Cannot connect to other players | C&C:Online | Page 1

quick kite Mar 22, 2025, 4:11 PM

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I cannot connect to other players when in a game lobby, so the game cannot be started, even though it says I'm connected to myself (?) and they are connected to each other.

I just get stuck with the clock symbol for a while, then the red "cannot connect" symbol.

I'm not running a VPN. I don't know how to go about addressing this.

Ideas appreciated.

haughty gulchBOT Mar 22, 2025, 4:11 PM

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GG @quick kite, you just advanced to level 1!

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 4:15 PM

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quick kite I cannot connect to other players when in a game lobby, so the game cannot be st...

Where did you get the game from? What version number is displayed in the options menu? And can you show me an image of the issue itself?

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And tell me what anti-virus software you are running.

quick kite Mar 22, 2025, 4:18 PM

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The game is from steam.

Antivirus is the standard windows security.

Tried on v1.10 with friends, then we all tried again on v1.9. Still same issue. (We changed version via chronoshift in the ctrl-T overlay).

My friends went ahead and are play the game without me right now, so I can't grab a screenshot, but I have a screenshot one of them took

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^ Friend's POV

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 4:19 PM

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quick kite The game is from steam. Antivirus is the standard windows security. Tried on ...

Nice, you've tried to standard things already

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Where do you two live? What country?

quick kite Mar 22, 2025, 4:19 PM

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All 3 of us are in Australia, Melbourne

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When they finish their game I will try again with my firewalls disabled

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 4:24 PM

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quick kite When they finish their game I will try again with my firewalls disabled

ok, but enable them again after testing

quick kite Mar 22, 2025, 4:24 PM

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definitely

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 4:25 PM

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quick kite definitely

Atta boy 😛

quick kite Mar 22, 2025, 4:26 PM

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If that doesn't work, is there anything else I could try?

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 4:26 PM

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quick kite If that doesn't work, is there anything else I could try?

No, for a microsecond life will cease to exist... and then we'll be back to help you 🙂

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There are more steps, no worries

quick kite Mar 22, 2025, 4:27 PM

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That's reassuring

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 4:27 PM

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quick kite That's reassuring

I always try to do my absolute worst

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Funny you think I'm joking....

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Well, lets mislead you more then

quick kite Mar 22, 2025, 4:30 PM

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haughty gulchBOT Mar 22, 2025, 4:30 PM

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GG @quick kite, you just advanced to level 2!

quick kite Mar 22, 2025, 4:30 PM

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still the same, even without the firewalls 😦

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 4:30 PM

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Five options for network issues, try from top to bottom, test after each step:

Select a different IP-address from the dropdown in the network settings of the in-game options menu.
Switch the 6667 port to 16667 in the Tacitus overlay. Countries like Maleysia, other Asian countries and universities might block those.
Port forwarding (only if you know how to login to your router, ask me for assistance)
Correct Firewall entry (known issue for Steam version at least, ask for assistance)
VPN (quick and dirty workaround)

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Regarding the second step, don't know how weird your Australians are, so try that too if the first thing didn't work 😛

ionic prism Mar 22, 2025, 6:52 PM

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Hi there, you are getting farther then me and my friend

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I have manually added NAT routing through my router to my laptop, I added firewall rules in Windows, the signal icon changed from red to yellow after I did all network adjustments but my friend still has this error message

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ionic prism Mar 22, 2025, 7:25 PM

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Balls, do not ask

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I was missing the 6667 port, I opened both UDP,TCP since I don't know what protocol is it.

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so now I have this

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agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 7:54 PM

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ionic prism

That is not port forwarding what you are doing there btw

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Please undo that

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This I meant

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This is actually port-forwarding, but you need many more ports

ionic prism Mar 22, 2025, 7:55 PM

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I added 6667 manually as well and I needed to add those to firewall

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 7:56 PM

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ionic prism I have manually added NAT routing through my router to my laptop, I added firewa...

Can I see the details on the firewall rules you've added?

ionic prism Mar 22, 2025, 7:56 PM

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Which ones?

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 7:56 PM

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ionic prism I added 6667 manually as well and I needed to add those to firewall

Adding ports to firewall?

ionic prism Mar 22, 2025, 7:56 PM

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One sec when I get back to my laptop

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 7:57 PM

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Oops, hoped you wouldn't go in blindly.... can you undo everything you have done after my advise

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And I mean everything

ionic prism Mar 22, 2025, 7:57 PM

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Haven't touched it since I messaged my last update when at least my friend was able to join my lobby

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 7:58 PM

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agile tendon This I meant

undo this

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 7:58 PM

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agile tendon This is actually port-forwarding, but you need many more ports

undo this

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And undo the firewall exceptions

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Pretty much seems you needed my advise on all of those points

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so lets start again and do it properly point by point

ionic prism Mar 22, 2025, 7:59 PM

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I hope I don't need to mess with my router anymore 😂

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So what needs to be done?

haughty gulchBOT Mar 22, 2025, 8:02 PM

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GG @ionic prism, you just advanced to level 2!

