Problem with Linksys WRT54G Router (MP game)

[Eena]

Hello everyone. I'm relatively new to the game and I'm loving every minute of it so far.

I'm now in an MP server game and have just recently run into a small problem.

I recently installed a Linksys WRT54G Wireless G Broadband Router on my home network. Everything seems to be working perfectly with the exception of my Dom2 multiplayer game.

When I try to log in to the game server, either on my desktop PC (hardwired) or my notebook (wireless), through the router, I get a "got bad packet from server" message. However, if I bypass the router, I can get the game file just fine.

I'm wondering if anyone else has seen this issue and can give me advice on how to fix it.

I can still play the game, so it's not a show-stopper, but I would like to be able to get my turns without having to unplug and replug cables every time a turn is up.

Thanks for any advice.

[gladestrider]

Let me make sure I have the scenario right:

The DomII server is the desktop.

The client is your notebook.

The client connects successfully when you plug the notebook into the router, but it does not work correctly when the wireless connection is used?

Or, by "bypass" do you mean you're using a crossover cable and linking the notebook directly to the desktop's ethernet port?

(Hm. I guess my question is, can you please be more specific about the "bypass" method that works?)

gs

[Eena]

Oops, I wasn't very clear in my opening post, was I? Here's the scenario:

An MP game started up about a week ago with 5 players. One of the players is hosting the game on his server. I am accessing his server remotely over the Internet.

I have a DSL broadband setup on my home desktop and a WiFi modem on my laptop. I was playing the game from my desktop PC with no problems.

I have to travel frequently for my job, so I play turns from my laptop over the modem when I'm travelling. I could also play the game from my laptop with no problem.

Up to this point, I had no problems whatsoever accessing the remote server (belonging to another player).

Two nights ago, I added the Linksys WRT54G Wireless G Broadband Router. I attached the DSL cable, from the cable modem, into the router (internet port) and then attached another cable from the router (port 1) to my ethernet card in my desktop PC. The WiFi modem in my laptop now recognizes this connection.

Once the router was installed into the network, I tried to play the next game turn on my desktop PC. It connected with the remote server just fine. However, when I entered my game password, the program stayed on the password screen for a long time and then gave me the "got bad packet from server" message. I thought at first it might be that the server was down. I checked with another player and he said the server was up and working fine for him.

I decided to try my laptop and I got the same message at the same place in the game.

Being quite the accomplished detective that I am , I figured that the router might be the problem. I unplugged the cable from the DSL modem (the one going into the Internet port of the router) from the router and plugged it directly into the ethernet card. Then, I was able to play the turn with no problem.

So, the bypass method that works is having the cable from the DSL modem plugged directly into the ethernet card of the desktop PC or the laptop. The method that does not work is when the router is in the network between the DSL modem and the ethernet card. And it won't work either on the desktop PC or over the wireless laptop connection.

Everything else on my network is working fine with the router in place, except for my Dom2 MP game.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Zeikko]

I Think your router has a firewall attached to it. And the Dom II tries to send the 2h file but your firewall prevents that.
Maybe you should search the router's manual about firewall, does it exist and can you disable it.

[gladestrider]

Eena,

I think Zeikko is on the right track.

You can disable the firewall in the router's Security dialog, but I would suggest trying to use the Applications & Games dialog to set up forwarding for the ports that Dom2 uses instead. I haven't played with that myself, but that's better than dropping the firewall entirely, IMHO.

I don't know offhand what ports Dom2 uses--perhaps Gandalf or one of the other more experience players (I only play SP atm) knows. You also might try searching for "port" in this forum to see what kind of firewall issues others have had.

Even though you get a "bad packet received" message, the length of time you say you wait leads me to believe that you're actually not getting a reply at all--that's just the error message Dom2 prints with a timeout. That packet is probably being held up at the router.

Chime in after you try a few things. Let us know what you tried and what did, or didn't work. I've got the same router, so I could try to hop into an MP game and help you figure it out, if it comes to that.

gs

[Johan K]

Dominions II only uses one port and it is the one your host chose to setup the server on. You enter that number when you connect.