Member Avatar for Jon1234

Hi.

I've been trying to set up a server for No One Lives Forever 2 on my pc. I have a cable modem connected to a motorola wr850g router with an ethernet cable. I have windows xp if you want to know what os.

The problem is that I can't get the game to connect to the server through the internet when I use the router. I've tried disabling the router's firewall, port forwarding. I read some instructions online for port forwarding that didn't seem to work () and also checked the manual. Maybe I was doing it wrong.

I don't want to use dmz and I'd rather leave the router's firewall on.

These are the ports that the game uses:
UDP: 27888 port
TCP: "2300-2400, 7000-10000"

When it comes to port forwarding, it won't let me enter a range for the ports, only 1 port at a time, but I can enter a range when using port triggering.

Does anyone have a better explanation of how to get this to work?

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Dani AI

Generated

already covered the obvious router-side steps (firmware, DMZ, forwarding and firewall toggles), so here are the next, practical checks and tests that actually find the usual culprits.

Make sure the game server is really listening on the PC and on the LAN address you forwarded to. On the Windows XP host run:

ipconfig /all
netstat -an | find "LISTEN"

Confirm the server shows a LISTEN (or UDP bound) entry and that the local address is either 0.0.0.0 or the LAN IP you forwarded. If it isn’t, set a static LAN IP (or a DHCP reservation) and make the server bind to that address.

Verify nothing on the PC is blocking traffic: Windows Firewall, personal firewalls or security suites can still block even when the router firewall is off. Either add explicit allow rules for the server executable/ports or temporarily disable the PC firewall while testing.

Check for double‑NAT / ISP NAT (this is a very common silent blocker). Look at the router’s WAN/Internet IP in its status page and compare it to your public IP (use a separate device or service to see your public IP). If the WAN IP is in a private range (10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x–172.31.x.x, 192.168.x.x) your ISP or modem is NATing you; port forwarding on your router won’t reach the internet. In that case ask the ISP for bridge mode or a public IP, or place the modem/router into passthrough.

Test from outside the LAN (hairpin NAT on some routers prevents testing from inside): have a friend connect, use a phone on cellular, or use a remote port tester. For TCP you can try telnet <public-ip> <port>; UDP requires a packet tester (or a real client). If TCP succeeds but UDP fails, focus on UDP forwarding and any router settings that affect UDP.

Security note: avoid long-lived DMZ; forward only the required ports once tests pass. If these steps fail and the modem+router combo still blocks inbound traffic, try a known-good router or contact the ISP — in practice the issue is almost always either the host not listening, a PC firewall, or upstream NAT.

Member Avatar for Jon1234

I just tried updating the firmware to the latest version (6.1.4). The new version lets me enter a port range when using port forwarding. I tried everything with this new version, but I still can't host a game server when using the router.

I disabled the firewall, used dmz, tried port forwarding, port triggering, everything I thought might have some effect on it.

I still can't connect to my game server while using the router.

So, unless I'm doing one of these things wrong, this router just isn't going to let me host a server.

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