Clients connecting & getting "Connection failed" due to NAT Negotiation failed -Err 2

[Lokyi]

just out of interest, what's your reportingIP in your settings? Should be:
reportingIP="arma2oapc.master.gamespy.com";

---------- Post added at 01:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:23 AM ----------

I imagine the problem with you trying to join from a PC on the same LAN, is a potential port problem in parallel with your server, it could also be causing a conflict.
Although I haven't looked much into the gamespy side of things, I imagine that the server should be broadcasting to GS on a particular port, but your game PC may be looking to use that same port through the router... see the potential problem?

[texastoby]

Another quick edit:
It seems that some users can connect others can't.
out of the 5 people that wanted to play only 2 where able to connect without problems.


Yup, that is the reportingIP.

Also, I do, had the same thought aswell.

So I tried it with a couple of friends and they all had the same problem. They could connect (again, Finally! ) but the ping was either "?" or 2500.

I can see Gamespy, or whom ever is responsible for resolving the ping, would think about it as people would create none dedicated games aswell. And that makes
me think that I am still missing a key port for that. Though I have the Heartbeat Server Port forwarded. The Custom UDP Ping also.

Hm... I am slowly but steady running out of ideas.

[texastoby]

I take it this will remain a cold case then?

[Viper.cless]

4.) I configured my Router to forward Ports (UDP, UDP & TCP) 2302, 2303 and 2305 to my Server.

Try to forward UDP 2304 also. At least the arma linux server is listening on 2304 UDP and not on 2303 UDP, so why would the windows version.

9.) Internet Searching in the Gamespy Server list, works. BUT The Ping is either "?" or 2500

Make sure ICPM echo request are answered and not dropped by your firewall.

[jackwhitter]

I can confirm that we are experiencing the same problems with our server hosted at dedicated hosting facility behind a Cisco ASA firewall. i've opened up a bunch of ports tcp and udp. everything that netstat -a shows in use for the game plus any ports i can find for gamespy.

we have some people who can join through the server browser, but not everyone (probably not most people). if you put in the remote address, then it connects fine. we can configure the ASA firewall, but we need to know what to configure.

[JayC]

I can confirm that we are experiencing the same problems with our server hosted at dedicated hosting facility behind a Cisco ASA firewall. i've opened up a bunch of ports tcp and udp. everything that netstat -a shows in use for the game plus any ports i can find for gamespy.

we have some people who can join through the server browser, but not everyone (probably not most people). if you put in the remote address, then it connects fine. we can configure the ASA firewall, but we need to know what to configure.

I'm not up on Cisco ASA's, so I can't tell you what the command line is... but the problem is fixable on them...

You need to set a source port rule on the outbound NAT to use static mapping... so if an inbound packet on 230x is shown as outbound on the same port... This happens on a lot of routers with UDP packets.

[Dwarden]

does this problem still exist for You with 95948 build ?

[James_Manring]

I take it this will remain a cold case then?

I sure hope not. From a simple internet search it appears this problem has existed for many people for years (I found issues posted as early as 2009) and is quite serious, even though it appears to not be taken seriously by GameSpy. From what I have read they refuse to talk to end-users and are quite obstinate about this "not being their issue". To be quite honest it seems everywhere you look for answers it is someone saying it isn't their issue or suggesting you forward UDP ports or to set ICMP rules in the firewall. Obviously if users are connecting, the UDP ports were forwarded properly. Setting custom ICMP rules in the firewall does not change anything whatsoever. I suppose this is not a problem if sales are still up and this title isn't going to be actively supported for much longer but there are upset customers like us out here that don't have the energy to constantly gripe about an issue like this for years on end. It would be nice to not feel like our issues are "swept under the carpet", as I have noticed other users on various forums basically stating. If third party server browser software can UDP ping properly, then GameSpy can do the same but is unwilling. To be honest I am surprised that Bohemia Interactive still uses their services with the uncooperative attitude that GameSpy displays.

To analogize, it feels like the boy at the market bagging your groceries just ripped a bag and dumped your yogurt and eggs on the ground. When you ask him to fix it he says, "I will only talk to food manufacturers. This is not my problem.". It makes you not want to go back, but you will get hungry again and you do really like shopping at the Bohemia grocery store. You will go back and suffer through it for whatever eggs and yogurt you can manage to squeeze passed that clumsy grocery boy named GameSpy. And yes, I did just compare random internet players to picking up eggs and yogurt.

does this problem still exist for You with 95948 build ?

Yes, this problem still exists. It persists on to 96015 and 96061 as well. I have contacted Cisco over this issue. Their SOHO networking routers are not the problem according to them. The technicians thought this is likely an issue with GameSpy.

I would love for people to be able to find my server without having to resort to using a 3rd party browser or guess which 2500 ping is really a lie. If you would, please contact them and ask them kindly to start working on their issues.

[t0pz]

I can confirm this is still happening. We have had this issue about a year ago and decided to switch hosting provider, where we never had issues.
Now we are back on a datacenter in Dallas, and the same issue arises yet again. (We have made no changes in the server setup whatsoever during the migration)

In the past few months we were doing well in terms of player population. Servers filled up instantly. Now with the new machine (dedicated server) we are struggling to get even 6 to 8 players on, even though our name is established already. A lot of regulars are reporting not being able to find the server (25000 or ? ping) or not being able to join it at all ("Connecting Failed").

Some players on the other hand seem to be able to find and join fine. In either case, it killed our server within a few days, with little to no-one playing on it anymore. We ran into a dead end last year when researching this problem, and are yet again very frustrated with this...