Im turning to the MMORPG.com community for help with this issue, as the official 'help' just seems content to email me 'cut and paste' replies that have very little relavence to my specific problem.

Myself and my son play MMO's together, via 2 PC's and a router (Sweex RO002) attached to my Virgin Media set-top box. We both thought of returning to CoX to test out the recent content changes and got ourselves a couple of trial accounts.

With both machines fired up through the router we find we cannot 'zone' any of our characters, log in -YES, select a char - YES. Actually play? - NO.

If i take the router out of the equation and hook up one machine direct, all works well. So the problem as i see it, is the router. Using one machine only I have forwarded the ports required by CoH, still no joy. I then used the DMZ route (allowing all traffic to the one computer), still no result.

We have played EQ, EQ2, DDO and LoTRO all with the same machines and router without a single problem.

What the hell is going on?

Any help/advice would be appreciated!

Originally posted by Tamalan

Im turning to the MMORPG.com community for help with this issue, as the official 'help' just seems content to email me 'cut and paste' replies that have very little relavence to my specific problem.

Myself and my son play MMO's together, via 2 PC's and a router (Sweex RO002) attached to my Virgin Media set-top box. We both thought of returning to CoX to test out the recent content changes and got ourselves a couple of trial accounts.

With both machines fired up through the router we find we cannot 'zone' any of our characters, log in -YES, select a char - YES. Actually play? - NO.

If i take the router out of the equation and hook up one machine direct, all works well. So the problem as i see it, is the router. Using one machine only I have forwarded the ports required by CoH, still no joy. I then used the DMZ route (allowing all traffic to the one computer), still no result.

We have played EQ, EQ2, DDO and LoTRO all with the same machines and router without a single problem.

What the hell is going on?

Any help/advice would be appreciated!

Well, I guess the first question would be...sure, everything works fine for one computer without the router, but does it work with one computer through the router?  It may not be an issue of two machines but just the router itself.

Originally posted by therain93

Originally posted by Tamalan

Using one machine only I have forwarded the ports required by CoH, still no joy. I then used the DMZ route (allowing all traffic to the one computer), still no result.

Well, I guess the first question would be...sure, everything works fine for one computer without the router, but does it work with one computer through the router?  It may not be an issue of two machines but just the router itself.

I stated i have tried just one machine with the router, and yes it is obvious it is a problem with the router.

But whats the solution? and no 'buy a new router' will not be accepted at this moment in time, as i said in my OP, the same set-up has worked just fine in many other online games. Ill be buggered if im going to buy a new router just for CoH/CoX :P

Originally posted by Tamalan

Originally posted by therain93

Originally posted by Tamalan

Using one machine only I have forwarded the ports required by CoH, still no joy. I then used the DMZ route (allowing all traffic to the one computer), still no result.

Well, I guess the first question would be...sure, everything works fine for one computer without the router, but does it work with one computer through the router?  It may not be an issue of two machines but just the router itself.

I stated i have tried just one machine with the router, and yes it is obvious it is a problem with the router.

But whats the solution? and no 'buy a new router' will not be accepted at this moment in time, as i said in my OP, the same set-up has worked just fine in many other online games. Ill be buggered if im going to buy a new router just for CoH/CoX :P

Sorry, I clearly missed those two sentences after  ( ' :

The fact that a single machine won't work on the DMZ is odd.  I'm assuming you recycled after making those changes.  You could check out portforward.com -- the Sweex R0OO1 is listed but not the 2.  Still, their forums may be a better spot for this topic.

Sorry and good luck.

Edit 1:  if it's not too inconvenient, you could also start with a clean slate by reverting to factory settings on the off chance you've set something that CoX clearly doesn't like.

Edit 2:  On the off chance you didn't set all the ports...they are:

All of these ports:
TCP 2104
TCP 2106
UDP 7000-7100

One of the following ports:
TCP 6994 or TCP 13094 or TCP 23094

Short update to this, even if i can get the one comp running behind a router, any ports cleared/DMZ enabling to make this necessary will only apply to one machine, so it looks like getting two comps running at the same time will be an impossibility.

Looks like CoH is about to lose two re-subs, every other game seems to be able to handle this, shame NCSoft cant pull their finger out.

If i sound bitter and pissed off, its because I am :D

If anyone has a solution to this, or is able to run 2 CoH/CoV accounts from the same location, PLEASE post and let me know the secret.

Currently a very disapointed Father and Son superhero duo

Interesting.

With the computer connected directly, open a Command Prompt box and type in:

ipconfig /all

paste what you get here.

Then do the same thing with one (or both) machines behind the router. We need to see how the router is treating your machines.

I'm not familiar with VM boxes. It's basically serving as a cable modem here, and should be passing the assigned IP to the router (which assigns internal IPs to your machines). It's possible Virgin works it differently, in which case I'm not certain.

If you haven't yet, also try posting in the official forums:
http://uk.boards.cityofheroes.com/postlist.php?Cat=0&Board=TechnicalUK

I don't know the UK ones firsthand, but in the US the support quality tends to be very good. If there's something special about the way zone loading finishes, someone there should know.

By the way, shut down that DMZ. Since you always initiate a game by the client side, there's no need for port forwarding. (Port Forwarding would be if CoH called you up for a game, so your router knew which machine to send them too.)

Without a purpose, keeping a DMZ is basically the opposite of having a firewall, sending all traffic on the express lane to your machine.

Results of ipconfig/all without router:

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : xxxxxxxx (the whole of the net doesnt need to know my machine name :P)
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit E
thernet NIC
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1D-92-73-3A-XX (or my MAC no. :))
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 82.8.44.129
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.252.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 82.8.44.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.185.18.130
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 194.168.4.100
                                            194.168.8.100
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 13 June 2008 13:37:18
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 20 June 2008 13:20:05

Results with Router:

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : xxxxxxxx
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit E
thernet NIC
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1D-92-73-3A-XX
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.22.4
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.22.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.22.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.22.1
                                            194.109.9.99
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 13 June 2008 13:44:17
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 14 June 2008 13:44:17

Clear as mud to me :)

Any input gladly welcome!

Incidentally, as stated in my OP I have no problems 2 boxing any other games, just seems to be CoX that gets all upset. Bloody annoying.

Further update, grabbed the NCSoft Net Info Tool, ran it without router, all checks out. With the router it wont return the pings for the route tracer. Went into router set-up, made sure Allow WAN Ping was enabled and ran it again. No change whatsoever!

There is something not right here, just wish i knew what was!

Big thank you to those that replied offering advice, still havnt sorted the router problem but found a workaround by sharing the net connection directly from one machine to another, took the router out of the equation completely.

Works like a charrm :)

See you in Paragon City!