worldaddress Issue. Please Read

[Draugr]

Hi,
I am trying to setup a server and I've been having some issues. Let me list them and perhaps someone might know the answer to the question I'm going to ask.

In the loginserver.ini I have the following line.

worldaddress=192.x.x.x

That IP is the server local IP. If I use that line I can login to the server from my workstation, but after creating a character I get brought back to the Login screen.

A friend of mine tried logging in from his home and got the 1017 error.

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Now If I change the worldaddress line to:

worldaddress=68.x.x.x <---My Internet IP

I try to login and after selecting the server I get brought back to the login screen. I don't even get to the character Creation screen.

At the login screen I'll try to login again and after hitting connect, before I get to the server select screen I get the 1017 erorr from the last attempt I made.

Ok, here is my thoughts and I'd appreciate it if anyone might be able to confirm them and possibly offer a resolution.

Ok, when I select the 192.x.x.x local server IP, I can connect and get to the character creation screen because I am within my LAN, even though I'm accessing the server through EQEmu's login servers and not the minilogin.
My friend can't login and gets the 1017 because the current world address is set to a local 192.x.x.x which isn't detectable by the4 internet.

NOW!

If I switch the worldaddress to my INTERNET address, then I can't connect because I'm within the LAN and on this side of the router. In other words, I'm not an external IP or Workstation trying to connect, I am internal, and as with most online games like Diablo II, NWNs, etc... If I try to access my server through a hosting service like gamespy, I cant connect, yet anyone external can. I'd have to use my local 192.x.x.x address to connect while all outsiders use the Internet address. What I'm wondering is this. When I set teh worldaddress to my 192.x.x.x internal IP I can connect because I'm withing the LAN, but my friend can't because he is an outsider trying to access an internal only IP. When I switch the world address to my Internet IP I can no longer connect for the same reasons I can't connect to a Diablo II or NWNs game I'm hosting. I can't go out through the router then come back in. It just won't work that way with any games, so I can not log in.

So, I have two questions. First does this sound correct and could this be the issue? Secondly, is there a way to setup the server so I can access it from within my LAN and others can access it from outside the LAN through the EQEmu login servers?

Finally, can some of you please try to access my server and tell me if you are successful or not? The server name is Draugr's World.
I'd be very appreciative. I want to see if when I set the world address to my itnernet addy only outsiders can login.

Again, if anyone can help me here, Id appreciate it. Sorry for the long message...Ohh and yes I have the ports open in my router. Actually, I have the IP set to the default entryline which automatically opens all ports for that IP.

John

[Edgar1898]

here is what is happening when you connect your world server to the login server:
1. Login Server stores your servername/ip into memory exactly as you have it.
2. Whenever someone connects to the login server it retrieves your servers name/ip from memory and sends it to the connecting player along with all the other server names/ips.
3. When the client hits connect it uses the ip it was last sent for that particular server and tries to connect to it.

If you put in an internal lan ip, then only people inside your internal network can play because anything in the 192.168.x.x is not routable on the internet. To allow people to play on your server from the internet you need to do the following:

1. Put in your server's correct world accessible IP address.
2. Open port 9000 on your router to allow any traffic to come into your world server.
3. Open all ports that your using to run the zone servers. (Located inside boot5zones.bat if your using it. Typically 8000-8999). You only have to open the ports you are actually using. Ie if your using ports 8878 and 8890 then open just those ports or you could open a range if you have them all sequencial.

[Draugr]

Edgar,
I pretty much know that much already. What I'd like to know is this. If I set my world address to my internet IP, then how do I connect to the server too? If I use my local IP then I can get in, but outside plaeyrs can't. If I use the external (Internet) IP, then outsiders should be able to get in, but I can't because I'm within the LAN and can't see the external Internet IP. How can I make it that I can join the server from within my LAN and also have outside people log in over the web?

[Draugr]

I just went to check my server to see if anyone has logged in.

It appears 2 people tried to login but they get disconnected after making their character. I had the same thing happen to me when I set the world address to my internal IP. I was hoping that the problem I was getting, logging in, making a character then entering the world, only to be returned to the logon screen, was just a internal problem. It appears that it also happens to external players when I switch my world address to the Internet IP. Does anyone know what might be causing this? I'll attach a pic of the world.exe window and the zone.exe window.

I'm using the latest release version of 5.1 and the latest moving database released on 11/27 as listed in the World Design forum of this board.

http://soznet.net/problem2.jpg

[a_Guest03]

Take a peek at the NAT guide, featured last of the stickied tutorials in the tutorial forum.

[Draugr]

Guest,
Thanks alot for the pointer. It helped. Now I can login to my server properly as can external players. BUT!!!! I still have a problem. I'm still getting the issue listed above, where I log in, create my cahracter then hit Enter World. It acts like its going to let me in, then BOOM I'm back at the login screen that pops up when you first load EQ. If you look at the jpg here you can see the error message my server is getting.

http://soznet.net/problem2.jpg

This damn problem is a biatch! I thought the 1017 was bad, this one seems to be more annoying.