Ask the Experts / Port Forwarding

  • Liampie%s's Photo
    I want to host an OpenRCT multiplayer session, and apparantly I have to do this thing called "port forwarding". Okay, whatever. I looked it up and followed all the steps using this website and what it says my specific router:

    https://portforward.com/

    At some point the website asks about what Application I am going to use, with a huge dropdown menu with names of applications. OpenRCT isn't in there, but I happen to know the right port thing is 11753 so I used that.

    SAVE.

    REFRESH.

    Boot up RCT, start server with the 11753 port.

    Boot up second RCT window and look for server - it isn't there. Ask Louis to check. Louis says no.

    This website also says no although I'm not quite sure how it works.

    What am I doing wrong? Supposedly Windows Firewall can do weird shit but I don't know where to look and what to look for.

    Someone, please help me out because I'm about to go to the pet store and strangle any animals I may find there out of frustration.
  • X7123M3-256%s's Photo
    Port forwarding is something you need to set up on your router so the process will depend on what router you have. With most routers, the router configuration is accessible via a web browser, usually at 192.168.0.1 or 10.0.0.1 - if it's neither of these, you'll have to consult the documentation (or use nmap).

    If you are expecting your server to appear in the server list, make sure to check "Advertise" when you start it up.
  • Liampie%s's Photo
    I know, I followed the whole process as prescripted by portforward.com. It had a step by step list of things to do for my specific router type.
  • X7123M3-256%s's Photo
    Can you connect to the server from inside your local network?
  • Liampie%s's Photo
    What do you mean? Do you mean if I boot up a second RCT window, would I see my own server? Because I don't. Otherwise, how can I test that?
  • X7123M3-256%s's Photo

    Start your server, then open up a second OpenRCT2 window, and go to "Add server" then type in you local IP address. This will add a new entry to the server list. See if you can connect

  • Liampie%s's Photo
    No luck.
  • X7123M3-256%s's Photo

    If you can't connect from within your network, the issue is not with your router configuration - port forwarding is only needed to make it accessible outside your LAN. Unfortunately, I'm not sure exactly what it could be. Is there any error message generated?

  • Liampie%s's Photo
    Unable to connect to server. The same error message you get if you type in gibberish in the 'add server' window.
  • X7123M3-256%s's Photo
    Strange. It sounds like the server isn't running. But you get no errors on the server side? Are you sure the IP you're typing in is correct? (if you're on Windows, you can run ipconfig to give you your local IP. On Linux it's either "ifconfig" or "ip link show" depending on your distro).
  • Liampie%s's Photo
    Errors on the server side? What do you mean? Where would I be able to see those errors? The IP is correct.
  • nicman%s's Photo
    In case your wondering port forwarding is simply a way to open ports to allow connections through your router. Hence to allow players outside of your network to connect to your server, you must port forward.

    I would recommend that you only port forward for your device that will be hosting, as it raises security risks for your network. Since once bypassed the hardware firewall a hacker could compromise your network and could cause you a lot of problems.

    Im guessing you know a little bit about networking as you were able to detect my static IP when I created that fake account that I made to test your knowledge.

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