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 8:02 PM

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ionic prism So what needs to be done?

Have you undone everything as asked?

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If you haven't, our work will likely fail

ionic prism Mar 22, 2025, 8:02 PM

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Will do that when I get back to.my laptop I'm replying from my phone here

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all deleting

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outbound as well

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I saw one more rule I also removed that

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Let me know what port ranges + protocol needs to be added to the firewall not to be blocked

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Also if any more ports need to be forwarded manually other than 6667 I saw in the CTRL+T menu

ionic prism Mar 22, 2025, 8:41 PM

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any news?

agile tendon Mar 22, 2025, 10:21 PM

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Can you give me the exact file/folder path to your CnC3 install directory?

quick kite Mar 23, 2025, 3:21 AM

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I'm struggling 😦

I'm using an ethernet connection now, and have tried the ingame ports 16667 and 6667. Still no connection

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also i'm trying all this with my firewall off

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i tried to do port forwarding but i can't even log in to my router (keeps saying wrong password, and then i get a 10 minute lockout)

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i have a tp-link vx230v

quick kite Mar 23, 2025, 3:45 AM

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also idk if this makes a difference but I have many instances of KW and TW in my firewall settings

quick kite Mar 23, 2025, 8:08 AM

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I've reset my router and am able to login to it now, but I still have the same issue with connecting to any other players

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I'm trying to port forward but am being given a message "invalid value"

my router is tplink vx230v

how can i do port forwarding for Kane's Wrath?

ionic prism Mar 23, 2025, 9:34 AM

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https://static.tp-link.com/upload/manual/2023/202301/20230131/1910020937_VX230v(EU)_UG_REV1.0.0.pdf and page 86 / PDF page 91 here's all you need

ionic prism Mar 23, 2025, 10:24 AM

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quick kite I'm struggling 😦 I'm using an ethernet connection now, and have tried the inga...

you seem to be connected though from what I can tell

quick kite Mar 23, 2025, 10:25 AM

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i'm able to login to the online section of the game and join a game, but i cant connect to any other players in the game (even though they are all connecting to each other)

ionic prism Mar 23, 2025, 10:26 AM

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may I try joining your lobby?

ionic prism Mar 23, 2025, 10:26 AM

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agile tendon Can you give me the exact file/folder path to your CnC3 install directory?

D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars

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but my firewall rules have been deleted so I can hope I am able to join xd

agile tendon Mar 23, 2025, 12:52 PM

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Wait, do you two know each other?

ionic prism Mar 23, 2025, 3:46 PM

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No 😀

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Just idea of trying something

ionic prism Mar 23, 2025, 4:55 PM

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So what I need to add to my firewall then?

agile tendon Mar 23, 2025, 7:36 PM

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Close the game
Open a Command Prompt AS ADMINISTRATOR
Enter the exact following one command (copy-paste): netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="CnC3 mrtnptrs in" dir=in action=allow program="D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars\RetailExe\1.10\cnc3game.dat" enable=yes
Hit Enter
Enter the exact following one command (copy-paste): netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="CnC3 mrtnptrs out" dir=out action=allow program="D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars\RetailExe\1.10\cnc3game.dat" enable=yes
Hit Enter
Enter the exact following one command (copy-paste): netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="CnC3 mrtnptrs in old" dir=in action=allow program="D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars\RetailExe\1.9\cnc3game.dat" enable=yes
Hit Enter
Enter the exact following one command (copy-paste): netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="CnC3 mrtnptrs out old" dir=out action=allow program="D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars\RetailExe\1.9\cnc3game.dat" enable=yes
Hit Enter
Make a screenshot of the command prompt window and drop it here so I can check its results

ionic prism Mar 23, 2025, 7:41 PM

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this is what has appeared

agile tendon Mar 23, 2025, 7:43 PM

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Yes, added the exceptions also for the old version, just in case you downgrade

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Please try now again

ionic prism Mar 23, 2025, 7:44 PM

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my friend is currently offline, so I don't have anyone to test it with

haughty gulchBOT Mar 23, 2025, 7:44 PM

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GG @ionic prism, you just advanced to level 3!

agile tendon Mar 23, 2025, 7:44 PM

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ionic prism my friend is currently offline, so I don't have anyone to test it with

can you let your friend send the filepath in here too?

