completely baffled about hosting direct network game

[Snacktime]

Hi - I'm a noob here and am having no success hosting a direct network game with a couple friends. I actually played dom 3 a few years ago and hosted successfully, but I have no idea how.

When I choose network/setup a dominions server, it appears to ask me to choose a random port number, and that's it. no one can ever link to the IP address and port.

I recognize that my IP address may change, but I check and use the real IP address (rather than the one dominions gives me). But that doesn't work.

I have a router but don't think I have a firewall.

What gives? I'd troubleshoot this if I had any idea how to do that. Is there some port number I'm supposed to be using (I don't really even understand what "port" means). Help!

ps. we may host on Gandalf's server, which is great, but still it seems like there should be a way for me to set this up myself.

[TheDemon]

If you have a router, 99% of the time you have a firewall. Give your friends your real IP address, and choose and tell them a specific port and keep it consistent. Go into your router settings and set up port forwarding for that port, to your computer's internal network IP (usually the one dominions gives you). Without knowing your router specifics I can't really tell you exactly how to do it.

http://portforward.com/

[Jarkko]

There was the man who wanted to send a letter to his fiancee in another town and another country. So, he sent the letter with the address FRANCE.PARIS.AVENUEVICTORIA.24

When the letter arrived to the hotel the portier checked where the fiance lives. Ah, in room 1024, and she has deliberately told she will accept letters to be delivered. So the portier told the errand boy to run the letter to the room.

Now, replace the address with the numbers in your IP addres, portier with router and hotel room with port number, and I think you should get the basic idea. If the address number is not correct, the letter gets lost. If the portier hasn't spesifically been told to forward the letter to the room, he will throw it into the bin. If the portier does not know the correct room number, the letter gets delivered to a wrong hotel room.

[Gandalf Parker]

One problem people have with the newer networks is not knowing external IP from internal IP. You might want to visit a site such as http://www.whatismyip.com/ and see what the internet considers your IP to be. That is what you need to give people who are off your household net to connect to you with (and the port number the game is on of course)

[archaeolept]

theDemon correctly identified and explained the most likely issue - usually, w/ router set-ups, you need to go into their settings and do some port forwarding - it might be called something different in the router control panel. forward both UDP and the other one

[Trumanator]

You could always just use Hamachi, that would avoid the problem entirely.

[TheDemon]

In my experience dominions is fine if you just forward TCP ports, but forwarding both won't hurt.