Jacob Stewart Posted March 11, 2025 Report Posted March 11, 2025 So i want to play with my friend. We have played this together before. I have done everything right. I even followed videos and was able to join my own dedicated server. But my friend cannot join and they HAVE done everything correct. Why are we still forced to do this today. This is almost as bad as needing dailup to connect o the internet with a lan line when there is cable and star link existing. Steam has not needed port forwarding for years now. Why are we doing this still? And no a middle man such as a hosting paywall, or god forbid hamachi is not a reasonable or honest option. I think it is time we get with the times. I will spare people any further rants but boy do i want to right now. As i just wasted hours of my life trying to get this to work. I think i will just refuse to play games that require choosing from these options. 1 1
Thorfinn Posted March 11, 2025 Report Posted March 11, 2025 Welcome to the forums, @Jacob Stewart It's my understanding that all systems like UPnP and NAT-PMP do is use an internal server to set your port forwarding, not that PF is no longer used.. Steam does a similar thing through their client software. That's the upside. The downside is you are utterly reliant on that internal server. You lose the ability to lock down your onw server. Steam's version of this is that only those logged in to accounts you have designated as a Friend can connect. VS does it by setting things up so that you maintain your Friends list via whitelist. VS doesn't determine who can access your machine, it lust ensures that a given user presented the right credentials to the authentication server. Personally, I prefer that level of security over what connections are allowed in. YMMV. I could be all wet. The guy who told me all this might not have known what he was talking about, or I may have misunderstood. I'm happy to be corrected by someone who has a better understanding than I. 1
Plato Platypus Posted March 11, 2025 Report Posted March 11, 2025 Port forwarding is still happening on all these 3rd party services its just less transparent. Typically many programs us UPNP for this. however manually port forwarding is not at all a difficult process.. You should use https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ to test if you have forwarded the port properly and your router/model is accepting incoming requests. Many routers may use a different term for port forwarding. Such as NAt forwarding. or port mapping or gaming applications or port triggering ( not the same but sometime in the same setting) Instead of blaming developers or a community for the difficulty of a standard process that is essential to theentire internet, it would be simpler to jsut say "hey can anyone help me with port forwarding on my (insert router name) and there would be plenty of people here willing to help you. Your OP doesent help your prospects on finding the help you actually need. Rather youll find the exact opposite response from what is essentially a great community. 1 1 1
Captain Phantom Posted January 12 Report Posted January 12 Yeah people who don't have access to their router to port forward don't really have any options to play with their friends other than the laggy public servers. I hope something similar to the Essential mod eventually comes around (minus the microtransactions) that makes both hosting and playing on the same PC easier but who knows how far away that is.
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