Steve, Matt ANYONE...........

[Cauldron]

Sir(s),

I have been playing CM for some time and have recently changed to XP.

I am presently playing a CMMC game which will require TCP in order to complete sometime this century.

I cannot get a connection to work either from A- B or from B-A. In both cases I get cannot establish connection.

I really need this to start working, and I would like some assistance in this.

Thank you

Eric Ferguson

[Soddball]

Sounds like XP's built in firewall has kicked in.

[Schrullenhaft]

I posted this in your other thread that you abandoned:

Is your opponent on the same LAN as you or is he over the Internet ? Are you using some sort of NAT/Proxy/Firewall hardware on your Internet connection ? The reason that there aren't any instructions on unblocking the port for CM is that there is nothing in CM that can be changed... it is the hardware/software for your internet connection hardware that needs configuring and there are too many possibilities to attempt to document.

IP Port 7023 is what needs to be unblocked in order to play CM over a network/Internet. This might be blocked by default depending on the configuration of your internet hardware (a very 'secure' setting may default to blocking it).

Were you hooking up with TCP/IP before you upgraded to XP ? I'm not aware of XP having a 'built in firewall', but then again I haven't really examined that OS in depth.

Actually there is an 'Internet Connection Firewall' feature that is built into Windows XP. Here's a Microsoft Support document about opening IP Ports for programs if you have it enabled (the whole 'feature' can be disabled).

[ May 06, 2002, 04:49 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Cauldron]

http://www.edpsciences.com/htbin/ipaddress

This is the link I use to find my IP address.

I do not have the firewall feature enabled.

eric

[Schrullenhaft]

So the question still is, where is your opponent (on the Internet or a local LAN) and what hardware do you use to connect to the Internet ?

[Cauldron]

I have a P&A Technology 56 K modem. It has worked with everything but CM.

I am sure the other end is also a 56K but will check.

I am not sure what other hardware you mean, my comp and its components are less than 3 years old.

eric

[Schrullenhaft]

Then you're attempting to hook up with someone over the Internet via a standard analog modem. So most networking issues won't apply here. Do you know if you're using a software firewall like ZoneAlarm or something else that protects you from hackers ?

If you're not, then there is something up with your ISP. Port 7023 shouldn't be blocked on your computer if you're not using a firewall (or some sort of connection software that might have built-in protection, like AOL).

Are you saying that you've never been able to conduct a TCP/IP game with CMBO or that you haven't been able to since you've upgraded to XP ?

[ May 08, 2002, 01:15 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Cauldron]

The latter.

I have even tried making a new "Network Place".

[Schrullenhaft]

You may want to bump your original thread in the future rather than starting another thread about the same problem. That way people don't have to ask you the same questions over again and they can see what suggestions have already been made.

The biggest difference between XP and 9x/ME for dial-up is the addition of the Internet Connection Firewall feature. This will get automatically enabled (for a dialup connection) if you have a broadband/permanent connection (which you don't). I can't remember if I posted this exact thread earlier for you or not, but here's the sequence for enabling/disabling the XP firewall.

So a sequence of events for you when you're hosting is to:

1) Connect to your ISP via a dialup shortcut (assuming that you're not using a proprietary client to make the connection; i.e. AOL). This particular connection does not have the 'Protect my computer or network' option enabled (which can be set for each dialup connection individually, I believe).

2) Check you IP address with the above posted website.

3) Communicate the IP address to your opponent and wait for them to hook up.

In your case the opponent never does hook up. Can your opponent perform an internet 'ping' on the IP address that you provide ? Sometimes this isn't possible due to ISP configurations, etc.

Perhaps you may want to try out ZoneAlarm, which has a free version that you can download from here. I'm not sure of any performance implications about using this with a dialup modem, but you can explicitly allow certain programs to make internet connections, etc.