Cant join my friend through the "open to lan" then "open to internet" way...(EDIT: player named Mirveil showed one of the ways to fix this, if anyone has the same problem, look in the replies, thanks Mirveil :) )

[Kastrolus]

Hi guys, i am new to the game, i bought it yesterday, and i bought it with my friend and we wanted to play together and have good experience, but so far we had issues with connection, i have been trying to connect to my friend, hes hosting the server using the "open to lan" then "open to internet" way, i think we did it right, he sended me his ip and i tried connecting to that, but it didnt worked and this popped up, we also tried the other ip, that the game shows you when you launch the server, also didnt work, we didnt know what to do, so we switched it up, and i tried hosting, but i have issue with UPnP, and it didnt work aswelll, i dont have UPnP turned on in my ethernet, and i dont really know how to turn it on, so yeah, we were thinking maybe we can go play on some community server, but all of them have either mods, or are just not what we lookin for, only good one is the official public server, but right now, theres winter, and us as noobs, we keep dying to cold, idk we can maybe wait until tuesday, thats when will the winter end on the server, but idk, would be glad if anyone had some info on this, thanks for reading and i wish you nice day

Edited June 1, 2025 by Kastrolus

[Mirveil]

Hello, I've never used UPnP, but the proper and more secure way is to use port forwarding.  It's a little more complex though!  What this does is tell your router that if they receive internet traffic on a specific port, they should send it to a specific computer in your internal network (otherwise the router would just ignore the traffic entirely).

To do this, you need to do a few things.
- Set your internal IP to static
- Forward the Vintage Story traffic to your computer.

 

To make your IP static, go to your router's settings, usually by going to the web address 192.168.0.1 with your web browser.
Find the DHCP section and the client list. It might look a little like this...

DESKTOP-Blahblah is the name of my computer. The IP and the MAC address are the important information for us.

Next, in the Address Reservation area, you would reserve the IP that your computer has right now, to the MAC address of your computer.
For me, it would look like this...

 

Now that your address is static, your need to tell your router to direct Vintage Story traffic to your computer. 

In my case, it's in the Forwarding -> Virtual Server section, and it looks like this...

The port 42420 is what Vintage Story uses for its traffic, so you want to tell your router that anything that comes in through 42420 needs to be directed to your computer's 42420 port. Make sure that you are forwarding the port for BOTH internet protocols, UDP and TCP.  I have an option for "both", but if you don't, you will need to make a rule to allow 42420 on TCP, and another rule to allow 42420 on UDP.

Normally, at this point, your friend should be able to join your server.

Keep in mind, the IP that you need to give to your friend is NOT the one that starts with 192.168 ... You need to give them your public IP instead. That's the IP given to you when you go to https://whatismyip.com

 

Buuuut, if it doesn't work, then maybe your windows firewall is blocking it. If that's the case, do WindowsKey + R (or open the start menu and type run) ... and then type wf.msc
On the left, Inbound Rules
On the right, New Rule...
Custom
All Programs
TCP, Specific Ports, 42420 (Local and Remote)
Next next next...  And repeat for UDP instead of TCP.
 

I hope that was helpful?

Edited June 1, 2025 by Mirveil

[Kastrolus]

Okay thank you for info, appreciate it, also, i dont really know if i will use this approach, because it seems bit to hard to do, and i dont wanna mess something up, also i dont have good way to getting into my router settings, i have 2 pcs and the router setting is probably on the other one somewhere and that pc is now unpluged from everything and i dont even know where it is, probably in the attic somewhere in box, but thank you anyway  , if anyone else have the same issue they can try the way you showed, i will edit the title so that people can see it

Edited June 1, 2025 by Kastrolus

[Lollard]

An easier alternative would be renting a server, but that costs money.

https://wiki.vintagestory.at/index.php/List_of_server_hosting_providers

Edited June 1, 2025 by Lollard

[Mirveil]

1 hour ago, Kastrolus said:

also i dont have good way to getting into my router settings, i have 2 pcs and the router setting is probably on the other one somewhere

No, that's not how it works.   If your computer has access to the internet, it has access to the router.  Any computer or phone that goes through the router to reach the internet can modify the router's settings.

If typing 192.168.0.1 in your web browser does not work, you can find the correct address by opening the terminal (Windows Start menu, type "cmd"), then type "ipconfig" and the Default Gateway will show you the address that you need to type in your web browser.

