This post has the threadmark [solved], may I ask how you managed?
Hi,
not sure if you mean how I managed to put the threadmark solved there or what did I do to solve it. I'll assume the latter is the case.
As it turned out the fault lies somewhere between my ISP and AoW3 devs. The key to this whole mess was to understand better how networking works. What is the key to have the Good (green) green connection is to have a PUBLICKLY ROUTABLE IP address.
How you can tell if you have one? On windows at the command prompt type ipconfig. If the IP for the interface concerned is not 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255, 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 or 127.0.0.1 aka a non routerble address then it is routerble.
This is kept like a secret from players to actually prevent them from fixing the issue / finding what's wrong.
So if you have address from that range, you are royally screwed. And the chances are you do have that kind of address. What my ISP is doing is using the 10.x.x.x range (I guess because it's free) which is not publickly routable. In case you have this kind of problem they'll force you to pay extra for getting a static IP address which is publicky routable. From what I read and from my conversation with ISP I believe that they don't even know you can have non-static publicky routable address. Also, please note, that the 10.x.x.x is NOT a private address, it's public all right, but it's not routable. I am repeating this to make a very strong disctinction here as this is where the problem lies.
Another option if you have 10. range is supposedly putting your router to DMZ mode, but that's very risky from what I read. I didn't try this myself.
Without publicly routable IP you can open whatever you want, it's useless.
Another thing that can happen is that yout ISP has their modem which you are not in control of and you can't control ports and/or it's putting you behind their NAT.
They have their modem AND you have your router. This is creating so called double NAT (each device that changes IP is apparently referred to as NAT). So this is another thing you have to get rid of.
You can tell you have this problem if you type tracert in windows command to let's say google. Type: tracert google.com
This traces your route to Google. If you have more than one hop (line) from the 192.x.x.x range you have double NAT. This can be solved to put ISP modem to bridge mode making your router effectively final and only one NAT device on your end. You can't do this on your own, ISP have to set their modem to bridge mode. Prepare to hear a mouthful about how it can't / shouldn't be done or how dangerous it is etc. What they are saying is that since they put their modem off as a safeguard it's now your responsibility to set up your protection - router and windows firewalls etc. It IS a risk however so DO think about and consult it with a buddy who's knowledgable if you choose to go this route.
If you don't use your own router the best way would be to tell your ISP to give you access to their modem so that you can set up ports as you need. I doubt they will do this. At most they'll offer you to open ports for you but this sucks from the security point of view as there would be a permanent hole in your internet defense.
And finally if you have both publicly routable IP AND you are in control of the ONLY device that controls ports make sure to open the ports for AoW3 in windows firewall (or whatever firewall you use) and in the router firewall - if it has one. Make sure to open the ports just for AoW3, not for the whole windows.
I also AoW3 to antivirus exceptions, but it's up to your consideration.
I would go step by step and try after each.
What I do is I open ports on my router just before playing, then I play and after I finish I close them again.
Unfortunatelly Port Trigerring doesn't work for AoW3 so you have to forward (which is permanent until manually disabled).
Sorry for typos, I am in hurry, hopefully you understood where the probelm may lie for you.
Why AoW3 devs suck is that they made it mandatory to have puclicly routable IP address (which very few have) AND you have to be in control of ports on the device (which very few are), you can't have double NAT(most gamers have no clue what it is), and you have to be able to open ports through all your firewalls.
Basically you need to have advanced networking knowledge and be lucky with how your connection is set up.
And from other games it's apparent this is not needed for a mupltiplayer game. We play other games and apart from occational desync we are fine.
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