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

[Fyron]

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.

[geoschmo]

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 ]

[Fyron]

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.

Make sure you add an empire during the initial setup.

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

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]

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]

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.

[larrybush]

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

[The Frenchmen]

Thanks for all the ideas =) it'll give me sompthing to try this weekend. and i got 1.84 gold, i think thats the most recent pach, winxp sp1 with all the most recent drivers installed. and only the host computer has problems, i'v tryed hosting on other computers but i always have trubble... no firewall on this computer, its on a network... and thanks again for the help =)