Internet games and routers

Administrator
2012-07-07 20:11

If you are behind a router (NAT), then it will be necessary to open the proper ports and forward them to the local IP address of your computer. While UPnP is supposed to handle this for you (if it is enabled in the router), it has been my experience that it does not always work. I recommend NOT using UPnP when playing Boogle games.

However, I know that some people really prefer to use it and may even require it for certain programs that they use. Therefore, I will give instructions for using UPnP and not using UPnP. The first thing you should know is that Boogle uses DirectPlay 4 (a part of DirectX 7). An Internet search about playing DirectX 7 games over the Internet will reveal that getting these games to work through a router is a common problem. Hopefully the advice below will help. When using port forwarding rules in a router, it is generally recommended that you use static IPs for all of your computers on the LAN (if you have more than one computer), or at minimum for the ones you are forwarding ports to. See your router manual or search the Internet for more information on setting up static IP addresses on your local network.


UPnP DISABLED in router (recommended):

If you had previously used a DirectX 7 game with UPnP enabled, you may have a UPnP entry in your router for port 47624. After turning UPnP off, delete this rule then do the following:

  • Only one computer behind my router will ever use Boogle:
    1. In your router open port 47624 (TCP/UDP) and forward it to the IP address of the computer you will use to play Boogle. For example, if your PC uses the local IP address 192.168.1.101, then forward the port to 192.168.1.101.
    2. In your router open the port RANGE 2300-2400 (TCP/UDP) and forward it to the IP address of the computer you will use to play Boogle.
  • More than one computer behind my router will use Boogle:
    1. In your router open port 47624 (TCP/UDP) and forward it to the IP address of ONE computer that you will use to HOST a Boogle Game. For example, if your PC uses the local IP address 192.168.1.101, then forward the port to 192.168.1.101. Note that this is the only computer on your LAN that will be able to successfully host a game. If you wish to host on another PC in your LAN, you will need to forward it to the other PC first. You should however be able to join a remote game from any PC on your LAN that you have configured in these steps.
    2. Get a copy of DXPort and put a copy of it on each computer in your LAN that you will use to play Boogle on.
    3. Configure DXPort to use a different port range for each PC in your LAN. Please see the instructions that come along with DXPort for more information.
    4. In your router open the port range specified in DXPort (TCP/UDP) and forward it to the appropriate IP address of each PC you will use. The sample below is for configuring 2 computers on a LAN (a Sony at "101" and a custom-built at "102").
      • Rule       Name        Range           Protocol        Local IP
      • DPlay      Sony          2302-2311     TCP/UDP       192.168.1.101
      • DPlay      Custom      2312-2321     TCP/UDP       192.168.1.102
    5.  Run DXPort on each PC before running Boogle. It will force DirectPlay to choose a port in the small range you specified in DXPort. You can either run DXPort each time before playing Boogle over the Internet or you can choose to have DXPort run at system startup.

 

UPnP ENABLED in router (not recommended):

UPnP should automatically place an entry in your router for port 47624. However, it tends to set it to UDP protocol and forward it to "255". This does not work! You will either need to manually create a separate rule and open 47624 for TCP or delete the automatically created rule every time and create a manual rule for port 47624 and TCP/UDP. Also, change the destination IP to that of the PC you plan on hosting with (for example, 192.168.1.101). After doing this, do the following:

 

  • Only one computer behind my router will ever use Boogle:
    1. You don't need to do anything else. UPnP will automatically open the appropriate port for you (somewhere in the range of 2300-2400) and when you finish with Boogle the port will automatically close (the rule gets removed).
  • More than one computer behind my router will use Boogle:
    1. Get a copy of DXPort and put a copy of it on each computer in your LAN that you will use to play Boogle on.
    2. Configure DXPort to use a different port range for each PC in your LAN. Please see the instructions that come along with DXPort for more information.
    3. Run DXPort on each PC before running Boogle. It will force DirectPlay to choose a port in the small range you specified in DXPort. You can either run DXPort each time before playing Boogle over the Internet or you can choose to have DXPort run at system startup. With UPnP enabled, the appropriate ports will be opened automatically and closed when you finish with Boogle. DirectPlay via UPnP has a tendency to use the same port for more than one PC on a LAN. By using DXPort to specify a unique range for each PC, this allows a unique port to be forwarded to each PC.
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