SOS - really confused with Multiplayer update

[_angus_ 2]

Hi guys,

a few weeks back people on this forum very kindly helped me and my friend get set up playing co-operative multiplayer stuff just against each other on our own computers. Initially we couldn't find any trace of whichever of us was running the game, but then my friend clicked on the Steam logo turning it to Gamespy and suddenly we found each other and were able experience our first multiplayer games. It was great! :)

Last night a new ARMA 3 update downloaded through Steam and as you are probably well aware they have removed the Gamespy button from the server page and as a result my friend and I can longer find each other despite our best efforts.

As I said, this is all very new to us and we have a combined age of over 100 so please be gentle. What is actually going on? Will our servers appear in the days to come, or do we need to change settings or download new software, I'm afraid we are pretty clueless about all this stuff.

Any clues would be much appreciated, many thanks.

[Aeriyn 10]

Hi,

I'm pretty sure a lot of people saw this problem coming, especially those who host their own small games between friends. The problem is, I don't think anyone's ever found a definitive solution to this problem before. I can give you some suggestions based on a cursory search on google, which I'm sure you've already done.

- Try forwarding your ports, including any ports that steam might use.

- Try using Remote Connect to connect to your friend's specific IP address.

- Use a LAN emulator such as Tunngle or Hamachi to connect to each other's computer.

I'm 80% sure this has something to do with either the way the game handles connections or steam being screwed by routers or ISPs, seeing as how the difference between using gamespy and steam to connect would be just a matter of where the server reports its' IP to. If none of the above works, I'd recommend just playing together on a random server until BI (hopefully) gets it sorted out. There are a lot of people out there facing the same problem as you.

Have faith!

[_angus_ 2]

Many thanks for that, we will have a look and see what can be done. We basically tried a bunch of things when we first attempted this some weeks ago, up until Paul clicked on the secret Steam button that turns to it over to Gamespy, quite sneaky because the other buttons LAN/Internet had arrows either side unlike the Steam/Gamespy one which I thought was just a Steam logo. Nothing we tried then worked until we went to Gamespy, whereupon it all just worked.

We haven't tried remote conecting though so we can give that a go. Thanks again and we will try to keep faith. :)

[soapsurfer 12]

I just tried to play with some friends and it does not work for me either. Until the patch we used Gamespy and it all worked fine. Now nobody finds the server hosted on my PC.

[_angus_ 2]

We tried connecting usingg the Remote function on ARMA 3's Multiplayer screen, but without success.

We basically just typed "what is my IP address?" into Google, entered the number into the appropriate Remote window in ARMA 3, but it didn't find anything - I assume its that simple?

[eXpouk 10]

I had the same problem with my friends but we managed to find a solution.

Open up all the A3 and Steam ports, all UDP.

2302 (Arma3 Game port)

2303 (Server reporting for both Gamespy and Steam)

2305 (Von)

8766 (Steam port)

27016 (Steam query port)

[_angus_ 2]

Thanks for the info eXpouk. I messed about with this on my TP-Link router when we initially tried multiplayer, before we discovered that the Gamespy setting just worked for us. Didn't really know what I was doing.

Given that Gamespy worked fine, does it follow that if this our problem it would lie with the Steam ports, 8766 and 27016?

and sorry to be thick but..... are Port Forwarding and Opening ports different things?

Thanks.

[Aeriyn 10]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/35356-42-port-forwarding-open-ports

"Ports" are a 16-bit number that acts like a mailbox / communication channel for your network interface. Every packet received by your system must have a destination port number, and based on this the network stack will know which application to send the packet to.

An "Open Port" is a port that your network device accepts packets on, it may have absolutely nothing to do with the packets and thus the packets may be deleted, but the port still accepted the packet and read its header. A "Closed Port" is a port where your device will either actively refuse (send a response) or completely ignore (no response) packets on. Open Ports can be bad / good depending on your security posture.

Example, Application A is expecting to receive packets on port 3030, your FW / computer is blocking port 3030 and thus Application A will never receive any packets. Conversely malicious code can be hidden inside packets and accepting them on arbitrary ports can cause your system to be hacked and infected. Rule of thumb is to close any ports you don't expect traffic on, only open the ones you know you'll need.

