Age of Empires Forums

* Power Cycle your network hardware: Turn off your modem, router, and computer. Wait a few minutes then turn them back on one at a time in the listed order. Some routers need to be power cycled to except new versions of software such as Age of Empires 3 Done fifty times over.
* Verify your Firewall or internet security software is allowing AGe3 to pass through Have none.
* Disable your Firewall or internet security software temporarily while you test connecting to the game. Have none.
* Upgrade your firmware on your router and your network card Done.
* Toggle UPnP (If you have UPnP on, try turning it off and if you have UPnP off, try turning it on. Did not do, this would cause problems.
* Turn on DMZ, if its off Did not do, this would cause problems.
* Turn off DMZ, if on DMZ is off.
* Port forward UDP and TCP/IP ports 2300-2310 to your machine. If that range does not work try expanding it to cover ports 2300-2340, or try using the OverridePort command listed below. Tried portforwarding, caused an issue with the people I had previously been able to connect to, while having no effect on the Failed to Join Game problem.
* Some routers have a Gaming Mode. Be sure to enable that option if your router supports this feature. Done.
* If your router has logging turned on make sure to clean off your logs or restart logging before playing Age of Empires 3 Off.
* Change your computers IP on your router. Example: if your computer sits at 192.168.0.100 change it to 192.168.0.200 Done.

There is a problem, and it's a very specific problem. You see, I have 12 computers in a variety of locations (my house, brother's house, work, parent's house, etc), and they're behind various routers, set up with very similar hardware (DI-524's and D-Link wired and wireless cards; I built every machine by hand). They can all join each other's games on ESO perfectly fine; I've never encountered a single Failed to Join Game error trying to connect any of them to each other while in passworded games. I've even been able to connect three machines behind a single router to two machines behind another router to a machine behind a third router: NO PROBLEMS.

When I try to connect to people OUTSIDE my little circle, or I let them into my games, I get Failed to Join Game at least 75% of the time. I'll be lucky to get any of them (even on the PCs on direct connections) to make it into a game hosted by someone else, unless I'm the 1st person to join.

This is interesting though, because I can host, and have no problems filling and launching games on any of these machines, except I've discovered something; I call them "gamekillers". There have been quite a few situations where I will host with a PC, and then join with another PC and fail, this is because a 3rd party (a gamekiller) joins the game before that PC. After that user joins, absolutely noone (including my own PCs with flawless compatability up to this point) can join my own game, but anyone who had previously connected is fine, and the game proceeds as normal, with the gamekiller desyncing and being dropped in the first ten minutes. The people who join after a gamekiller do actually "sorta" join, meaning they enter the room and their name is displayed, but never sync up (won't display proper avatar, no clan, level/ratio, home city will be Spanish 0, etc), then drop after about 15-30 seconds, when they get the "Failed to Join Game" error. This problem is instantly solved by kicking the gamekiller. You are unable, however, to BAN a gamekiller from a game, meaning they usually come right back to harass you by blocking your game like it was the Habbo Pool.

My bigger problem, is that there's no way to tell which games have gamekillers in them from the game list, nor is there a way to flag the host to inform them of a failed connection. My solution: have ESO display failed joins in the chatlog of a room (PuppetSoul has failed to connect), and if possible, display user's firewall status (there's a game called KwonHo which does this effectively... Blue means OK, Red means firewalled and going to desync). Yes, this means anyone behind a firewall is going to get kicked 24/7, but guess what, nobody cares! To fix the 75% Failed problem, display that firewall flag in the user's list of the game (put their names in red), that way, everybody won't have to waste their time trying to join a game with an internet noob blocking it.

I can verify this. Only it has nothing to do with PCs or routers.
Sometimes it is not so simple. We have 4 computers at my house. Me and a friend of mine (Tiwo007) cannot connect to each other in a game...ever. My other 2 accounts can connect to him so I just assumed it was an issue with the PC I was using (all of my PCs are behind the same router). So I went to one of the other PCs and logged into the problem account and guess what? We still cannot connect to each other. BUT...if you use those same exact computers and log into one of the other accounts, we can connect. Obviously it isn't hardware or software related as regards the PCs. It has something to do with the ESO account.

We have another friend with the problem. I can play with both of them but they cannot play with each other. They are each "gamekillers" for each other. When one of them contacted Microsoft they said that they were both using the same CD key. That is not possible since they both own their own copies. Besides, isn't it one ESO account for CD keys?

I posted this problem a year ago.

Yeah, I have several copies of the game (brother bought a copy for every member of my family for christmas), so I'm positive that it's not that we're using the same CD-Keys (and we can connect to each other). I also doubt that these other accounts are using our keys either (while it's possible they could've fished one, or even all), as it's always one person blocking 2+ of my comps, and it couldn't be using two keys at the same time (or could they?).

That would've been a lifesaver, hadn't it been like cryptic braille to me

Firewalls aren't neccessarily the guilty party though. For example when I am at my dad's house (he has both software and hardware firewalls) I have no problem joining games the majority of the time. (Problem likely on the other end not mine.) On the flip side when I am at my mom's I have trouble joining and to a lesser extent hosting games despite the only firewall being window's built in firewall (currently running Vista).

just a quick question do you have windows vista?? the

And more do you noticed this is 2 years old tread?

just a quick question do you have windows vista?? the reason i ask is because ive recently brought a new computer wich came with windows vista i reinstalled the game aoe3 and had problems before i even played the game i.e this game is not compatible with the computer you are using, so i use run anyway wich works.... until you go online i cannot connect to any games with anyone keeps tellin me failed to join game but quick search works occasoinaly?? so my point is i had no problems playing the game on XP. but now i do on vista. so im wanderin weather the settings on vista arnt letting you play online properly. also i downloded the latest patch 1.12 and still didnt work lol. just a thought m8 dont know if it will help or if you know of a solution??

re install ur vista and turn off the auto updates should fix everything including the errors and bugs of vista ;D

 

Hi There,

The Problem

The problem is because the person you are trying to play against someone who is using the same serial as you.

 If my friend has a problem installing his copy of Age of Empires and I let him use my copy and serial instead when we try to play online using 2 different accounts we will both be unable to join each others game.

In this instance it would be because one of our accounts' serials has been used to install another persons copy.  ESO recognizes that the serial has been used to install another persons game and does not allow the two players to join each other.

Solution

The only way to resolve this is to simply use the serial used to create your game with the account you wish to play with.

I would not be stupid to assume that this is an Anti-Cheat system implemented to prevent players from quiting out and boosting each others' accounts.

Thanks,

PandaXVII

Do you like Dungeons and Dragons perchance?

 

LOL all the replies on this thread seem to be about a year apart. Why bump a thread from 2006?!?!