UPnP Support

[thygrrr]

The lobby now has UPnP support in the "Options->Settings->Game Port..." menu.

Please feel free to try it if you are having connection issues and tell me how it works out for you.

Conversely: DON'T TRY IT if you can connect to games and host games and aren't getting nil pings / red pings to people. Your connection is most likely fine.

Note: If you use UPnP, it's probably a bad idea to also use forwarded ports at the same time (especially if these ports are the same as the one you use for UPnP).

[thygrrr]

If you get a crash on shutdown or before the game launches, it's mostly related to an error in win32com, meaning the UPnP feature can't work on your PC (usually UPnP is disabled or you're using a nonstandard firewall etc.)

It shouldn't be much of an issue. I'll add code that detects this inability at some time and will offer you to deactivate the option accordingly.

[thygrrr]

I noticed UPnP is not working for quite a few people who try it. That is because their firewalls are not configured properly, or because their accounts have very limited access to the firewall controls. However, on a normal Windows 7 Home, with a default user account (not administrator), UPnP should work fine as it is. It also works on my Win 7 Pro machine, and has reportedly worked on Windows XP.

One right way to do that is to have the Windows Firewall turned ON and running with recommended settings. If you mess with your firewall settings, chances are you've turned Windows' UPnP support off entirely.

Also, if your computer has two network interfaces that are both connected (e.g. a PC with an Ethernet cable and a WLAN connection), UPnP can't work and thus selecting the option won't help either (I'm searching for a workaround there, but I think it's a design flaw in Windows' NATUPnP implementation).

I have a bunch of ideas but the whole feature will have to stay experimental for a while. The problem is, it's impossible to autodetect what users need, and the more options I give them, the more they are going to screw up. Even worse, I've seen people who were able to play PERFECTLY screw up their settings by turning on UPnP (which then makes their router trip over its own, perfectly set up port forwardings or NAT tables).

Why? Whyyyyy? Don't try to fix anything if it ain't broke, people. Seriously.

[Ze_PilOt]

On some occasions, it seems that a "correctly" fordwarded 6112 port isn't working with FA.

In these cases, using put a complete random port (12345 for exemple) and uPnP solved the problem.

[Sandra_]

I found a nice Video for the settings to do a port forwarding with a Belkin Router:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgSVzp3c6ZM

[Gyle]

Gotta say i have had two peeps now who have had connection problems. One of them the port forwarding didn't work either. Tried the UPnP thing and Boom! Good job Technical peeps.

[pip]

I used it too and it works great.

[Helcaraxe]

Anothern plug for this - before using it, ~40% of players couldn't connect to my games. Since I enabled it, I haven't experienced a single instance of the problem. Many thanks, thygrrr.

[Kof]

I was using port forwarding and this was working fine and one day (no other changes made to the PC) I started experiencing connection issues. I couldn't connect to most people in FAF - some I could fine, most wouldn't connect. I could create games (and join some games) but wouldn't connect to some or most people in the game lobby. I tried setting up my IP as a DMZ on the router (and restarted the router and PC) but this wouldn't work either. So I enabled uPnP in FAF - this wouldn't work either.

Sad an dejected, I logged into my router and went to the advanced section and saw an option "enable uPnP", I said to myself, "Fuggit sure we'll tick that checkbox and see how we go". One reboot of the router and PC and connection issues are a thing of the past. There may well be a God after all. I'm sure she's a very nice diety.

Just thought I'd share that

Now I'm off to find a game in the lobby. C ya.