MG/Port Forwarding
What is Port Forwarding?
Port Forwarding is a special configuration which you apply to your internet access device (typically a broadband router such as a cable or DSL modem/router) to be able to host Internet services on your own line. Many games require you to setup port forwarding if you would like to host games for other Internet players (you can still take part in games other people host without setting up port forwarding). This page will attempt to provide you with hints on how to setup port forwarding on your own broadband router.
Methods to configure port forwarding
The easy way: UPnP
MegaGlest supports Universal Plug'n'Play (UPnP). If your router supports it (most do) and it is enabled there then you can just start the game and host and all the technical stuff will happen automatically: MegaGlest will instruct your router to forward all required ports to your computer while you are hosting. So for now, just try to host, and see if it already works. If it does not work, yet, saying that your router is not configured properly, then just come back here and read on.
UPnP is supported by most routers, however it is often not activated by default. So you need to reconfigure your router to support UPnP. This is really easy once you made it to access your router. How to do this is explained below. Once you accessed your router, just look for the UPnP option, activate it, save (if needed) and you should be ready to host.
The advanced way: Manual port forwarding
To manually configure your router to work for hosting MegaGlest games, you first need to find out your internal (LAN) IP address. To do so, just run MegaGlest and navigate to the Custom Game menu (which is where you would end up when you wanted to host an Internet game). You may get to see an error message there saying that your router is not properly configured for Internet gaming. However, this page will also list your internal IP address (on the very top). Take note of it and exit MegaGlest.
Next, access your routers' web interface as explained below. Unfortunately there is no unique naming or structure of how the options on your routers' web interface are aligned, so you need to search for the page which allows you to setup port forwarding (AKA Internet services). Specifically, you need to forward the external ports 61357 to 61366 of protocol / type TCP to the internal ports 61357 to 61366 on your computers' LAN IP address, that's the IP address you just noted down in the previous step. Once this is set, you should be able to host games.
However, the IP address your router assigns to your computer in your LAN may change when you reboot your computer or router. If you want your router to always assign the same internal (LAN) IP address to your computer, then you need to exempt your computer from having IP addresses automatically assigned to it, and assign it a static IP address instead. This is often done in a DHCP or LAN or Local Network section of the routers' web interface. There, you usually assign an address range which defines IP addresses which the router automatically assigns to computers in your LAN.
If your computer is listed there (often with its MAC address, looking somewhat like 1A:2B:3C:4D:5E:6F) and you can assign a fixed address to it, then do so, picking an IP address which is outside of the DHCP range. For example, if the DHCP range is 192.168.10.50 to 192.168.10.100, then you can use the 192.168.10.101 address for static IP address assignment to your computer.
If your computer is not listed there, then you will probably need to configure, on your own computer, the network interface to use a fixed IP address, picking any IP address which is outside of the DHCP range listed on the routers' web interface.
Router Specific Instructions
There are sooo many routers out there and unfortunately their configuration websites can look very different. Luckily there is portforward.com, a very helpful website which explains how to configure port forwarding on many different routers. Follow the instructions provided there to find your way along your routers' web interface. Once you found the port forwarding section, use the instructions provided in the Manual port forwarding section above to configure it properly.
The MegaGlest community also provides some documentation on how to set up specific routers to host games online. You are very welcome to add your own guide.
How to access your router
Most routers provide a web configuration interface (a website) which you can access from your web browser (such as Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Internet Explorer or Safari). The exact Internet address of your router can differ, though, so you need to find this out first.
On Windows
- Open the Windows Start menu in the task bar
- Search for
cmdor, on Windows XP, click on Run, then entercmd. A command line window will show up. - Type
ipconfigand press Enter. - Look for lines starting with Default Gateway. There can be more than one, but only one will have a dotted quad at the end of the line - this is your routers' IP address
- Start your web browser and enter your routers' IP address, optionally prefixed with http://, into the address bar. For example: http://192.168.1.1 (if your routers' IP address was 192.168.1.1). You should then get to see either a login prompt or the web configuration of your router already.
- If you need to login, use the credentials you set yourself when you first configured your router. If you never did this, then your router may still be using its default factory-set credentials. If that's the case then note down the brand and model (e.g. brand: Linksys, model: WRT54GL) from the web config (it is usually listed there either on the page itself or in the web browsers' title bar) and look up the default credentials.
For a graphical guide, refer to: hacker10.com: How to find out your router IP address in Windows
On Linux
- Open a terminal window (the exact process differs by Linux distribution and window manager/Desktop - consult with your distribution for precise instructions)
- Type this and press enter:
ip route show | awk '/^default/ {print $3}'(don't miss those quotation marks). What you get in return is your routers' IP address. - Start your web browser and enter your routers' IP address, optionally prefixed with http://, into the address bar. For example: http://192.168.1.1 (if your routers' IP address was 192.168.1.1). You should then get to see either a login prompt or the web configuration of your router already.
- If you need to login, use the credentials you set yourself when you first configured your router. If you never did this, then your router may still be using its default factory-set credentials. If that's the case then note down the brand and model (e.g. brand: Linksys, model: WRT54GL) from the web config (it is usually listed there either on the page itself or in the web browsers' title bar) and look up the default credentials.