There have been many posts discussing how to troubleshoot connection issues with Sins. Many people are reporting connectivity problems, usually relating to the inability to host or stay connected to Ironclad Online reliably.
Most of these issues can be resolved by correctly configuring your firewall. This post is different from other "guides" already posted in that I recommend you do not use a software firewall and that you actually follow the recommendations of the developers. Here is a simple step-by-step:
For people with a hardware firewall (i.e. Linksys, DLink, Netgear, Belkin boxes):1- You need to identify your device. Look on the box for the model number. Some devices not only have a model number but also a version number (Linksys especially). An example with Linksys might be WRT54GS v7.
2a- Use PortForward.com's wonderful
Router Guides to help you configure your specific device. Simply choose your router model and then choose the game from the list. Sins isn't on the list yet, but I've requested that it be added. Until they add the game, you can simply click on the Default Guide link for your model which will guide you to the step where you add the port for Sins. In the case of Sins adding the port is very simple because it's just a single TCP port - TCP 6112. There are no other ports to open, see the
FAQ. You will simply forward the port to your gaming computer's internal IP address - usually something like 192.168.1.100. You can check your internal IP address by clicking Start>Run and type "cmd" without the quotes and click OK. Then type "ipconfig" without the quotes and hit Enter. The IP address is what you're looking for (IPv4 in Vista). It's better to setup a static IP so it doesn't change and PortForward.com has written excellent guides for this for
Windows XP and
Windows Vista.
2b- Soon
PFConfig from PortForward.com will have Sins in its game list. When it does that will be another, slightly easier method to configure your device. You can download and run it for free, even though it prompts you to enter a license key that you can click cancel to get through. This program will automatically determine your IP address for you so you don't have to find it yourself as described above. It's better to setup a static IP so it doesn't change and PortForward.com has written excellent guides for this for
Windows XP and
Windows Vista.
For people with a software firewall (i.e. Windows Firewall, ZoneAlarm, Norton, etc):Note: I recommend uninstalling your software firewall and using a hardware firewall. It is my experience and the general feeling of the industry that hardware firewalls are both more reliable and fully featured than almost any consumer level software firewall. Running a software firewall not only takes more of your time to configure (constant lame pop-ups), but also gobbles up resources on the very computer you're trying to play on! Windows Firewall is
especially bad, since it has known security issues and doesn't even inspect outbound packets. If you insist on running a software firewall at least use something halfway decent like
ZoneAlarm Pro. Windows firewall should be disabled completely in my opinion (if you have another hardware or software firewall), as it just uses up resources better allocated to Sins! To completely disable Windows Firewall in Windows XP/Vista, Click Start>Run, type "services.msc" without the quotes and click OK. Scroll down to the Windows Firewall service and double click it. Click "Stop" and change "Startup Type" to Disabled. Click OK.
1- There is no site like PortForward.com for software firewalls that I am aware of. Each company makes their own step-by-step documents however, and you should be able to find them on their support sites. In some software firewalls opening the port is very easy, in other it can be quite tedious. Refer to your software documentation for exact instructions, but basically you just open TCP port 6112 for Sins. Some programs also require that you allow traffic to the game executable as well. Most programs will prompt you when you try to run your game or connect online - admittedly a tedious process.
A few additional thoughts:-You don't need to enable, disable, or modify any NAT (Network Address Translation) settings in your Firewall or router. Sins and most modern PC games don't care if you are behind a firewall on a private internal network, as long as you forward the port(s) to your PC.
-Don't disable UPnP (Universal Plug n Play) on your firewall/router or PC. Stardock specifically says in the
FAQ to leave this enabled.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to post them below.