For those who are tired of Hamachi or haven't figured out how to connect with GameRanger, I'll try to explain...
Fellow players, I need help.
1. I downloaded Heroes 3 Platinum, Russian version 4.0.0.0, and installed it.
2. I installed GameRanger.
3. When I try to join a game, it says that I might have connection problems because I'm behind a router.
(The link provides more information about this issue: Symmetric NAT Router
Your internet connection is behind a Symmetric NAT Modem/Router that will prevent you from hosting all games, and from joining peer-peer games.
The solution to this problem will involve you configuring your router. Most routers are configured through a web page built into them. You may be able to reach yours here.
Many recent routers support a feature called Universal Plug and Play (UPnP). This feature will allow GameRanger to do most of the configuration required. You will need to enable it to allow GameRanger to make changes. Not all routers support UPnP correctly, however, so that may not be enough.
The alternative is to manually configure your router to do port-forwarding for UDP port 16000. Ask your ISP (Internet Service Provider) or refer to your router's instruction manual for assistance here.
Port-forwarding tells the router to send the game communication data to your computer. The port-forwarding configuration page will ask you for a public port and a private port. Set both of those to 16000. In some cases, instead of asking for a public port, it will ask for a port range (eg. Start Port, End Port). Set the Start and End to 16000. It will also ask you for the IP address of your computer that the data should be sent to. It may call this the LAN IP, Local IP, or Private IP. This should be set to 192.168.3.21. If it asks you for the protocol or type, set it to UDP.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to offer step-by-step instructions here as every router is different.
If you are at work on a company network or at a university, you may not be able to fix the problem yourself. Instead you may have to ask the network administrator to how to port-forward UDP port 16000 to your computer.)
4. If I try to ignore it by clicking "continue," it still launches Heroes – the intro screen appears, but instead of an arrow, there's a loading icon (it's either loading or trying to connect, I don't know), and it just hangs there. I have to Alt+Tab and close it.
Question for the experts.
What should I do? I'm connected via a regular cable (Ethernet) through my local provider. I'm not very knowledgeable about opening/closing ports, IP addresses, etc. Should I contact the administrators? Or could the problem be something else? I read on a website that this is just a warning – that you can play anyway, but configuring the router will be better. But I can't play.
I would be grateful for a clear and simple explanation.
Thank you.
