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Whoopy-Cat Silent Dude
Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 11 Location: Iowa, USA
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Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 5:29 am Post subject: Thanks, LION!!!!!!!!!! Great Information! |
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UPDATE: Whoopy-Cat Celebrates!
I can�t believe it. I finally got my server to work! I am stunned ... simply STUNNED!
I�ve been trying to run TacOps as a server for literally MONTHS now. Lion has tried to help me; Slam has tried to help me; Nose has tried to help me; Bam and Bl@de have tried to help me; Ste/\lt}{ has tried to help me ... countless others have tried to help me figure it out, but it has never resulted in a server anyone can see on the list of Internet Games.
I can�t count how many people I�ve talked to... how many sites I�ve gone to... how many forums I�ve visited... how many pages I�ve read... how many Google searches I�ve performed trying to find the answer to why my TO server wouldn�t appear on the Internet Servers list. But I just kept trying. And my friends (those mentioned above: Lion, Nose, Bam, etc.) just kept on trying to help me figure it out � no matter how many times I continued to fail!
Then, last night, as I was messing around with my settings (for the eighteen trillionth time!), when I suddenly noticed that my server was magically appearing among those listed on the Internet Games tab in my TacOps game!!! I ran off and found <The_Player>Dragon (�Pyro�) and he came and easily found and joined my server and said there was absolutely no lag. While we blasted some bots several other people came and left at various points in time.
Angel and Junior were both in bed so they couldn�t share in my jubilation until morning, but I danced a jig in private anyway. That also means there might be more problem with pings and lag when we�re all three sharing the DSL connection at the same time. But at least I got it working! And that makes me happy!!
For those of you wondering what mystical thing I did to make it work, I�m afraid I can�t say. I did too many things to say for sure what step was �the magic ticket� that suddenly made everything come together for me. But I can tell you a few things that definitely did and didn�t work...
The information at PortForwarding.com is WRONG! It is NOT Ports 7777, 8777, 9777, and 27900 that need to be opened for UnrealTournament Servers. Rather, it�s Ports 7777, 7778, and 7779, and possibly 27900 and Port 80 that need to be opened. I was a bit dubious of that site�s information since many places spoke of ports 7778 and 7779 (NOT 8777 and 9777 as PortForwarding.com states), so I nearly changed the Master Server Uplink port in my server�s Advanced Options (which had been set to 27900), but at the last second, I thought better of it and left it set at 27900, thinking I could always change it later if needed. That almost-change was the last thing I did (or... I should say, it was the last thing I almost did) before I found my server appear on the list.
I�m using a D-Link Di-524 router, and Lion (as well as Nose and several others) had sent me to a number of pages that gave me some very specific help for that router. I set up �Virtual Servers� for Ports 7777, 7778, 7779, 27900, and port 80, on both TCP and UDP.
My server did not show up on the list when I used Portforwarding.com�s recommendations (ports 7777, 8777, 9777 + 27900), nor did it show up when I only had ports 7777, 7778, and 7779 open. I had to set up virtual servers on both port 80 and on 27900 before my server would show up on the list. I also had to reboot my router for the settings to take effect.
I run ZoneLabs� ZoneAlarm Pro firewall. For many years I have used ZoneLabs� free ZoneAlarm firewall and have found it to be a GREAT app! But one thing it won�t allow you to do is to change settings for individual ports. To block or allow access to individual ports you must have ZAPro. So I bought the $40/year Pro version, and that allowed me to set Ports 7777, 7778, 7779, 27900, and port 80 as �allowed� for outside users on both TCP and UDP protocols, both incoming and outgoing.
Lastly, I made the necessary changes in the o/s. I use WinXP-Pro. I don�t know if this is necessary or not, but I know that my server did not show up on the list when I only made the changes to my router and to ZoneAlarm. I had to also make these additions within Windows before my server finally appeared on the server list within TacOps...
In my particular case, there are two �Internet Connection� icons in my Networks folder (Control Panel ->Network Connections): First there is a �LAN/High-Speed Internet� or �Local Area Connection� icon; then there is also an �Internet Gateway� or �Internet Connection� icon. They are completely different!!
The VERY FIRST STEP I performed (even before setting up the router or firewall) was to establish a Static I.P. for my computer. I did this by running ipconfig.exe, figuring out my current I.P., default gateway, and DNS servers. Then I went into the Properties of the �LAN Connection� and changes from �automatic� to �static� and entering the info from ipconfig into the appropriate boxes. This gave me a static IP addy which I used for all the following steps in my router�s virtual servers, my firewall rules, and in my TacOps server�s Advanced Options settings. This is, of course, the Internal IP Address of my individual computer, so that my router will know which computer to send requests to and such. My external IP is that of my router itself.
The very last step I performed (although I doubt it has to be done last ) was to add UDP services to the various ports I opened in my router and allowed through my firewall. I did this by selecting the Properties of my �Internet Gateway� connection within my Network Connections in my Control Panel and Adding a service for UDP port 80, 7777, 7778, 7779, and 27900, each using my computer�s new Static IP address.
After this last step: BINGO!!! ...my server suddenly showed up! Not only were people able to join, but, much to my great amazement, I was even able to see it (and join it!!) on the regular Internet Games tab in TacOps!!! I expected to only see it in the LAN tab and thought I would have to wait for someone to join before I would know if it had worked or not. But as soon as I saw it on the Internet Games list I knew something different had happened this time! Sure enough, people were able to join and play!
Now, I do still have some issues to work out. I have a really STUPID and clunky GUI interface that shows up when I join (like the nUTS server has � similar to the old-style U.T. keybinding/map-voting thing) and at the beginning of every map. And the scoreboard is a real mess! The columns are HORRIBLE! You can hardly read them! But I hope someone can help me fix those problems soon.
Another real concern is that, as soon as I leave the game, if no one else is playing on the server, the game seems to crash when it tries to change maps. It seems to run fine until it comes to a map change. I always open a 2nd TacOps to play (since the server version is Dedicated), and if I�m not there when the map changes, I can�t re-enter the game; I must shut down the server and restart it. It seems to work okay if someone else is there playing. But if no live humans are there � only bots � then it crashes at map-change time. This seems odd. But, again, I hope someone knows why this happens and can help me fix it.
When I finally get all these things figured out, if pings aren�t too bad and if people come to play 3.3.2, I�ll dedicate a whole machine to it. I have a 1.7GHz Pentium4 sitting here with nothing better to do, just waiting to be used as a dedicated TacOps server here in the United States. I sure would love to try and revive TO-332 among the U.S. players. I love playing with my friends from around the world, but there are just too few servers that are up and running on a regular basis nowadays, especially if the Leikke�s are gone forever, as it seems they might be. (I hope they come back!)
Well, anyway, I just wanted to update you on my progress and let you know that I finally achieved what seemed like an impossible task. And I wanted to give SPECIAL THANKS to Lion and RedNose and all of you who have helped me and given me encouragement along the way! I am so grateful to you, my friends!!! Thanks for all your help and support in getting this up and running!
And I want to encourage the rest of you who are still struggling to get your servers to show up on the Internet Games list � DON�T GIVE UP!!!! It CAN Work! I�m proof of that! And I�m an idiot! hee hee hee! Good luck to you! And if I can be of any assistance to you, just give me an e-mail at whoopy-cat{at}whoopy-cat{dot}com. I�d be happy to (try and) help.
Whoopy-Cat _________________ ~ Joel ~
whoopycat
veni - vidi - vvhoopi ... {I came - I saw - I ... got fragged ... again} :-/ *sigh* ~LOL~ |
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