Age of Emp II mlt-user stopped working

[Bob Sisson]

My kids Age of Empires II game stopped working in TCP/IP-LAN mode.

They can ping each other, see each other, are on the same network
(192.168.0.xx) on the same Hub, etc..etc..

We did change from a Proxy server (socks-5) to a Internet connection sharing
system, but both stations are WAY behind that... and they both have access
to the Web, email, news, etc... so I know that their stations are happy.

And the only other major thing that has happened is that a critical patch
was downloaded and installed for Win2K on both stations....

Now, one station can see games hosted by the other, but not connect. In the
other direction, the station can't even see hosted games.

What gives?

I downloaded the latest patches... rebooted lots, checked IPconfig, pinged
in both directions...

H E L P !!! My kids are getting unfriendly towards their IT guy (me!).

Bob Sisson

 

[Bob I]

I would suspect a firewall or it's settings as the cause.

 

[Bob Sisson]

But they are nowhere near the firewall. They are both on a their own hub.
behind a switch, and THEN to the firewall. They used to connect fine, now
they won't talk...

 

[Bob Krieter]

Bob,
Did u ever get this resolved?

If not, I would try simplification. There are too many
potential issues.

I know you think the Internet connection sharing and
Firewall should have nothing to do with it, because the
machines are "inside" both of the above. However, these
could cause complications due to multiple connections and
multiple bindings to protocols.

To troubleshoot, I would put the two machines in question
on a hub just by themselves, with no access to the
Internet or any other wires or cables to interfere. In
other words, a hub, 2 NICs, and NOTHING else. Then try
again.

Look at Hardware settings, and write down the description
for each NIC card, and either find or create a driver disk
for each of them. Then clear EVERYTHING out of your
network settings, and let it re-detect the network cards.
Re-add the TCP/IP protocol if necessary. If your hub does
not DHCP, then you will have to assign addresses to the
two nics manually (192.168.0.104 and 192.168.0.105 should
work nicely)

Note that if you had multiple DHCP servers before, or
perhaps a wireless hub, they could be handing out from two
different base addresses. One machine could be
192.168.1.102, and the other could have been assigned to
192.168.0.105. If the base addresses are different, then
the mask 255.255.255.0 will keep them from seeing each
other. This would also cause a problem. Use cmd and
ipconfig to ensure both machines have the same identical
first three segments.

If you completely clear everything out and simplify in
this way, there's a good chance it will work. Then you
can try re-adding complications one at a time and see
which one breaks it.

If this still does not work, then try re-initilizing both
NIC's using the appropriate software. You can write to
the card by changing the speed, or any bogus setting,
writing it to the card, and then make sure to change it
back. Sometimes cards will get in a bad state, and need
to be written.

If this still doesn't work, then I would try to swap NIC
cards with another systemm (it sounds like you have a
few). This will help you isolate whether the NIC or the
software config is the issue.