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Then I can provide him/her with the same commands adjusted to the install location

ionic prism Mar 23, 2025, 7:45 PM

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I think I know the syntax since I know what to replace

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="CnC3 mrtnptrs out old" dir=out action=allow program="<steam game install dir>\RetailExe\1.9\cnc3game.dat" enable=yes

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and same for v1.10

agile tendon Mar 23, 2025, 7:45 PM

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Correct

ionic prism Mar 23, 2025, 7:46 PM

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okk

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I can do this remotely with Ultraviewer or AnyDesk, I will let him know

ionic prism Mar 23, 2025, 8:20 PM

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Just got a message he's gonna be at work at time while I'm home so we won't be able to meet up until next weekend

agile tendon Mar 23, 2025, 8:29 PM

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I have all the time

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Let me know by then if I could help more

quick kite Mar 24, 2025, 6:38 AM

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I'm still struggling to connect to anybody in the game.

I'm trying to do port forwarding, but my router keeps giving me an error message when I try

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haughty gulchBOT Mar 24, 2025, 6:40 AM

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GG @quick kite, you just advanced to level 3!

quick kite Mar 24, 2025, 6:41 AM

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#

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It will let me port forward 8088, but not 8088-65535

ionic prism Mar 24, 2025, 7:07 AM

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Leave internal blank and put the range to the external

quick kite Mar 24, 2025, 7:36 AM

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I've done a reset on the router and done the port forwarding again and it's accepted it. thanks

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what do i need to do to port forward for TW?

ionic prism Mar 24, 2025, 8:31 AM

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Most services nowadays should not need that

agile tendon Mar 24, 2025, 10:36 AM

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ionic prism Leave internal blank and put the range to the external

What? Internal and external should be the same

agile tendon Mar 24, 2025, 10:37 AM

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quick kite It will let me port forward 8088, but not 8088-65535

Don't do such a huge range, huge security risk

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Wanna know the correct ports to forward?

agile tendon Mar 24, 2025, 10:38 AM

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ionic prism Most services nowadays should not need that

This is a very old game, so it does need it

ionic prism Mar 24, 2025, 10:44 AM

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agile tendon What? Internal and external should be the same

You can have an external port being forwarded as a different port on LAN

agile tendon Mar 24, 2025, 10:46 AM

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But shouldn't be done for this game

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Would lead to issues

ionic prism Mar 24, 2025, 10:46 AM

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Yes that's why it's best to leave it blank

agile tendon Mar 24, 2025, 10:47 AM

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No, because then something goes to nowhere

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Best to just have the internal and external the same, also for simplicity

ionic prism Mar 24, 2025, 10:48 AM

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Most firmware should forward them untouched until you tell it, depends since bizilion different firmwares have this a bit different

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I might do little.experiment on it when I can

quick kite Mar 25, 2025, 8:51 AM

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agile tendon Wanna know the correct ports to forward?

Yes please. What are you correct ports?

quick kite Mar 26, 2025, 6:12 AM

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ionic prism may I try joining your lobby?

definitely. I'm in Australia though (+10 GMT) so just not sure when our times line up

ionic prism Mar 26, 2025, 6:21 AM

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I'm gmt+1 😀

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So currently at work

quick kite Mar 26, 2025, 6:57 AM

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An update on my existing problem with connecting to players:

I wanted to try connecting again, went to turn on my previously made port-forward, and I got this error message.

Can someone make sense of what this could mean?

ionic prism Mar 26, 2025, 7:14 AM

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Disable UPnP

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I read the manual and its enabled by default for whatever reason

quick kite Mar 26, 2025, 7:27 AM

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ionic prism I read the manual and its enabled by default for whatever reason

okay thanks

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I'm reading that VPNs can be used to get around the port forwarding issue. Does someone know much about this?

ionic prism Mar 26, 2025, 8:03 AM

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very simply, takes all your traffic and puts it through a different network

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such as if you want to "change your location", connect to your home network or business network to access resources etc.

quick kite Mar 27, 2025, 5:27 AM

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i just got a VPN and it all works now 😄

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the port forwarding stuff was killing me

ionic prism Mar 27, 2025, 5:41 AM

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Which one did you get? the one promoted here or others?

quick kite Mar 28, 2025, 10:24 AM

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I used surfshark just because that was one I had on hand, but sometimes it can desinc games after a while. so I might try another one that's reputed to be good for gaming

ionic prism Mar 28, 2025, 9:37 PM

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nothing has changed, commands have been done on both PCs

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My client is also reporting yellow connection

ionic prism Mar 28, 2025, 9:57 PM

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Okay it might be his network restrictions, either OpenWRT or more likely ISP firewall, I have set up WireGuard VPN service on my network so we can try playing this way

haughty gulchBOT Mar 28, 2025, 9:57 PM

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GG @ionic prism, you just advanced to level 4!

ionic prism Mar 28, 2025, 10:10 PM

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Okay, spoke to soon 😄

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ionic prism Mar 28, 2025, 10:31 PM

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both of us got this crash

quick kite Mar 30, 2025, 4:02 AM

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ionic prism

I've had this crash before.