After that you need the user password to get in, and sometimes it's admin admin, or admin password...  You can look online for your router name to find the default password, or maybe it's on a sticker at the bottom of the router...

If you want to change settings regarding UPnP, you need to be able to access your router just like this anyway.

You can feel free to ask questions if you're not sure about something, but if this all seems like too much trouble, then yes renting a server is easier.

[Kastrolus]

Ah okay, i get it now, i never really was tweaking the settings of my router so idk how it works, but thanks for info 

[Kastrolus]

 

4 hours ago, Mirveil said:

Hello, I've never used UPnP, but the proper and more secure way is to use port forwarding.  It's a little more complex though!  What this does is tell your router that if they receive internet traffic on a specific port, they should send it to a specific computer in your internal network (otherwise the router would just ignore the traffic entirely).

To do this, you need to do a few things.
- Set your internal IP to static
- Forward the Vintage Story traffic to your computer.

 

To make your IP static, go to your router's settings, usually by going to the web address 192.168.0.1 with your web browser.
Find the DHCP section and the client list. It might look a little like this...

DESKTOP-Blahblah is the name of my computer. The IP and the MAC address are the important information for us.

Next, in the Address Reservation area, you would reserve the IP that your computer has right now, to the MAC address of your computer.
For me, it would look like this...

 

Now that your address is static, your need to tell your router to direct Vintage Story traffic to your computer. 

In my case, it's in the Forwarding -> Virtual Server section, and it looks like this...

The port 42420 is what Vintage Story uses for its traffic, so you want to tell your router that anything that comes in through 42420 needs to be directed to your computer's 42420 port. Make sure that you are forwarding the port for BOTH internet protocols, UDP and TCP.  I have an option for "both", but if you don't, you will need to make a rule to allow 42420 on TCP, and another rule to allow 42420 on UDP.

Normally, at this point, your friend should be able to join your server.

Keep in mind, the IP that you need to give to your friend is NOT the one that starts with 192.168 ... You need to give them your public IP instead. That's the IP given to you when you go to https://whatismyip.com

 

Buuuut, if it doesn't work, then maybe your windows firewall is blocking it. If that's the case, do WindowsKey + R (or open the start menu and type run) ... and then type wf.msc
On the left, Inbound Rules
On the right, New Rule...
Custom
All Programs
TCP, Specific Ports, 42420 (Local and Remote)
Next next next...  And repeat for UDP instead of TCP.
 

I hope that was helpful?

I changed my mind, i will do it the way you showed me, but i wanna ask something, if i set the 42420 port like the way you said, can i be unlucky and some other application uses the same port? and then if i set it like the way you said, it fuckes up my whole internet? also the screenshot i showed before is when i tried joining my friend, and the UPnP problem happend when i was trying to host, the server didnt even start, and it showed that i dont have UPnP enabled, picture here:

 

will the way you showed still work if i wanna host?

Edited June 1, 2025 by Kastrolus

[Mirveil]

It's extremely unlikely, but yes another application could want to use that port.  But, it's fine.  The worst that would happen is that the router would send the internet traffic to your computer, and then your computer wouldn't know what to do with it because this traffic is not related to Vintage Story and you don't have any other software listening on that port, so it would just ignore and delete everything that is received on that port, if it's not related to Vintage Story.

Edit, I misread and explained what would happen if something tries to send you data on that port, but if something else on your computer wants that port too, it would simply just work.  If you want to feel safe, you can always disable the port forwarding in your router when you are not hosting the game, but that would be huge paranoia. It's really just fine to keep that port forwarded.

 

Short version: Don't worry!

Edited June 1, 2025 by Mirveil

[Kastrolus]

14 hours ago, Mirveil said:

It's extremely unlikely, but yes another application could want to use that port.  But, it's fine.  The worst that would happen is that the router would send the internet traffic to your computer, and then your computer wouldn't know what to do with it because this traffic is not related to Vintage Story and you don't have any other software listening on that port, so it would just ignore and delete everything that is received on that port, if it's not related to Vintage Story.

Edit, I misread and explained what would happen if something tries to send you data on that port, but if something else on your computer wants that port too, it would simply just work.  If you want to feel safe, you can always disable the port forwarding in your router when you are not hosting the game, but that would be huge paranoia. It's really just fine to keep that port forwarded.

