I know this has been asked MILLIONS of times but...

[SlayerofMoose]

Ok, my friends and I have been trying to get a large scale KaM multiplayer battle going but we can only host a good one on a LAN, and every time we try a Hamaci match we get a "network error". I had read that Real Hotdog and I think Knightoftruth have played several matches via Hamachi so there must be something I'm doing wrong, I thought forwarding ports might help, but I really have no clue as to what port to forward so...any help? This is so frustrating :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

*edit* Just so you know, we've tried hamachi, we've tried whatismyip.com, we've tried it with and without firewalls, we've even tried it upside down patting our heads and rubbing our tummies while eating applesauce but none of these seemed to work we really thought the last one would work too

[The Dark Lord]

There are some errors with the newest version of Hamachi. You should try an older one, like 1.0.1.1. or so.
The problems with the newest version I have are:

-Sometimes you can't see the game which has been made by an other player.
-The ''real'' local network doesn't work anymore (also sometimes).

[Litude]

Uh, I don't know from where you got the idea that me and Knightoftruth were playing the game using Hamachi. As TDL just said, I've read that it isn't all too god for playing KaM online. Haven't tried it personally though. The games i played against Knightoftruth were all played by using direct IP connecting.

[SlayerofMoose]

Ahh ok well I read that you and Knights played a game in the "Hamachi" thread so I just assumed you guys used that. But we've tried direct IP connecting as well and we can get INTO the game but when it starts, the game either freezes or we get a network error and basically have to quit. We're using SR 2 for TPR so we don't have different patches, I'll just try an older hamachi for now.

[Litude]

Oh that is a soo familiar problem and it occurs almost 90% of the time. The only possible solution at this point seems to be to just try again and again until it works.
Knightoftruth did say that he installed the DirectPlay version included on the KaM CD and that was the reason why it began working, don't know if it was that but if nothing else seems to do it you could always try.

[Categoricus]

Could any of you describe me how to set up a Direct IP connection? Thanks in advance.

One more thing: What is IPX connection? Every time I chose it just out of interest, the KaM application terminated immediately.

[Juba]

Well, I don't know how to do those things but I guess you should take a look here, there could be some useful information (dunno if it helps you but there's at least a guide how to set up a dynamic IP address which you'll need).

I guess I should try Hamachi btw, haven't tested it before...

[Litude]

I'm not too knowledgeable in the subject but IPX is what was used instead of TCP/IP in the DOS days. It has pretty much remained from those days until now, though Microsoft has already started phasing out IPX support from Windows Vista onwards so I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work correctly in Windows XP either.

If you have no firewall/router blocking the game's access to the internet, setting up a game with Direct IP connection is very easy. You just have to decide who the host is (the one who creates the game), and then the host has to give his IP address to the players who are going to join the game. You can get your IP from e.g. www.whatismyip.com.

Just give it to your friends that you want to play with and when they choose to join a game (using TCP/IP, of course) they just write your IP address when asked for it.

[FallenLeader]

ipx is what i've read to be the only successful way of connecting Age of Empire games over a LAN.

hamachi i've always been told it causes great lag.
does gamespy or gameranger support KaM?

[Litude]

I haven't managed to find a single gaming server client or whatever they call those that supports Knights and Merchants. There was once a Chinese fan of KaM who contacted me about the game and told they had some kind of matchmaking service there that supported it but I doubt it would be helpful. Not that I even remember the name of it.

[Categoricus]

Well today I changed my mind and tried WinE under Ubuntu 9.10. TPR got properly installed, sound was OK, game loading was more faster than on Windows but I couldn't set my graphic resolution over 1024?768 in the game although I've been using higher on Linux.
When I started multiplayer mode and clicked on Create or Join (I didn't really wanna join just try how this function works) application crashed, both using IPX and IP.
Installation of Hamachi also failed as setup couldn't configure the virtual Hamachi network interface, I really don't have a clue how WinE supports network, even the control panel.
TSK I haven't tried to install after all, I got fed up with WinE.

[FallenLeader]

http://www.gameranger.com/games/

it says it does kam tpr, not sure how good it is but it's advertized as not needing any port config.

[Litude]

@Gyula: I read Wine doesn't support DirectPlay at all (it's what both TSK and TPR use for multiplayer) and for me the list where you are supposed to choose the connection types are completely empty. I guess you installed DirectPlay manually, or?

@FallenLeader: Interesting, I'll have to give it a look.

[Categoricus]

for me the list where you are supposed to choose the connection types are completely empty.

For me it was complete. By the way, I only wanted to enter the game creating menu, not to really make a session, as I failed to configure Hamachi on WinE.

I guess you installed DirectPlay manually, or?

I didn't even give a try to this because I didn't know it wasn't not supported.
Now I'm about to install my Windows XP onto my other hard disk and will surely take a look at setting up a direct IP connection, too.

[Juba]

Well, I've never played anythng with Diretc IP connection but many routers have firewall enabled which blocks all ports by default. That's why many players fail to use Direct IP connection when they're trying to play games over internet. Unfortunately portforward.com's list doesn't contain KaM port numbers.

Hmm, that GameRanger looks promising....