NAT/Gaming

KokolekaKokoleka Texas Member
Hello all! Have a question regarding a problem with our internet modem.

Recently, we had our internet turned back on after having it off for 6 mo., and we are having issues with running games. It was working fine before it was shut off, but now we cannot stay connected and one game we cannot even get into. These are both Turbine games (LOTRO and DDO), and looking at thier troubleshooting page suggested that these errors are caused by firewalls blocking ports.

One suggestion was to use Port Forwarding, but whenever I try to add ports I get this error- Pinhole Conflict Detected XXX

Searching other forums has yielded nothing, nor has browsing the internet. Is it likely that this is what's causing us to get knocked off? The error we get is this- Error: The connection to the server has been lost!

Another suggestion I saw was to turn on IP Passthrough, but I am not sure of what this is, or if it is a good idea to turn it on.

The modem we have is a Motorola NVG510 with U-verse, (which is apparently one of the worst modems to have, go figure). We have had no problems with the thing until this point and have been using it for quite some time. We have not had issues until they started the internet back up again.

The windows firewall is also set to allow the ports from both games, including their applications, so I figure it can't be that (unless there is something I missed?).

The internet works fine as does everything else. Unfortunately, the hard-drive on our desktop died so I am working from the laptop- it is 6 years old, but the games have run fine on it before.

Any help anyone can give will be much appreciated, and thank you for your time! -Naegelin Gang

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    First off, your modem/router already has a firewall, so you should turn the Windows firewall off on every computer in your home. Double firewalls are bad news.

    Secondly, you should poke through the router for "UPnP" or "Port Triggering" and make sure both are completely turned off.

    Then and only then should you attempt to forward the specified ports.
  • KokolekaKokoleka Texas Member
    Hello again! Firstly, thank you for helping us! We combed the modem for UPnP and Port Triggering and found neither of these. We did turn off all the firewalls though (except the modem). Do the settings you listed go by any other names?

    Another thing we noticed is that in NAT/Gaming there is a Hosted Applications menu, where applications and services are listed and can be added. LOTRO is on the list, but we could only assign it to one device. Will this prevent us from running it on any other computer but the one it is assigned to? Thanks again!

    P.S. DDO is not on the applications list, but the ports listed look like they are the same as LOTRO. Does it still need to be added as a custom service with Port Forwarding?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    I would remove it from the NAT/gaming section and add it to port forwarding. Is this possible?
  • KokolekaKokoleka Texas Member
    Ok, so we took it off the applications menu, and were able to add the ports without the Pinhole Conflict error coming up (probably had to do with the Windows firewall). The game is still crashing however; I noted that for the .2 seconds the screen came up, in the connection status box it said Packets sent- 26, Packets received- 0. Could there be another setting on the modem firewall that is causing the packets to be blocked or dropped? Or does that have anything to do with this at all? Thanks!

    P.S. The port forwarding for our modem us categorized under NAT/Gaming; is there another place we should be doing this?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    Looks like you're the right menu. But it looks like there may be more ports you have to forward. Most games, especially MMOs, have several.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    The game is crashing as in exiting unexpectedly back to desktop? I would be hesitant to attribute that to anything in ports
  • KokolekaKokoleka Texas Member
    The error we are getting is this: Error: The connection to the server has been lost; and after we hit ok on this, then the game closes. The ports I added were 80, 2900-2910, and 9000-9010. These are all the ones listed on the Turbine support site, and these ports are used by either DDO or LOTRO. If there are more ports that we need to forward than the ones listed, how do I find them? Thank you for your patience and your time!
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    That's strange behavior, but here is a direct link to guide for DDO and one for LOTR. If possible, reset your settings to default before performing those changes to ensure you are at baseline. You'll need to make sure that your PC is setup to receive a reserved/static IP from the router if you didn't already do so.
  • KokolekaKokoleka Texas Member
    We actually had to have a tech come out and fix our internet (it had been having issues authorizing and was off and on) and they gave us a new modem assigned to our account. We still were having issues, so I port forwarded per the instructions you gave, and we seem to be still having problems. DDO won't even log in without the error, and LOTR crashes sometimes, and sometimes not. This couldn't be a hardware problem, could it? The laptop isn't really *supposed* to run games, but it has run them fine in the past, and this seems to be a connection issue. We tried running it from another laptop we have (same age and make) and it is receiving the same error. Looking through the options on the firewall in the modem, I am seeing nothing that has to do with reserved/static IP. There are, however, bokous of settings concerning packets which I have not messed with (everything except the added ports should be like it was when it left the factory). If you need any more info, just let us know :)
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    Um, can you tell us what model modem you have now, and what brand it is? Modems that have only one computer port, and slow internet connects sometimes also, can cause things to time out sometimes and not others. LOTR problem of sometimes working/logging in and sometimes not could trace to this kind of thing, and not porting. The DDO problem, give the LOTR sometimes working, might NOT be ports or not only ports.