 

Short version: Don't worry!

Hey man, thanks for all the help, but i will probably not make it, i cant access my router settings (by pasteing the ip onto google like you showed) on the site, i dont know the password, i tried lookin at the router itself, if theres note with password, no note is there, i tried contacting my brother who back in the day setted up the internet in this house, he also doesnt know, i tried asking chatgpt, that i forgot the password, i wrote in detail my problem to chatgpt, and it said my only option is to reset the router, but i dont really wanna do that, because i have weird connection here where i live, and over the years we had multiple issues with internet, and technicians were coming over here alot, and tweaking the settings, i just dont wanna reset it all, and fuck up my internet, anyway thanks for all the help, appreciate you, and if anyone else has the same problem, they can look here and do it, thanks and i wish you nice day

[Cloudman76]

On 6/1/2025 at 8:33 AM, Mirveil said:

Hello, I've never used UPnP, but the proper and more secure way is to use port forwarding.  It's a little more complex though!  What this does is tell your router that if they receive internet traffic on a specific port, they should send it to a specific computer in your internal network (otherwise the router would just ignore the traffic entirely).

To do this, you need to do a few things.
- Set your internal IP to static
- Forward the Vintage Story traffic to your computer.

 

To make your IP static, go to your router's settings, usually by going to the web address 192.168.0.1 with your web browser.
Find the DHCP section and the client list. It might look a little like this...

DESKTOP-Blahblah is the name of my computer. The IP and the MAC address are the important information for us.

Next, in the Address Reservation area, you would reserve the IP that your computer has right now, to the MAC address of your computer.
For me, it would look like this...

 

Now that your address is static, your need to tell your router to direct Vintage Story traffic to your computer. 

In my case, it's in the Forwarding -> Virtual Server section, and it looks like this...

The port 42420 is what Vintage Story uses for its traffic, so you want to tell your router that anything that comes in through 42420 needs to be directed to your computer's 42420 port. Make sure that you are forwarding the port for BOTH internet protocols, UDP and TCP.  I have an option for "both", but if you don't, you will need to make a rule to allow 42420 on TCP, and another rule to allow 42420 on UDP.

Normally, at this point, your friend should be able to join your server.

Keep in mind, the IP that you need to give to your friend is NOT the one that starts with 192.168 ... You need to give them your public IP instead. That's the IP given to you when you go to https://whatismyip.com

 

Buuuut, if it doesn't work, then maybe your windows firewall is blocking it. If that's the case, do WindowsKey + R (or open the start menu and type run) ... and then type wf.msc
On the left, Inbound Rules
On the right, New Rule...
Custom
All Programs
TCP, Specific Ports, 42420 (Local and Remote)
Next next next...  And repeat for UDP instead of TCP.
 

I hope that was helpful?

Saved me from raging, This is the best help there is period that exists as of now

[ItsDarthChaos]

I've been beating my head against this for over an hour.   My modem does not support UPnP, but I am decently familiar with port forwarding.  I've tried forwarding TCP/UDP together, Ive tried making them separate.  No matter what I do, I get the same 'Internet hosting failed' message.  I know I have been able to forward for other games successfully on my current service, so it shouldn't be an issue with the forwarding itself... but I don't know where else the problem could be.

Edited July 10, 2025 by ItsDarthChaos

[Zane Mordien]

Did you check the server configuration file and make sure everything matches? Ive had that file screw up one of my servers. If you aren't using the default port that will especially screw it up. 

17 hours ago, ItsDarthChaos said:

I've been beating my head against this for over an hour.   My modem does not support UPnP, but I am decently familiar with port forwarding.  I've tried forwarding TCP/UDP together, Ive tried making them separate.  No matter what I do, I get the same 'Internet hosting failed' message.  I know I have been able to forward for other games successfully on my current service, so it shouldn't be an issue with the forwarding itself... but I don't know where else the problem could be.

 

[ItsDarthChaos]

4 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

Did you check the server configuration file and make sure everything matches? Ive had that file screw up one of my servers. If you aren't using the default port that will especially screw it up. 

 

Server config?  No, I was just trying to open local hosting via the 'Open to Internet' option, so I could get a friend into my world.