FAQ

How to configure a firewall to enable playing Four Winds over the Internet?

If you are using a firewall, it is likely that all inbound TCP/IP traffic and most of the outbound TCP/IP traffic is blocked for security reasons. To be able to play Four Winds over the Internet, the ports described in this document should be available (please note that in a client-server environment port configurations are allowed to be changed only by a network administrator).

To play DirectX games through a network firewall or proxy server, the following requirements must be met:

To ensure DirectPlay compatibility, the latest version of DirectX should be installed on the computers used by all players who participate in the game.

The following TCP and UDP ports must be open on the firewall or proxy server:

Connection	Ports for Client Configuration	Ports for Host Configuration
Initial TCP Connection	47624 Outbound	47624 Inbound
Subsequent TCP Inbound	2300-2400	2300-2400
Subsequent TCP Outbound	2300-2400	2300-2400
Subsequent UDP Inbound	2300-2400	2300-2400
Subsequent UDP Outbound	2300-2400	2300-2400

In addition, port 1900 needs to be opened in some configurations.

Please consult the documentation provided with your networking software to determine the steps to open these ports. Three examples are given below.

If you are using the internal firewall that comes with Windows XP, please do the following:

Open Network Connections (Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double click Network Connections.)
Click the Dial-up, LAN or High-Speed Internet connection that you want to open for multiplayer games, and then, under Network Tasks, click Change settings of this connection.
On the Advanced tab, under Internet Connection Firewall, clear the Protect my computer and network by limiting or preventing access to this computer from the Internet check box.

If you use F-Secure Distributed Firewall, you would first activate the Custom pr Partially Customizable profile so that you can add customized configuration rules, and then add services that allow "TCP High ports" (i.e., ports above 1023) and "UDP high ports" for both inbound and outbound traffic. Note that this configuration opens all ports above 1023 to both inbound and outbound traffic. If allowed by your software, you should open only the additional ports listed above that are needed for DirectX gaming.

If you use personal firewall that is based on a per program based control of the use of ports, just enable the needed ports as you are notified by the firewall program of Four Winds' attempt to access these ports.

After having played, please remember to turn on the firewall or close the ports you temporarily enabled for playing.

If you continue having problems with connecting the the Internet, please check that DirectX is correctly installed on all participating computers.

Also, if you act as the hosting player, please check that the conditions listed in the FAQ article Why my IP address is not visible to other players are not true in your case.

Note: Opening ports for TCP/IP gaming is always a security risk, especially if you completely disable your firewall system and you have not ensured by appropriate network settings that file sharing and Windows networking is not allowed for the TCP/IP protocol. If you are using a dial-up connection, the security risk is not that high, but if you have a fixed line (a cable modem or an ADSL modem), you should be very careful when allowing exceptions to the default port configurations. For more information, please consult the documentation of your networking software.