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I am having issues with a specific game regarding restrictive NAT. The game is AOE online. When I try to play online matches I get a message regarding having a restrictive NAT and can not play. I have read the following instructions: here.. I do not know if I am able to port forward specific ports as both PC's listed below are looking to play this game on the same network.

My set-up at home is as follows:

Router1 (Netopia 2247-02)

  • Connected to internet directly (ADSL)
  • IP: 192.168.1.1
  • DHCP: ON - from 192.168.1.11 to 192.168.1.25
  • UPnP: ON
  • Firewall: OFF

Router2 (Linksys WRT54g - DD-WRT v24 RC-5 (11/22/07) micro)

  • Connected to Router1 via LAN.
  • IP: 192.168.1.2
  • DHCP: OFF
  • UPnP: ON
  • Firewall: OFF

PC1

  • IP: Static - 192.168.1.10
  • Connected to Router2 via LAN.

PC2

  • IP: Dynamic - coming from Router1 - 192.168.1.20
  • Connected to Router2 via LAN.

What can I do to remove this restrictive NAT issue when I have two PC's trying to play the same game on the same network/router?

Thanks in advance.

Update

If I connect PC1 directly to Router1 and port forward to that IP address i.e. 192.168.1.10 it does work.

Network Diagram

enter image description here

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18
  • You might want to add Router2 to the DMZ in Router1, so you only have one level of NAT (is there a a reason you need NAT and DHCP on Router1?)
    – user55325
    Commented Dec 22, 2012 at 18:15
  • I added Router2 as static NAT on Router1 (There is no DMZ option from what I can tell on that router). There is a third and fourth PC connecting to Router1 so I left DHCP on that as they aren't connecting to Router2 and have dynamic IPs.
    – Seany84
    Commented Dec 22, 2012 at 19:29
  • What is the routing mode on Router 2? It should be bridge mode.
    – John Siu
    Commented Jan 6, 2013 at 6:43
  • Have you opened the 7 ports as described in this article?
    – harrymc
    Commented Jan 6, 2013 at 8:28
  • @JohnSiu Router2 is in bridge mode.
    – Seany84
    Commented Jan 6, 2013 at 13:42

2 Answers 2

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+50

I think that you will need to change some ports on one of the computers so you could port-forward these changed ports to that computer. The options I see are:

  1. Use Port triggering rather than forwarding, if supported by the Netopia
  2. Use a VPN service that allows port-forwarding
  3. Change the ports for Games for Windows Live, as described in the Port override section.
    To summarize: Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Software\Microsoft\XLive, new DWORD LivePortOverride with value between 5000 and 65535.

I believe that UPnP should stay enabled on your router.

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2
  • I like the look of point 3. I have created a registry entry,LivePortOverride, on PC1 - value: 5050. What should my next steps be? Should UPnP be enabled on Router1 or Router2 or both? thanks a lot
    – Seany84
    Commented Jan 7, 2013 at 20:12
  • I went with option 3 and changed the port it runs on my machine. This works on my machine at least as I haven't been able to do it on the other PC yet (room-mates PC). All I need to do is set it up on the other PC and it should be sorted. Thanks
    – Seany84
    Commented Jan 10, 2013 at 2:54
0

Try disabling UPnP on router 2. I used a similar setup and had to disable ALL active functions of the second router to successfully do what you are doing (use the second router as an unmanaged switch).

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1
  • Still getting a restrictive NAT message when UPNP is disabled on Router2.
    – Seany84
    Commented Jan 6, 2013 at 5:29

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