Author Topic: Firewalls and Aces High (Read 350 times)

AaronGGT · « **on:** August 02, 2003, 02:03:39 PM »

I just got broadband, and an ADSL modem/router/firewall.

Does anyone have any information on the required ports,
etc, as currently I can get online with the game, but not
get any chat, ability to move bases, fly, etc, unless I
go back to dialup

Thanks

Skuzzy · « **Reply #1 on:** August 02, 2003, 02:12:49 PM »

Aces High uses a subset of ports in the range of 2000-5000 for TCP and UDP.

AaronGGT · « **Reply #2 on:** August 02, 2003, 04:39:51 PM »

Is this range negotiated at connection? I.e. should I leave
the whole selection available? It seems quite a wide band!
I suppose I could run Win XP firewalling on top of the router's
firewalling. I get the impression sometimes that this router's
NAT implementation is not without its, erm, features.

Thanks for the pointer towards the port numbers.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #3 on:** August 03, 2003, 09:54:28 AM »

You will need to leave the full range open as you never know which ports are going to be used.

It really is nothing to sweat. There should not be aby software running on those ports (use netstat from the command/DOS box to see what ports are open on your computer).

If there is no software running on a port, then the port cannot be opened. Simple rule of how networks work.

The only ports you have to be concerned with are the ports that Windows keeps open all the time. If someone manages to hit your port that AH is running on, worst case scenario is you will be kicked from the game, which closes the port and aborts the remote lunatic trying to get to your computer.
You really do not gain anything by blocking/watching ports that have no software running on them.

AaronGGT · « **Reply #4 on:** August 03, 2003, 12:00:43 PM »

Ah, if I make the analogy with services in Unix then
I understand - if there is no service listening on
that port in Unix, then if it is open through the firewall,
there isn't much a hacker can do with that port.
Unix makes more sense to me :-)

Still, slow progress on getting things to work with
the router... Even if I make it a DMZ it seems to just
hang as soon as I get onto the server. I am not sure
entirely why. On dialup I notice that it tries UDP for
some services, and then defaults down to TCP. Any
idea if there could be issues with the implementation
of (presumably) NAT on the router that might leave
the system waiting to make that UDP/TCP choice?
The lack of response mirrors what happens with dialup
before it makes that switch.

I've tried all combinations of inside and outside the
DMZ, Windows XP firewall on or off in addition, and
nothing works, so NAT seems the only thing left that
I can think of.

Some other games seem to work.

I'm getting desperate! I'm also checking networking
related help sites too. Netgear customer support still
hasn't emailed me back.

Thanks very much for your help, Skuzzy.

Ack-Ack · « **Reply #5 on:** August 03, 2003, 03:48:40 PM »

With my router, I placed the computer I use solely for gaming in the DMZ and use a software firewall like Zone Alarm Pro to cover it. No issues for me with this setup but like everything else, YMMV.

ack-ack