But after restarting my computer, doing the VPN, and then making sure I had the correct IP selected in the game under settings>network selected, it then worked fine.

ionic prism Mar 30, 2025, 7:25 AM

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Well will be something I won't be able to test soon, was not expecting to be this finicky jeez

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And let's not talk about how much time we spent to even get to the start timer 😀

agile tendon Mar 30, 2025, 9:13 PM

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quick kite An update on my existing problem with connecting to players: I wanted to try co...

#1353038482087481517 message

agile tendon Mar 30, 2025, 9:13 PM

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quick kite the port forwarding stuff was killing me

You did it incorrectly

agile tendon Mar 30, 2025, 9:14 PM

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ionic prism Disable UPnP

Shouldn't be needed

agile tendon Mar 30, 2025, 9:14 PM

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ionic prism

Can happen randomly, but especially when alt-tabbing

agile tendon Mar 30, 2025, 9:17 PM

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agile tendon You did it incorrectly

Needed By All CnC games
TCP: 4321, 28900, 28910, 29900-29901
UDP: 13139, 27900-27901
Both: 1900 (UPnP), 16000 (C&C:Online)

TW-Specific
UDP: 8088, 65000, 65535
Both: 18310

KW-Specific
UDP: 8088, 65000, 65535
Both: 18760

agile tendon Apr 4, 2025, 4:27 PM

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Status update?

ionic prism Apr 4, 2025, 4:34 PM

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haven't been with my friend since sadly

agile tendon Apr 4, 2025, 4:44 PM

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ionic prism haven't been with my friend since sadly

Just yell at him for no reason, works for me 😛

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But wait, you are on the same network when having this issue?

ionic prism Apr 4, 2025, 4:49 PM

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I created VPN service on my network so he publicly seen from same net as me, only different sub-net

agile tendon Apr 4, 2025, 4:50 PM

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ionic prism I created VPN service on my network so he publicly seen from same net as me, onl...

yeah, that will cause issues

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If you are on the same network, one needs to use port forwarding, other one a VPN to avoid issues

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Game is a bit stupid and can't handle two online players on the very same network haha

ionic prism Apr 4, 2025, 4:51 PM

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We did manage to connect to each other via CNC:Online even though not sure where the server is since our ping even though we both are on fibre says its only "good" but the game crashed on us up-on finishing loading the map

agile tendon Apr 4, 2025, 4:55 PM

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Can you always reproduce this issue?

ionic prism Apr 4, 2025, 4:59 PM

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not sure, more trying needed

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but definitely something that shouldn't happen

agile tendon Apr 4, 2025, 5:01 PM

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Indeed, keep testing and keep me posted

agile tendon Apr 7, 2025, 4:49 PM

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Status update?

ionic prism Apr 7, 2025, 5:08 PM

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Haven't been with my friend yet

ionic prism Apr 8, 2025, 9:48 PM

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One thing I have done though is reinstalling my OS since it was borked from 2 years of bad Windows and Driver updates

agile tendon Apr 8, 2025, 10:00 PM

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ionic prism One thing I have done though is reinstalling my OS since it was borked from 2 ye...

Please never download driver updates from driver update tools or driver update websites. Download just directly from the hardware and/or laptop/computer manufacturers

ionic prism Apr 8, 2025, 10:01 PM

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Never done this, I used nvidia and amd drivers directly

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and windows update for the rest

agile tendon Apr 8, 2025, 10:02 PM

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ionic prism Never done this, I used nvidia and amd drivers directly

What driver updates did you mess up then? You can use DDU to fully uninstall GPU drivers if they are borked; https://www.guru3d.com/download/display-driver-uninstaller-download/

www.guru3d.com

Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) download version 18.1.0.0

Download Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) - Remove AMD/NVIDIA/INTEL Graphics Drivers Cleanly - DDU is a driver removal utility that helps you completely uninstall AMD/NVIDIA graphics card drivers and packages from your system, leaving no leftovers behind, including registry keys, folders, files, and driver store.

ionic prism Apr 8, 2025, 10:04 PM

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I had issues with my screens not being able to turn back on after they went standby

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and my system was generally getting unreliable, had to let my laptop fail booting 3 times to enter recovery and then after re-trying it succeded

agile tendon Apr 8, 2025, 10:08 PM

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ionic prism I had issues with my screens not being able to turn back on after they went stan...

