WindowsXP + Space Empires IV = No Working TCP/IP play

The Frenchmen · #1 November 16th, 2003, 10:01 AM

i was wondering if anybody could get that tcp/ip working right in windows xp... i cant get it working right... sometimes the Messages will have no text, it will crash, say it cant find a saved game when trying to play my turn. its horrable, just wondering if any body ells is haveing the same trubble....

Suicide Junkie · #2 November 16th, 2003, 03:05 PM

I don't use XP, and don't recall anything similar happening to anyone else...

Try disbling XP's silly firewall, and try running SE4 under compatibility mode to see if those change anything.

Everything else works for you, other than TCP/IP?

The Frenchmen · #3 November 16th, 2003, 10:38 PM

Yes, my tcp/ip and network work perfectly. This is the only game that has trubble, and its not this computer as i have 3 it wont work on, well, they work if they're not hosting. its jus the hosting computer that has trubble... and the firewall wasn't turned on, i had thought of that already =( but thanks. and in compatability mode it messes up, but diffrently. when i set it to win98/me the messeges dont work, in 2000 it says cant 'open file \Space Empires IV Gold\Savegame\nov15.gam' and the other modes have trubble too =(

The Frenchmen · #4 November 19th, 2003, 06:36 AM

so nobody knows whats wrong? =( damn.. oh well, i gess i'll have to go out and buy an new computer as win98 dont run on this one, i dunno why, i need a good ol' pIII 450 =D

Fyron · #5 November 19th, 2003, 07:00 AM

Make sure all ports on the firewalls are opened properly. You do have the latest patch of the game installed, right? Try running Windows update to get the latest fixes for XP.

Try setting the firewall to act as a DMC server (or whatever it is called... I forget). The one where it essentially makes the comp "exist outside of the firewall" in non-technical terms.

Fyron · #6 November 19th, 2003, 05:12 PM

It has not been deleted. It was moved to the SE4 Newbie Info forum Category or whatever it is called. Unfortunately, my request to have my post edited with the actual instructions on manually adding AI empires has been ignored.

Quote:

Make sure you add an empire during the initial setup.

Not necessary. I have never had a need to do that.

Quote:

Make sure all players are entering the multiplayer game filename the same. Apparently the game will allow the non host player to attempt to connect without setting the filename, but will not allow the player to succesfully connect without it.

Also not necessary. The players do not have to enter anything for the game filename.

[ November 19, 2003, 15:13: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

geoschmo · #7 November 19th, 2003, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Also not necessary. The players do not have to enter anything for the game filename.

I was merely posting what Resident Alien said there. He specifically mentioned that in one case he could not get a game started unless the player put the filename in. I labeled it as wierd because it didn't make sense to me. But sometimes when you've tried everything else and still can't get it to work you try the things that don't make sense. The worst that can happen is it still doesn't work, right?

Here's the link to the step by step thread. As Fryon said it's been moved.

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...=000011#000007

Fyron, what request to edit what?

Geoschmo

[ November 19, 2003, 15:55: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Fyron · #8 November 19th, 2003, 05:54 PM

It would not hurt to try... I have just never encountered a situation where it would be necessary, and I have played in... 9? tcp/ip games? Somewhere around there. Only 1 or 2 were played for more than a few hours, but still.

geoschmo · #9 November 20th, 2003, 02:07 AM

TCP/IP Se4 definetly does work with XP. I do not have a lot of experience setting it up myself, only played in one TCP/IP game and I wasn't the host. But I have seen comments in the forum from people who have XP and got it to work.

There used to be a great thread that had step by step instructions in it for setting up and troubleshooting TCP/IP connections. Unfortunatly somehow it seems to have been deleted.

This thread ( http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...3;t=004931;p=2 ) referances it, but has some good info in it too.

To start or stop XP Firewall
=> control panel => Network Connections => Lan or High-Speed Internet => highlight the Local Area Connection => right mouse click => properties => Advanced Tab

Open ports 6716 and 6720 on your firewall or router, configure for both TCP and UDP.

Other things that sound wierd but seem to have an effect:

Make sure you add an empire during the initial setup.

Make sure all players are entering the multiplayer game filename the same. Apparently the game will allow the non host player to attempt to connect without setting the filename, but will not allow the player to succesfully connect without it.

[ November 19, 2003, 12:07: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

larrybush · #10 November 20th, 2003, 02:30 AM

I play on XP with TCP/IP it works fine. You may want to look at your file sharing setup, the default is no file sharing. You may have to change that. Right click on the C: drive icon in explorer and look up file sharing in properties. Remeber that enabling file sharing is a security issue to when on the Internet.
LarryBush