44PM » |
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Venture
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When you start up NW Server, it will show (in the top right I think), what your static LAN address is (i.e. your internal address). For example, it might say 192.168.1.105. If so, you need to go into port forwarding on your router, and tell it to forward certain ports (5121 is a typical one among a few for NWN) to 192.168.1.105. This will tell your router that when any NWN traffic hits your router, that it should go to that machine.
On a side note relating to who is a good ISP for servers, yea, I'm a bit fed up with Comcast. I had two issues yesterday (disclaimer - I can't say with certainty that these are Comcast issues). First, after working fine for 10 months, my server for my weekly game wouldn't show up in Gamespy, although direct connect worked. I didn't change anything on my end from last week. I guess that could be a Gamespy issue. Earlier in the morning, though, I was trying to do an FTP backup of my campaign website, and had all sorts of trouble. The FTP connection would be killed, repeatedly. To top it off, my site would then be inaccessible for 20 minutes. The site was still up according to my host, I just couldn't reach it via FTP or normal browsing. So, I did some research and found that the whole bittorrent throttling that Comcast is known for was also being done to FTP traffic. I strongly suspect (but have no direct proof) that somehow this Sandvine (sp?) technology that Comcast uses was killing my hops to my site for a set period (15-20 minutes was repeatedly the downtown).
So, I guess Comcast's position is that the internet is for web surfing only. I understand the need for an ISP to make sure heavy users don't bog down a network, but it would be nice if Comcast would invest some of its profits (close to $1 billion in the first quarter in 2007) in its network, instead of just secretly throttling its customers.
So, in configuring your server, Comcast might not be the best bet (that's my attempt to bring that rant back on topic  ).
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Venture
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on Mar 17, 2008, 8:43 PM, Mulu wrote:on Mar 17, 2008, 8:27 PM, Gulfwulf wrote:| I think in your case, when you powered down the router, the ip address it grabbed was masked by your ISP. |
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Is there a way to fix that, or am I just down for the count now? |
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ISP's will tell you that you need to pay for a static IP address, but in reality you'll find that your IP address will often go months without changing. Just go to a site like whatismyipaddress.com to find out your external adddress. Then, unless you change the settings in NWN's configuration file, the direct connect address you give to players is that address followed by :5121 (for example, 202.239.148.67:5121). The port forwarding mentioned in the previous post would make it so your router would forward any traffic hitting port 5121 to the computer running your NWN server.
I make it a habit of checking my IP address each week, and it hasn't changed in the 10 months I've been running my campaign. And I don't have a static IP address either. I think that just means it is not guaranteed not to change. In my last campaign, which went 3 years, I think my IP address changed maybe a total of 2-4 times in that time period.
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Gulfwulf
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IP addresses generally don't change unless your modem looses power either because of a blackout or a power down. I usually check mine before a session, but I don't keep track of what it is.
@Mulu: more than likely you're hosed if Comcast is blocking incoming ports or masking your ip address. The best I can suggest is to use the stand-alone server and try to connect via gamespy if you're sure your routing is setup properly.
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Venture
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Are hosts masking IP addresses now? Aren't there some sites that won't work properly, such as some forums that won't let you join, if they can't identify your IP address? That really sounds extreme if providers are now going to that length. Lack of competition creates monsters, I guess.
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Gulfwulf
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I use Brighthouse and haven't had any problems. The main reason I can think of ISPs trying to limit traffic is because of the heavy use of p2p software like bittorrent and its ilk. Of course, a missconfigured router and/or firewall can also be to blame. But it wouldn't surprise me if ISPs were trying to limit bandwidth to their customers' computers.
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Mulu
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on Mar 17, 2008, 8:59 PM, Venture wrote:| When you start up NW Server, it will show (in the top right I think), what your static LAN address is (i.e. your internal address). For example, it might say 192.168.1.105. If so, you need to go into port forwarding on your router, and tell it to forward certain ports (5121 is a typical one among a few for NWN) to 192.168.1.105. |
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That did it, the port forward address was no longer valid as it was going to the wrong address. Thank you!
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MrFrost
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is there anything I can try and attempt with out using a static ip ir portforwarding?
I set up a static ip and did portforwarding and i did manage to get the game to host with out any problems. Then I wake up this morning and i find i can not connect to the net at all. I tied everything to connect, some how i managed to reset everything and get a new ip, mind you this was 2 hours later. Now i am back on the net and i cant connect again.
I dont know what went wrong but i am hesident to do so again because of all the trouble i went through.
NOTE: I have found that my "Internet IP" never changes at all. It had always been the same since I got the damn thing.
It starts with a 71 does this mean anything? An when I go through my router it changes to a 192 ? Does this help?
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| « Last Edit: on: Mar 21, 2008, 4:24PM » |
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MrFrost
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( mind you i hate to Double Post )
Ok i am connected now directly to my cable modum. So no router to have to port forward if my understanding of it is correct. Then why am i still not able to host ?
(Ugh, now it is working. Only after i turned off the fire wall and change the nwnplayer.ini file to use my ip addy that started with 71. So from what it is looking like that i will have to do this every time i wanna play. But i really dont mind as long as the blasted thing works.)
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| « Last Edit: on: Mar 21, 2008, 4:41PM » |
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