On games like Splinter Cell PT when I set up a server

[SolidMGSnake]

Nobody comes in when other hosts get people within seconds. I assume it has to do with a router. If so, what kind in particular will enable me to have people access my multiplayer server.

[Saracen]

I'm no expert onthis but I'd say you are probably having problems with NAT.

The problem is that you have multiple private IP's within your home network (probably 192.168.x.x, though there are other ranges) and only one public IP. So when any machine inside your network talks OUT, the router substitutes the internal private IP for the public one and sends the packets of data out. When the reply comes back, it knows which network PC to send them to, so they whole process is fairly transparent.

The problems start when data packets ORIGINATE outside your network. Then, even if sent to the public IP ('cos you've given it to your mates, or published it somewhere) the router doesn't know WHICH PC to send the data packets to.

There are two ways I can think of round that, and some security implications.

Method 1) DMZ.

Method 2) Port-forwarding.


NAT acts as a primitive form of firwall. If someone tries FTP access, for instance, and you don't have the relevant port(s) forwarded to a PC, they won't get beyond the router. But opening up any ports in the router means that unsolicited requests will get passed through the router and into your network, so generally you don't want to open any ports that aren't absolutely necessary.

So, Method 1). Some routers support a feature called DMZ (DeMilitarised Zone). Basically, it's a PC on your network that sits outside the rest of the security provisions - a sacrificial goat, if you like. You then DON'T put anything valuable or sensitive on it, but you DO put your game servers, etc. Then the worst that can happen is THAT machine gets compromised. Not all routers support DMZ though.

Method 2). You need to identify exactly what ports you need to open to support whatever it is you want to run. For example, it might require port 20 for FTP and Port 80 for Web server.

You then find the settings in your router (probably called Port Forwarding) and set (for example) port 20 to the internal, private IP address machine your FTP server is running on and port 80 to the private IP for the web server.

In your case, therefore, you need to know what port(s) the game(s) requires, and to set the port forwarding option to forward that port(s) to that IP address.

Once implication of this - you can have multiple servers, but any given TYPE of service can only point to ONE machine. You could, therefore, have an FTP server on one machine, Web Server on another and Game Server on a third, but you CANNOT have FTP servers on two machines, or Web Servers on two machines, etc. You COULD have more than one games server PROVIDED they support different games and those games require different ports.

So exactly how you set this up depends on what router you're using, and which games(s) you want to serve.

[malfunction]

Once implication of this - you can have multiple servers, but any given TYPE of service can only point to ONE machine. You could, therefore, have an FTP server on one machine, Web Server on another and Game Server on a third, but you CANNOT have FTP servers on two machines, or Web Servers on two machines, etc. You COULD have more than one games server PROVIDED they support different games and those games require different ports.

Unless of course the service can be configured to use a different port... And you can tell the users / clients to connect to that port instead of the default one.

But yes... If you've got an external SOHO type of router then it's unlikely you can set up a DMZ so you need to set up port forwarding.

[SolidMGSnake]

Aye, this people not being able to join my server thing hasent been resolved yet and im sick and tired of having to look for a good server. People can see my server but are unable to join it. I dont think this LinkSys has a DMZ option and I dont think I understood the half of what u just posted. I dont totally know everything there is to know about routers and how they work. Anyways I think the only option I have is to do port fowarding which im not exactly sure how to do. The game Splinter Cell Pandora Tommorow provides me with the nessesary ports to open. All I need to do is know how to open them. A nice simple list of instuctions is all I need

[SolidMGSnake]

Plleaase Someone!!!

[malfunction]

Plleaase Someone!!!

What model is it? And what does the manual say? Most routers have different interfaces (but are usually web based these days...)