"Port Forwarding" is router speak for NAT Masquerading. What happens is Application A wants to receive packets on 3030 but it's IP address is 192.168.1.10, a private IP address. You Gateway device needs to have an entry put in its table stating that all packets received on port 3030 need to be forwarded to 192.168.1.10 so that Application A can receive them.

Most of this is automatic, but not always.

I wouldn't be very surprised if this was caused by Steam and Routers not liking each other. I found this post here:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/107410/discussions/0/540744934643959586/

I am now showing up green. you need to open ports for steam and they need to do the same 27014 to 27016 tcp/udp and then 8766 udp and 2032 udp. Then you host and have them click view in top left of steam then servers then friends if you show up there all is golden on your end. then you have to get them to open those up as well

So try hosting your game and get your friend to check if he can spot your server in the steam client's (not ArmA's!) server browser. If not, try physically connecting your computer directly to the internet (this is a desperate move), skipping any router that might be causing the issue. If it works then, we can assume that it's probably got to do with your router blocking steam from doing what it wants to do.

By the way, these are the required ports according to Valve.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8571-GLVN-8711

EDIT:

There's a pretty recent thread involving the same issue, but from the people dealing with dedicated servers. One of the BI devs was responding too.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?176455-Getting-a-server-to-the-Steam-server-browser&p=2703373&viewfull=1#post2703373

Sorry for the text/link dump!

Edited June 20, 2014 by Fatalcrash

[terox 316]

For those of you hosting a server for your mates to play on, the following thread may be of help

A3 Server tutorial

[_angus_ 2]

Sorry for the text/link dump!

Hah, not at all, thank you.

Guys, I think I know enough to attempt the port forwarding side of this on my router. I'll give that a go. With the ARMA 3 server list though, once you've started a NEW server, you don't seem to be able to go back and check its on the list without first closing it down. So I'll see what I can do with the Steam list....... it'll make more sense to me when I'm looking at it, hopefully. :)

[invisibull 0]

Hi Angus, Just forward the ports Fatal mentioned above and you should be fine. You can check to see your server by right clicking on your Steam icon (on your taskbar when you run Steam) and selecting "Servers" from the drop down list. Make sure it's filtering for Arma 3, and if you've forwarded your ports correctly, you'll see your server listed, and your friends will see and be able to join your server from right there. Best of luck.

[soapsurfer 12]

We forwarded the ports for Steam and now it's working fine. :)

[_angus_ 2]

Okay, basically here's where we are. I have port forwarded ports 27000-27015 and 27016 (all UDP) on my router and my pc now shows up on the Steam ARMA 3 server list.

My friend has a Bright Box router and we needed to forward each of those 17 points on seperate entries of the NAT list (thingy).

My pc is visible on the Steam server list, does that actually mean all is well with my settings or is there more to it?

My friends pc still is not visible, so we'll check his firewall, and some other ports have been mentioned which we could try:

"8766 udp and 2032 udp"

Hmmmmm..... also this:

"Dedicated or Listen Servers TCP 27015 (SRCDS Rcon port)" I've only got that open in UDP..... should I select TCP/UDP?

Finally are Steamworks P2P ports relevant to this issue, certainly Steam chat is working okay.

Thanks for all your help (long may it continue....) :)

Have excellent weekends. Cheers.

Edited June 21, 2014 by _Angus_

[Aeriyn 10]

The idea here is that for your friend to be able to join you, your router has to allow incoming connections on the necessary ports so that he can connect to you. If I'm not wrong, it should be enough for whoever's doing the hosting to open their ports.

Regarding the TCP 27015 (SRCDS Rcon port), I'm not sure whether you'll actually need that. Then again, you might as well just give it a go and see if it works. :p

I'm guessing you're still having trouble connecting... Can your friend at least see your hosted game in the browser now?

EDIT:

If your PC is visible on the steam server list, it means that the master server knows that you're hosting a game, and your friend should be able to find your server in the server browser. Try getting him to use the filter option at the bottom to filter for your server name and see if it comes up - the steam browser loads servers a lot slower than gamespy did, so it might be there.

