Difference between revisions of "Hosting Guide"

Revision as of 03:15, 16 September 2008

Hosting games on Worms Armageddon often requires some network set-up. W:A uses a peer-to-peer networking model, which means that games are hosted on the players' computers, and not on the WormNET server. The implications of this are that in order for a player to successfully host a game, other computers from the Internet must be able to connect to the host's computer. Certain hardware (routers and modems) and software (firewalls) create a barrier and block incoming connections, and require configuration to allow these connections to go through and reach Worms Armageddon.

Routers

If you have a router, you will need to configure the router to forward incoming connections on a certain TCP port (by default, 17011) to your computer.

The website portforward.com has detailed steps on how to configure port forwarding for many router models:

1. Proceed to the Routers section on portforward.com;
2. Find the model of your router (or the closest model if you can't find yours), and click on it;
3. Scroll down and find the Worms Armageddon link, and click it;
4. Follow the instructions there.

Software firewalls

Software firewalls (sometimes also called "Internet security suites") will often block all incoming connections, unless a special rule is created. There are usually two ways to configure them, depending on its type.

Make WA.exe a trusted program

Often software firewalls allow users to mark some programs as completely trusted, which means that the firewall will not block any network activity by that program. The exact instructions vary for every firewall, but doing this might involve:

• adding WA.exe to the "trusted zone"
• adding WA.exe to a list of "exceptions"
• creating a rule to allow all network access to and from WA.exe

Allow all traffic on port 17011

Some firewalls operate on a port-based level, rather than an application level. In this case, you will need to instruct the firewall to allow all network activity on W:A's hosting port (by default 17011).

Change the port used for hosting games

If you know that your computer is connectable on a certain port, and do not wish to set up another port just for W:A, you can change the port number used for hosting games in W:A's network options screen. However, note two things:

1. Players using W:A versions older than 3.6.28.0 will not be able to join your game
2. If you try to host a game while another application is using the port you specified, other players will not be able to join your game.