Topic: Attempting to connect to Dynaverse

[MechMantis]

I have tried everything on the forums to connect, but nothing seems to work. I have tried everything from opening the ports to using an external IP. Nothing seems to work. Our router is a Westell VersaLink, model 327, with hardware NAT. I don't dare bring down the firewall, as the standard life expectancy of an unprotected WinXP system is about an hour and a half. I am at my wit's end, and have decided to post here for help. I'm thinking: "Dynaverse BETTER have some damn good gameplay to make up for this!" 

[Sochin]

I have never had a problem playing SFC while the firewall is dropped, just remember to put it back up after play, I have never detected any virus while or after play.

[MechMantis]

Wait. I have a WinXP firewall up. And I forgot to open those ports. DURR! I'll open those ports, and see if anything changes. I'll edit the results into this post as soon as I get them.


Edit: No go. My dad flat out refused to open over 300 ports. Manually. Apparently WinXP Pro refuses to accept a port range. Also, he refused to take down the firewall for any length of time, as the average life expectancy of a fully patched WinXP system is an hour an a half. Soory, but you guys won't be seeing me on Dynaverse any time soon.

Edit edit: We tried dropping the XP firewall, to no avail. The router's hardware NAT must be fauling things up. That or the Dynaverse 3 servers are very populated with people at about 10 pm Eastern time.

[SkyFlyer]

, as the standard life expectancy of an unprotected WinXP system is about an hour and a half

There is no way (save a hacker randomly picks your IP out of hundreds of thousands) that you will get infected by taking down your firewall, and running SFC3, and only SFC3. Once you open a browser, thats a different story.

[GarrethMacLeod]

How far into the login process do you get?

I've started a "Logging in to the Dyna" on our website. It's on the submenu at www.AlternateB.org. I've a couple notes in it regarding routers and firewalls. It's far from complete but might help you out.

[MechMantis]

I get to the "Test host" point, then it refuses to connect. I put my IP in my INI, I put it in when the game tells me to "Insert your IP Adress". And we can't take the router out of the loop, as that is also the modem. And the sysadmin REFUSES to drop the firewall, I repeat REFUSES. And yes, you could get hacked. But if you have a high level computer, it would be months before you knew it.


It will not work.

[GarrethMacLeod]

The "Starting DirectPlay Test Host" point is where  my game first got stuck. Microsoft DirectPlay8 must have permission to access the internet through your firewall. I suggest making sure it does.

The WinXP firewall does not like older games. I don't think Microsoft like older games, truth be told. I have never used it. It is disabled on my machine. It's bad enough I have their OS hogging as much ram as I will let it. However, if that's what you have to use, then that's what you have to use. Check on how to allow certain programs to access the internet nad make sure that DirectPlay8 is in there.

Does the router/modem also have a built in firewall by any chance?

Here's what I use on my system and have not had problems connecting: WinXP (no, I haven't installed the service pack yet. Yes, I know I should have), LinkSys 2.4 router, Zonelabs ZoneAlarm firewall. WinXP firewall is disabled, Internet Connection Sharing is disabled. My PC sits in the DMZ of the router and I have had no problems with hackers. ZoneAlarm does seem to do a good job of keeping them out.

On a side note, my belief that MicroSoft will never put out software that takes the end user into consideration has just been reaffirmed as they don't allow port ranges. Yeah, that's user friendly.