Battlezone 1

First off, BattleZone is my favorite game of all time, and when I found out this site and that there was still a community, I shat myself. Now, on to my problem.

I can't seem to join any MP games, I always get 'Unhandled Exception'. And when I host, it appears nobody can join me. SP works fine and I can cruise around my own game, but it's lonely. I've tried forwarding the ports, didn't work.
I'm running Vista x64 and behind a router (obviously).

Damn, we got a new player and he can't play. Seems you have the same problem as Williamson.

For starters, I would try turning off router's firewall, windows firewall and possible 3rd party firewall and connect directly from NIC to modem.

Do you have game installed from a CD or you use installer from this site? CD version needs WinNT patch.
What router model do you have?
Can you tell on which port are you connected while on the server? Should be 21000-22000.
Do you see other players in the lobby (their ping) or they appear on 100 loss? Do you see host's ping when you join someone's game?

Well, this is proof that all routers suck.

Try to get a cable. Or follow Spock's orders.

I've turned off all firewalls, didn't work. Haven't tried bypassing the router yet, would prefer to get it to work with the router.
I installed the game from the site.
My router is a Netgear WGR614v6.
Not sure how to tell what port I'm connected to while on a server, but I've got 21000-22000 forwarded for the right IP.
In the lobby some people have a ping, and some have 100% loss. I had a buddy set up a server, he had a ping in the lobby, and I connected to his server fine, but got an error when trying to launch.

Some of those 100% losses are probably from some users that have your IP range blocked, depending on both your location and the ISP you have. Me and Reaper, a not so well liked character in these parts, have this going on where we both are in the same area and have the same ISP, but are two different people.

As far as playing the game is concerned, I'd recommend bypassing the router so we can atleast isolate if this is the problem or if it is Vista. I've noticed a trend with Vista systems that each computer seems to have it's own quirks, some have problems with a part of BZ then a brand new computer spits out an entirely different set of problems.

i hope you can join the server soon



TESLA

Shamrock, bypassing is only for a test, so we could isolate the problem.

Is your PC wired or wireless? Wireless generally has more issues.

Williamson has Netgear WGR614v6, you have NETGEAR WG624v2. Bad news is you two definitely have the same problem, good news is if we find a solution for one, it will help the other too.

You connect to the server with port 21157, then server let's your OS pick random port you will be using to play. 95% of the players get port 21000-22000 and then all is good, but some get other port and then the problems start...

Williamson was getting port 2000-3000, and he also saw only few people in the lobby, others on 100 loss (you probably see only those who have your port open), so you probably keep getting the "wrong" port too. You can check that with Wireshark (packet sniffer), Comodo (firewall) or any similar proggy, or you can just ask someone in the lobby, they will read it from their machines.

You said you saw your buddy's ping in the lobby, but did you see his ping when you joined his game, before you pressed launch? Even if you don't have any port issues, when you launch a game with host on 100 loss you will crash. To avoid that you have to rejoin the server untill you see the ping (but that's not your problem).

Bypassing the router worked. The game is as fun as I remember.
The router is wireless, but I'm wired into it.
I saw his ping in the lobby and in his game, however, he said he saw me at 100% loss the whole time. He was able to join other games and other people join his. He's got Vista as well, I think 32-bit tho. He's also behind a router, but I don't know what brand/model.
I'm going to try Wireshark and see what I come up with.

Thanks for your clear answers and for doing exactly what was suggested. Now we are sure it's your router. You can now start experimenting with router options, but there's a possibility it will never work... some routers are just not NAT friendly. At least you can play without it. If you make any progress please notify us.