    I am not a gamer, but do know some (quite a bit) about internet workings and data flow. So I stayed silent while those more into gaming tried to help.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    I'm still in the "port forwarding issues are unlikely to cause the game to 'crash'" camp. Have you recently/ever upgraded the graphics drivers on your laptop?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    It's not uncommon for MMOs to boot you out of the game with connectivity issues. WoW used to drop you to desktop, many moons ago.
  • KokolekaKokoleka Texas Member
    Going onto Turbine support, it said the most common reason for the game to lose connectivity when logging in/changing zones/instances is because the packets are being interrupted and/or stopped. The modem we have is a Motorola NVG510, and has a speed of 12mbps (we have been told that this modem is either very hard or impossible to get into).

    To be honest, I don't think I have ever updated the graphics card on this laptop...I have attempted to, but it tells me that the driver update is incompatible with the system ;/ Not sure if that means there's something wrong, or they don't support it... As I mentioned before, this computer isn't really supposed to run games, but they have worked ok on it in the past. Ever since we have had the internet turned back on, however, we've been having connectivity issues with games on this laptop, and another one we have.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited January 2013
    Laptop make and model? Some of them have vendor only drivers, so I can make a better recommendation as to what you can do there.

    This is also a long shot, but try to add public DNS. Link has instructions. I'm wondering if the requests are going out but TTL expires before they make it back to you and the router then drops the packets when they do finally get it back. Apparently that is a frequent issue with that router. Test that on one laptop and see if it works (those settings are on your laptop, not the router [though that can be set on the router as well, but that may be beyond the scope of this])
    Thrax said:

    It's not uncommon for MMOs to boot you out of the game with connectivity issues. WoW used to drop you to desktop, many moons ago.

    That just seems like REALLY shitty design. Completely drop client because of lost connectivity ... blech.
  • KokolekaKokoleka Texas Member
    We are a little leery to try your suggestion, Tushon; it sounds a little complicated and like we could mess up something important. What are our risks? Or is this as complicated as it sounds? Thanks!
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    There are actually no risks. :) Worst that could happen is you lose internet connectivity for a few seconds until you reverse the change and hit "save."
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    Not complicated and/or risky in the least (I mean, there is an extremely small possibility of bricking ... just don't unplug anything while you are doing it :D )

    Literally 4 steps
    Download firmware and update router (this may reset all to default, or you might need to check a box)
    Setup your router password and WPA2 key (what you use to secure your wireless)

    That's it.
  • KokolekaKokoleka Texas Member
    Ok, so we tried your idea :D and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I had to translate it a bit since the instructions were for Windows 7, but it wasn't hard to figure out (we have XP, which seemed similar to, but not exact). After this, we still seem to be having the problem with no changes. Sorry this has turned into such an issue... Do we need to change the DNS back to automatic, or is Google DNS better? Under the IP/TCP Internet protocol, it did not offer a place to put in the IPv6 DNS numbers, and it didn't even call the normal server IPv4. Is that because it is just XP, and an older version, or could this have something to do with why it did not work? Since the modem is "hardwired" as the instructions said, I can't change it in there, but I did change it through the computer. Sorry to keep bothering you guys, but thanks for the help :)
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    At this point, I do not think that per se it is the modem settings. I think the problem needs to be fixed by your ISP.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    No problem. I'm not sure what to tell you at this point other than that if it is possible to upgrade the modem end of the hardware, you should do so :/
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