Home Server Setup Problems

[ChainsawFilms]

Like many people here, I'm having a torrid time trying to run a home server. Together with a few mates from UT2004, we've upgraded our PCs especially for UT3. All we want is to setup a small private game against some bots, and have some fun. With UT2004 it was no problem at all, just setup a Listen server and we were away - add in MapMixer and we had an absolutely brilliant time, setting up custom gametypes and mutators and maplists.

With UT3, we just can't get it working. Yes I miss MapMixer, which I understand may not be coming at all. But beyond that, we just can't connect to a private server any of us try hosting.

I know I'm not the only person having problems with this. I've read hundreds of posts on this forum, tried many different suggestions, and I'm still having no luck. It's getting to the point where my mates are giving up on the game. We can join public games just fine, but we're not competitive, there's a wide range of skill in our group, and we just want to hang out and have fun.

I'm running behind a router of course, which seems to be the cause of all the problems people are having with this. Which to be honest I don't understand, couldn't Epic have left it how it was in UT2004? But regardless, we really need help on this.

So far, I've tried setting up a normal Listen server from ingame, with no luck. Tried setting up StunServer, which removes the ingame warnings but no-one can join the game. They can connect, enter the password, then there's just the Connecting screen - they never get in the game.

I'm downloading the dedicated server now, I can run that on a laptop on the same LAN as my gaming computer. From what I've read, that may not help either.

So what I'm asking, is just how do we get this sorted? Is dedicated the way to go? StunServer didn't make any difference. I've forwarded every port suggested on this forum correctly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Matt

[Corey]

The only way I have read here to get a private server up and running that is behind a firewall router (Linksys on my end) is to do that stun server or open up your whole PC with DMZ, which is a joke.
Very bad idea.

I have no problem private hosting UT 2004 and UTGOTY which I do still with friends, as they connect to my home PC perfectly.

I am afraid we are screwed until Epic fixes this in an upcoming patch.

[ChainsawFilms]

That's what I was worried about. Thanks for the answer. As I've said, tried StunServer with no joy, and tried setting my gaming PC to DMZ and my friends still just had the "Connecting" screen.

I hoped this would have been fixed in the 1.2 patch.

[NakedApe]

STUN tricks are not necessary, my server works fine with all STUN traffic blocked completely.

In order to be listed and joinable your server must be able to resolve and connect to the master list server, if you are behind a consumer class router that should not be a problem, they allow outgoing traffic by default. You must also allow connections to the game port (default 7777/UDP) and forward them to the correct internal IP. If you want server info to be visible (such as players and scores when implemented) you also need to open the query port (default 6500/UDP). I haven't checked how the stats connection work but I would assume it is an outbound connection so it shouldn't need any special attention.

Assuming the above has been taken care of, that leaves the check that Epic put in to detect port remapping. In the listen server case, this is one of the things that cause the "network incompatible" message (the other being not having your game port opened/forwarded). I'm not sure if it has any effect on dedicated servers but I wouldn't be surprised if it causes the server to throw its hands in the air and give up. Unfortunately this is one thing that you can't do anything about. You're stuck with the NAT algorithm your router manufacturer chose. Adding insult to injury the check is also completely pointless and does nothing but prevent certain router models from working.

I have pointed this out to Epic on the mailing list, I have posted about it here in numerous threads and I was very vocal about the precursing problem which was in UT2k3/4 for 5 years but they have done nothing. Mark Rein in 2002 said he'd pass it on to the "dev team". On the mailing list they haven't dignified my mail with an answer.

My conclusion is that they don't want this to work.

[ChainsawFilms]

NakedApe, I must have read about a hundred posts on this forum you've made on this very topic. You've been very helpful to a lot of people, explaining how it should work and hopefully getting it working for them. I've tried pretty much every idea you've suggested but to no avail. Keep plugging away at Epic, mate, maybe they'll dignify you with a response. It is demoralising when a user such as yourself is giving all this technical support without any help from the devs themselves.

In other words, keep up the good work, we all appreciate the time you spend helping us out

I've tried a few final ideas tonight, all with no luck (even DMZ makes no odds), so in final desperation we tried installing a program called Hamachi - and ****** if it doesn't work Yes, we can no play online!! Hamachi appears to emulate a LAN. We installed Hamachi, I setup a network on it with a password and my friends joined. Setup a listen server, no need for a dedicated one, my friends used "open 5.xxx.xxx.xxx" and away we went. Perfect!

I followed a few guides that will explain it everything that needs to be set, the main one we didn't do at first was set the default gateway as 5.0.0.1 - when everyone had done that, we could all play Apparently you should instal version 1.0.1.5, not the latest version as that has some problems.

http://filehippo.com/download_hamachi/?2114

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nfb6wrRf54

https://forums.hamachi.cc/viewtopic....ghlight=unreal

Happy days!

[NoNameAirman]

Ok somethings I might be able to add here. I would run the dedicated on your laptop if that is an option. Given that you do not change any standard ports, 7777 has to be opened and forwarded to your Laptop. Second I would go to whatismyip.com find out what they say. Third play have fun.

I hope these can help you, and I hope something here is new. I can verify this will work with or without a Gamespy login for the server.

Im sure you know the obvious but just in case, you will connect to the internal ip 192.168.blaa.blaa:7777, your friends will connect to whatismyip.com:7777.

Oh yeah and turn off the Windows Firewall.

[ChainsawFilms]

Thanks for the reply. May give that a try actually, just to see if I can get it going that way. Right now, all my friends are just happy we've discovered Hamachi, they were on the verge of returning to the XBox360!!