ArmA2 + Belkin

I'm having some trouble connecting to some of my squads servers. Several other members are also having the same problem, while others are not. The common denominator between the 'have nots' seems to be Belkin routers.

Has anyone had problems with ArmA2 and Belkin routers?

No specific Arma experiences, but a lot of negative consumer experiences with various types of Belkin routers in general.

Check your arma2.rpt.

I am personally unable to connect to servers hosted by (dedicated or local) two of my British friends if I have my connection routed over my Asus RX3041 router (this isn't the only way it annoys me, steer clear of it). The game just displays "Connecting failed", the rpt file is far more revealing (typing from top of my head):

NAT negotiation failed - NNThink result 3

Try going into your routers setup page and make sure there's nothing like "Block incoming ICMP" enabled.

Cheers for the help, will check both this evening.

NAT negotiation failed - NNThink result 3

That's the same problem I'm getting.

If I remember correctly some people had a similar issue with Arma 1, and they fixed it in different ways. Some claimed forwarding the ports on their router fixed it (Belkin call Port forwarding - Virtual Servers, can't remember the port numbers), some claimed removing anti-virus/anti-spyware software fixed it, and some claimed updating their Network card drivers fixed it.

All 3 could be an effect, but with Belkin as the common denomonator I'd say it's likely to be the latter. A miscommunication between the LAN port on your computer and the router could lead to not being able to translate the NAT effectively.

As I said before, make sure that you're not blocking external ICMP's, and if worst comes to worst, try adding your computers IP to a DMZ to test.

I (finally) got this to work yesterday. I turned off DMZ and my windows firewall, forwarded ports (virtual servers) and unblocked extern ICMP. I believe only the first two steps are required, but I was changing things in order of increasing vulnerability and didn't go back afterwards turning things off as I was too busy playing the game :D

I'll go back tonight or tomorrow and try and get a slightly more secure solution, although I believe it's going to come down to DMZ + no firewall in the end, which is fairly unsecure. I turn the settings on and off as required to play the game as I don't fancy leaving my pc open to the world all day.

If you leave Windows Firewall disabled and just forward the ports through the virtual servers then you should be able to remove your IP from the DMZ. You will have to keep "Block external ICMP" off though as Arma 2 seems to fail with it on.

If you are getting this message:

NAT Negotiation failed (NNBeginNegotiationWithSocket) - error 2

It may not be router related at all.

Check the hostname you are connecting to for "-" 's

(e.g. myhost-hasadash.com)

I've done some testing and it seems the arma client doesn't like hostnames that have a "-" in them.

You can avoid the problem by simply connecting to the IP address instead of the hostname.