Yeah, then DDU might have helped, but this is to my knowledge also a known issue with recent Nvidia drivers

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But also.... why use standby nowadays haha?

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Windows boots so freaking fast

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I haven't been using it for over 10 years

ionic prism Apr 8, 2025, 10:16 PM

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I let my screens go off only

agile tendon Apr 8, 2025, 10:22 PM

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ahhh

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Well, you'll see if that is really fixed now then

agile tendon Apr 11, 2025, 2:14 PM

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ionic prism Haven't been with my friend yet

Status update? 😛

ionic prism Apr 11, 2025, 2:16 PM

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Still haven't been with him

agile tendon Apr 11, 2025, 2:17 PM

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ionic prism Still haven't been with him

Am I allowed to blame your friend for this?

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Can I eviscerate him? 😈

haughty gulchBOT Apr 11, 2025, 2:18 PM

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GG @agile tendon, you just advanced to level 26!

agile tendon Apr 11, 2025, 2:19 PM

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haughty gulch GG <@719649785388335164>, you just advanced to level 26!

https://tenor.com/view/avengers-ultron-attack-superpower-power-gif-5095638

Tenor

ionic prism Apr 11, 2025, 2:20 PM

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ye since we work different shifts its quite difficult to meet up

agile tendon Apr 11, 2025, 2:22 PM

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ionic prism ye since we work different shifts its quite difficult to meet up

So, I'll blame the job then 😛

agile tendon Apr 23, 2025, 12:32 PM

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Have an update? @ionic prism

ionic prism Apr 23, 2025, 2:31 PM

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Not reall

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Been quite busy atm

ionic prism Apr 24, 2025, 4:34 AM

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Just checked, last time he messaged me was Apr 18 😄

agile tendon Apr 24, 2025, 9:40 AM

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ionic prism Just checked, last time he messaged me was Apr 18 😄

Wake him from his slumber, General 😛

agile tendon May 14, 2025, 1:19 PM

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@ionic prism Any update?

ionic prism May 14, 2025, 1:40 PM

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No sadly gotta talk to him soon

agile tendon May 14, 2025, 1:43 PM

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Ok, will leave this still open then haha

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We are going for a record here on how long we can keep a topic open haha

ionic prism May 14, 2025, 3:56 PM

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Ye 😀

haughty gulchBOT May 14, 2025, 3:56 PM

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GG @ionic prism, you just advanced to level 5!

celest hemlock May 19, 2025, 6:55 PM

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same probs..

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its that right?

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agile tendon May 19, 2025, 7:25 PM

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celest hemlock

Where did you set this up?

agile tendon May 19, 2025, 7:25 PM

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celest hemlock

Can you remove the port number value there?

celest hemlock May 19, 2025, 7:33 PM

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agile tendon Where did you set this up?

on my router

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fritzbox

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all remove?

agile tendon May 19, 2025, 7:34 PM

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celest hemlock all remove?

No, just the Fritzbox UI is a bit unknown to me haha

celest hemlock May 19, 2025, 7:34 PM

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agile tendon **__Needed By All CnC games__** **TCP:** 4321, 28900, 28910, 29900-29901 **UDP:*...

i take this on my router

agile tendon May 19, 2025, 7:35 PM

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celest hemlock i take this on my router

Don't see the ranged ports

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In you image

celest hemlock May 19, 2025, 7:35 PM

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Do you want to use TeamViewer?

celest hemlock May 19, 2025, 8:42 PM

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We had a different idea.

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we use hamachi

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it works

ionic prism May 19, 2025, 8:47 PM

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Hamachi still exists? 😄

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been a while since last time I heard this 😄

agile tendon May 19, 2025, 8:57 PM

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celest hemlock Do you want to use TeamViewer?

We could do that, but tomorrow then

celest hemlock May 19, 2025, 10:05 PM

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ionic prism Hamachi still exists? 😄

it works great

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https://www.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/comments/1hp8ai1/local_multiplayer/?tl=de

From the commandandconquer community on Reddit

Explore this post and more from the commandandconquer community

agile tendon May 21, 2025, 10:03 AM

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agile tendon We could do that, but tomorrow then

Still want my assistance people? @ionic prism @celest hemlock @quick kite We should really go for a VPN as this is taking far too long to fix. Sorry people. So, say it if you want me to guide you through it

#Cannot connect to other players