Can't connect to servers...

[okoman]

Hi!
Everytime when Arma tries to establish a connection it fails and I'm thrown back to the server list. That problem seems to me quite strange, since I yesterday could play online (but also on only one server, maybe I was lucky).
So my question is now what am I doing wrong? Thre is no firewall running or something like that. On the router I opened the ports
27900 - 29901
13139
6515
6500
3783
6667
2000-3000
6073
I found them in some forums, but they didn't help. I'm alreay trying to play online for 6 hours and now I have no more ideas what to do...

So who can help?

[Lonewolf1980]

are u joining servers that are the same version ? there's a patch out now.

[okoman]

Yes, that's the funny thing. Yesterday I had the same problem, I couldn't connect to servers. Then I patched the game, tried to connect and evrything went fine. As I left the server there was the same problem as before... http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/icon_rolleyes.gif

[okoman]

I fixed the problem.. but the solution is such unbelievable.. I really don't know if really that was the fix.. I closed all the ports but 2302
and now I can join every game http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/huh.gif

[CanisDEK]

I fixed the problem.. but the solution is such unbelievable.. I really don't know if really that was the fix.. I closed all the ports but 2302
and now I can join every game  http://forums.bistudio.com/oldsmileys/huh.gif
weird... And yes I am patched to 1.01 german patch.

But closing all ports but one is not a logical solution.

I still can't join games.

[Sickboy]

Usual firewalls, including XP SP2 built in firewall, only block incoming connections. As client, you only do outgoing connections (altough there is bi-directional traffic possible over the connection), as such you don't have to forward or open anyport. But make sure anyway that your arma exe is excluded from any firewall

In more advanced/complete firewalls there is also outbound filtering, in this case you must allow the arma process in the exclusion list, or you need to open the mentioned ports OUTBOUND (so no forwarding whatsoever).

Only when you want to run a server, then you need to forward only 1 or 2/3 ports im not sure, thats the game port (2302 by default) + 1 or 2 following ports (2303 and 2304 if im not mistaken) all ports im talking about here are UDP.
As the server makes the outgoing connections to gamespy, and if you have a firewall that blocks outgoing connections, you need to either exclude the server form the firewall, or open up the huge list of mentioned ports as described in the Client story above, outbound..

If you can't join other's server, you probably need to allow the arma process in your firewall (exclusion) or again, same story as described in the client story above, outbound..

Many firewalls block (most) processes by default, and some display a message about the game wanting to connect to the outside when you click on multiplayer in the game, try alt tabbing and see if you see such message. Check your firewall software anyway and check if the correct process/ports are openend. If you are behind a router, you might even think about disabling the complete firewall on your pc, just to see how it turns out for you in the game. Just turn it back on after testing, and act on the result (if it worked then you need to check your firewall settings, if it didnt work you should probably search the problem in your router or possibly in a 2nd firewall that might be active)

[okoman]

I thought about it again and I noticed something I also did before everything started working fine. I just installed gamespy.. Perhaps the standalone version of gamespy is important for online playing?

Would be interesting to know, whether all players, who don't have gamespy installed, are experiencing problems... I mean that would be less weird than my last solution, maybe ArmA uses some external gamespy stuff, although it shouldn't...

[Sickboy]

Would be interesting to know, whether all players, who don't have gamespy installed, are experiencing problems... I mean that would be less weird than my last solution, maybe ArmA uses some external gamespy stuff, although it shouldn't...
Experiencing no troubles, no ports ports forwarded and no gamespy crap installed