"Connecting failed" When joining friend's listen server.

[Flubadoo 10]

Whenever my friend or I try to join a multiplayer game that each of us try to host in Vanilla ArmA 2: CO.

Things tried:

-netsh winsock reset in cmd

-Port forwarding

-Restarting Steam

Any suggestions?

[visceralsyn 10]

Provide more details on your Port Forwarding settings, or whoever is hosting's port forwarding settings.

...Syn...

[Flubadoo 10]

Forwarded port 2302-2307 TCP and UDP.

UPnP is enabled and NAT address translation is open.

---------- Post added at 10:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:12 AM ----------

Also, in the troubleshooting page, it tells me to do this:

"If it still does not work, make copy of your registry and do the following:

Start Windows in safe mode, go to device manager, show hidden devices and delete the following non-PnP-drivers:

HTTP

AVMPORT

NetBios over TCP/IP

TCP-IP

Driver for automatic RAS-connection

Windows Socket 2.0 Non-IFS"

By deleting those non-PnP drivers, what will happen to my internet connection?

And when backing up my registry do I back up those drivers as well?

[visceralsyn 10]

2302 ~ 2305 UDP

UPnP is supposed to open/forward ports automagically, I've never found it to work reliably, so have disabled it. Ensure the ports are being forwarded to the correct IP address of the machine hosting the listen server. If DHCP is handled by the router, and enabled, by default most routers have this enabled, the ip address of the machine hosting the listen server can change. Always best practice to set LAN ip's statically, so that the DHCP service does not change it.

You shouldn't have to do anything in the registry.

...Syn...

[t0t3m 1]

to check if the server ports are really open try to download nmap, launch the game as host and do a scan from the remote machine, you and your friend can do it each other

[visceralsyn 10]

He's not opening ports, opening ports won't fix port forwarding problems. The ports have to be forwarded to the ip of the correct machine hosting a service on said ports.

...Syn...

[t0t3m 1]

He's not opening ports, opening ports won't fix port forwarding problems. The ports have to be forwarded to the ip of the correct machine hosting a service on said ports.

...Syn...

ok but the correctly forwarded port used by the service must be open for the client to connect right ? so i think an udp scan can help to understand what's wrong (open | filtered, filtered, closed ports) and eventually he can analyze icmp responses too

[visceralsyn 10]

Most, if not all consumer-grade routers perform Port Address Translation, without fail. Once the correct configuration of the router is confirmed, then a software firewall on the machine hosting, is typically the culprit. Scanning for opened ports, when they are opened due to port forwarding configuration, really is not required. Configuring devices correctly, typically gets the job done.

...Syn...

Edited February 8, 2012 by VisceralSyn
Dang gumbed typos....

[Flubadoo 10]

Double checked, ports are forwarded to the correct device.

[visceralsyn 10]

Then a client should be able to connect, if the client gets a odd-numbered: read 2500ms ping. Then there is likely a software firewall blocking the ports. Winders XP Sp2 and newer OS's have a built in firewall, and enabled by default. And, if you are using additional software, eg Symantec Internet Securities or what not, also, firewall. More than 1 software firewall does not provide more protection, just makes things like this harder. Disable software firewalls.

Side effect of router NAT, is a firewall, there is no need for a software firewall to be used when using routers.

...Syn...

Edited February 8, 2012 by VisceralSyn
Dang gumbed typos....

[Flubadoo 10]

If this helps at all, when they connect and fail to do so, it doesn't even say "xxx is connecting", whereas it usually says "xxx is connecting" but doesn't say "xxx has connected".

[visceralsyn 10]

Is the server host using any software firewalls?

...Syn...

[t0t3m 1]

Hi, try these steps to see if you can solve your problems:

On all machines:

1) Disable dhcp and set static lan ips

2) Completely disable personal firewall on client and server machines

(Windows firewall and eventually others), stop all the services related

to them (crappy ones keep protecting after disabling), if you can

uninstall them completely

3) close all Arma processes

On the host router:

3) Completely disable upnp (important), save new settings and reboot it

4) Recheck if ports are correctly forwarded to the right static ip

address, you only need udp ports 2302-2305 (tcp is useless for arma 2),

if you have the possibility to set external/internal ports set the same

value for both of them like in the image below

http://imgur.com/BniiV,TYAFZ

On the client router:

4) Do the same as for host router (points 3-4)

On host machine:

5) Download netcat

http://www.securityfocus.com/tools/139

run nc.exe in a console with the following parameters (netcat listing on udp port 2302):

nc -L -p 2302 -u

On client machine:

6) Download netcat too and run it in a console with the following parameters (netcat sending udp messages on host udp port 2302):

nc -u host_ip 2302

where host_ip is the host machine public ip

if all it's ok when your friend type and send strings (with enter) on

his netcat console you should see the strings into the host console, this means the host port forwarding is ok, after this you should do all the above points again inverting client and host

if you can't see anything in the netcat host console to investigate further you have to install

Wireshark on both client and host

http://www.wireshark.org/

and run it on both machines at the same

time with a filter for udp protocol and start capturing traffic

On client machine:

7) run Wireshark and create a filter like this

udp.dstport == 2302

after a netcat send to the host machine there should be a udp outcoming packet

logged in wireshark with destination address = host public ip otherwise

the client machine filters the packet (personal firewall ? packet

filtering drivers ?)

if the packet is logged correctly unless there are issues with the

client router (bugged firmware) you should focus the attention on

host machine

on host machine:

8) run Wireshark and create a filter like this

udp.dstport == 2302

if the netcat send is correctly forwarded to host machine you should see

an udp packet logged in Wireshark with destination address = your

internal lan ip and source address = client public ip otherwise:

- the host port forwarding is wrong (correct it)

- the host internal router firewall blocks the packet (intrusion detection

?), in this case try to look into the router system log to see if

something is blocked, look for something like this

http://imgur.com/BniiV,TYAFZ#1

If you live in Europe pm me i can help you using msn or mumble

Hope it helps

Edited February 10, 2012 by t0t3m