Edited June 22, 2014 by Fatalcrash

[_angus_ 2]

If your PC is visible on the steam server list, it means that the master server knows that you're hosting a game, and your friend should be able to find your server in the server browser. Try getting him to use the filter option at the bottom to filter for your server name and see if it comes up - the steam browser loads servers a lot slower than gamespy did, so it might be there.

Hi, yes we are at that stage now. We are both visible on the Steam server, but are both unable to connect to the other. I successfully connected to a random game on the Steam server yesterday without problems (apart from getting killed a lot) :)

I don't know if anybody wants to just see if they can connect to my server, to see if its even possible? XXXX (no password) I left it on the Role Assignement screen (should I actually enter the map?)

EDIT: Mission successful, thanks Fatal - offline now.

I've now added the 2302-05 ports to my router's list. Don't really know what to next........ Elite Dangerous is supposed to be out at the end of the year.... :)

Edited June 22, 2014 by _Angus_

[henri 10]

start game - alt tab - use steam browser

[Aeriyn 10]

Hi Angus,

I managed to join your server! Unfortunately this probably means the problem is on your friend's end. From my experience, this could be caused by a whole bunch of things... Even the internet service provider. For starters, try getting your friend to flush his DNS cache. Instructions below.

http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/AllDocumentation/ClearingBrowserCache

Good luck!

[_angus_ 2]

Thanks Fatal, that's very helpful. A couple of people joined at various points of the day, so I'm relatively happy things are okay, at least at my end.

I'm hopefully chatting with my friend tonight so we will focus our efforts on his set-up.

[maquez 141]

got it to work by opening follow ports on my router:

Ports:

UDP: 2302-2305

Ports:

UDP: 8766

Ports:

UDP: 27016

very important part is disable windows software firewall !!!

today most if not all routers have preinstalled firewalls,

it makes absolute no sense to enable a software firewall

behind a running hardware firewall !

[_angus_ 2]

Thanks Fatal, that's very helpful. A couple of people joined at various points of the day, so I'm relatively happy things are okay, at least at my end.

I'm hopefully chatting with my friend tonight so we will focus our efforts on his set-up.

So Saturday night we finally got everything working fine. He could Join me, I could Join him, but today, Sunday, my machine is no longer visible on Steam's server.

My thought was, as everything was working, and I haven't changed anything, I'll leave things well alone and see if things magically work in a couple of days. Sound reasonable?

I _can_ still see and connect to my friend's pc.

Any thoughts?

[Aeriyn 10]

So Saturday night we finally got everything working fine. He could Join me, I could Join him, but today, Sunday, my machine is no longer visible on Steam's server.

My thought was, as everything was working, and I haven't changed anything, I'll leave things well alone and see if things magically work in a couple of days. Sound reasonable?

I _can_ still see and connect to my friend's pc.

Any thoughts?

Good to hear it worked, even if it was only for a little while. I'm guessing your IP might have changed. Most ISPs issue a dynamic IP that changes every so often and will end up screwing up any port forwarding you may have done. If your IP changed, you might have to look into setting up a static IP.

[_angus_ 2]

The nice young man at Demon Internet assures me I have a static IP number, so I'm still hoping everything is going to suddenly start working again. :-/

[_angus_ 2]

The nice young man at Demon Internet assures me I have a static IP number, so I'm still hoping everything is going to suddenly start working again. :-/

Having said that, if anybody think of any further suggestions....

To recap, on Friday last my friend and I could see each other's pcs on the steam server list and join without problems - then on Sunday, my pc was no longer visible, but I can still see and join his pc. I've not changed anything my end, could a rogue config file need deleting or something? :-/

[jgaz-uk 132]

Since the loss of Gamespy you are not alone m8 :(

I found the time can be one answer, filter for part of the name of the server you are looking for & go do something else for 5 or more minutes. & it may show up eventually

Edited July 1, 2014 by jgaz-uk

[_angus_ 2]

Having said that, if anybody think of any further suggestions....

I think I've found the answer.

My IPv4 address had changed from 192.168.1.4 to 192.168.1.3 so none of ports that I'd opened on the router were having any effect.

What would have caused the number to change? A phone connected to the WiFi on boot-up, something like that? The router changed its religion? What???! :)