Can't get MP LAN to work

[AlfredTheGreat]

I've just got a new ISP and a new router- a Netgear WNR 2000. Basically my friend and I suddenly cannot join each other's games by LAN; they simply don't show up. I've tried almost everything, port forwarding, port triggering, completely opening up the router. Nothing seems to work. We have 3 laptops which we've tried in different configurations to no avail. It's heartbreaking. Might it have anything to do with Vista, a new Vista program, or service pack 2?

 

[unmerged(80455)]

I don't think this is it. I had problems both hosting and joining games, and nobody knew why. To this day, I don't. I hope it's allowed, but Hamachi works for me without issue. Hamachi will basically host the game for you, and you only enter the hosts IP hamachi assigns you to enter the game, but be sure to click the internet tab rather than LAN with hamachi.

 

[AlfredTheGreat]

I found out that it was my router-I switched it out for my older router to see if that was the case and it worked perfectly. Apparently it has something to do with NAT loopback which is a technical term for the router acting utterly ridiculous and making these games impossible to play online. So yeah thanks anyway