Multiplayer problems - take2 (long, but worth reading!)

[svenks 4]

Hi AllTake2 - because I'm sure I posted this yesterday (some of you may have heard me say so), but now it's not there??? I've had this happen to me a number of times lately... Anyway:The old curse of getting multiplayer to work is with us again this year. Basically it is caused by people's firewall setup, and the cure last year seemed to be: Get those ports right!! Unfortunately, even that didn't cure 100% of the problems.However, there is another way: UPnp (=Universal Plug 'n Play). This feature allows programs on your PC to dynamically open ports in your firewall. UPnP is installed in XP, but is not enabled by default.To enable it, do the following: Got to Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services. Locate the entry "Universal Plug and Play Device Host". Change its startup type to Automatic, then start the service. Also check the entry "SSDC Discovery Service" - it needs to be started and it probably is, but you may still want to change its startup type too.You also need to enable UPnP in your firewall. If you have a hardware router with firewall, hunt around its setup. If you find an entry for UPnP, enable it. If not, you MAY be out of luck.If you have a software firewall, you MAY need to get that to recognize UPnP traffic. In XP firewall, that is simply done by placing an allow checkmark in "UPnP Framework". It could well be that the firewall automatically recognizes that that you have enabled UPnP, but all of this depends on which S/W firewall you have.If you have both H/W and S/W firewalls, you may want to consider disabling the S/W one, but the above procedure does work in most cases I've seen.Finally, to echo Gazers words of warning: Enabling UPnP does increase your 'risk'. If you have malware on your PC, it may now be able to 'phone home', something your firewall could have prevented earlier. When I say 'could', it's because H/W firewalls normally only guards against threats from the outside, and S/W firewalls would just pop up a messagebox with "Process XXX is trying to send on port YYY. Do you want to allow that?". Since you normally won't have a clue to XXX and YYY, wouldn't you just click Yes? Using UPnP, such a process would just open the ports silently.Still, if you are running Anti-virus and Anti-Spyware (and keeping it updated!), that risk should be minimal. As it does seem to work,I suggest we use it. So far, we've had succes getting 2 guys up and running MP, DC may still have a problem - Norton Security seems to live a life of its own :(BRGDSSven Sorensen, EKCH

[Guest 2002cbr600f4i]

Sven,Thanks again for helping me get set up yesterday. Was SO much nicer flying online with people where I could see them.(Thanking god I have a 24" widescreen monitor so I can keep all these various programs running while flying!)Actually NIS 2007 didn't say squat when I set up the UPnP settings and turned on FSHostClient. If you're running an older version, it might though.