CAN join and play, but CAN'T host???

@ Ghalius,

You should have read the entire guide, not just scrolled down for the ports..hehe  ;p  (which btw, are TCP only....and only 6000 for ICO and 6112 for the game....the 6001 most definately didn't come from my guide....lol)

1. If you're truly running your Netgear router as a "switch-only" at them moment (ie. in bridge mode) then you shouldn't be forwarding the ports to your netgear, you should be forwarding them directly to your PC's IP.


2. If your netgear isn't in "bridge-mode" but rather still set to "route" (ie. the negear still has both WAN and LAN IP's) and you're just not using it at the network edge because your cable/dsl modem is also functioning as a router then you'll have to do what I also detailed in my guide: Forward the ports I mentioned from your cable/dsl modem to the WAN IP of your Netgear, and then forward those same ports from the Netgear to your PC's IP.


thanks,

the Monk

@ the_Monk --

Oh, I read the whole guide. It was very well-crafted, and I'm sure a lot of people are going to benefit from it. I was pointing out the ports were especially helpful. Correction: I got TCP 6000 and 6112 from your guide. The others were "just in case" ports from other sources, which are likely unnecessary.

I actually don't have the Netgear router set to bridge mode. That's why I was referring to it as "effectively" a switch. It has all firewall settings disabled, and uses DHCP. The modem acts as the actual router which then forwards certain ports to the router (which has no security, and thus no problem sending said data to the various devices on the network). I have it set up this way for a reason: it allows me to have a single location to forward all allowed port traffic (the Netgear router) while still making use of DHCP for all my devices. It sounds more complicated than it is, really.

In practice: Modem (NAT protected) --->forwarded ports---> Netgear Router --->automatically allows all traffic---> PC (and other devices)

This works perfectly for bi-directional traffic in everything else (IM programs, other games, PS3 and 360, etc...).

I'm going to poke around with some different configurations based on the suggestions in your guide, but do you have any other ideas? I'm not terribly keen on giving up the convenience of a LAN address and DHCP from the router if I can help it.

@ Ghalius,

I absolutely understand what your issue is, and that is why I included the "double-NAT scenario" in my guide and have talked serveral people through the steps via my TeamSpeak server.

In my previous reply you are in the number 2 situation:



There is a fundamental difference between allowing traffic past NAT devices, and actually forwarding all traffic on certain ports to a specified endpoint (ie. your PC's IP)

The latter is what SINS requires. In your setup, the traffic is being forwarded past one NAT-device, but then stopped at the second NAT-device (you're only using your second router as a switch, but from a networking perspective it is still set up as a a "router"). Once you follow my instructions and also forward the traffic from the Netgear on to it's final endpoint (your PC) you'll have everything working nicely!



thanks,

the Monk

EDIT:
By the way, you can assign a static IP to your PC (as long as it's not within the range of IP's used by the Netgear's DHCP server) and this won't disrupt anything you've already got set up. That way the IP you're "forwarding" traffic to won't change on you one day...

Indeed. I see what you're saying. Neither my modem nor router actually has a "bridge only" option, so I'm stuck with that.

What I've done so far is to use the OFF setting for the firewall on the modem (though NAPT is still enabled; it won't function disabled for some reason). I've set up a static IP for the router and added that IP as the DMZ host from the modem. (That should effectively forward ALL ports to the router). The router's firewall is operating normally.

I then went in and set up a static IP for the computer's LAN connection and forwarded the required TCP ports (6000 and 6112). Still no joy. I can join and play, but nobody can join hosted games. I then went back to DHCP for all devices and tried to use port triggering for the required ports (which really should work better anyway, as they would only be open while playing). Again, no love.

I'm stumped. Can you see any flaws in what I've got going?

Thanks for all the help! (For the record, if anyone else is reading this, he finished up helping me out in the game lobby).

This is what I ended up with (and Sins seems to do just fine):

In order to easily keep using DHCP, I've set up reserved addresses based on the MAC addresses for my laptop, PS3, 360 and other devices. This works wonderfully, as I can auto-configure any device and still have a static IP.

This generates another problem though... There are two MAC addresses associated with my networking cards in the laptop (which stands to reason, as they are separate pieces of hardware). I can't reserve the same IP for both devices and I can't forward ports to two IP's. Basically, I'm good to go when I'm wired, but if I take the laptop elsewhere in the house it gets a different IP address and I'll have to reconfigure. (Additionally, the wireless card doesn't seem to function properly using reserved DHCP... it just sits there "identifying" indefinitely and doesn't ever seem to secure the reserved LAN IP, but I guess that's another problem entirely).

What do you think? Any suggestions?

Yeah one minute more in the lobby and we'd have been on my TeamSpeak.....hehe


You could assign the same static IP to both the wired and wireless adapter in your notebook, and just make sure that one or the other is always DISABLED. I've done this sort of thing before when traffic-forwarding to two different adapters (albeit at different times) was required.


Anyway....as always I'm just glad I was able to help you get things working. Happy gaming/hosting.


the Monk

Haha. Yeah, nearly hit the teamspeak red-zone. I can't thank you enough for the help though.

Setting the same static IP for both devices was my initial idea as well. The problem with that is it has to be done at the device level, and I'm connecting to various wireless networks on a regular basis, so setting a static IP for the wireless device isn't really an option. As it stands, I've got both the wired and wireless set to auto-detect, and the DHCP has a reserved address for the wired (to which the port forwarding is directed).

I'll just have to switch the port forwarding over to the wireless IP if I ever want to use it for something that needs specific ports (or just DMZ it temporarily). I'm fairly certain that it's impossible to circumvent that, at least with the equipment I have. I seem to recall messing with a "real" router a few years back that could reserve the same IP for multiple devices... I'll do a little research on the subject.