This should be the ultimate guide. Please try and follow it and let us know how it went.
Note:
EVEN IF YOU HAVE PLAYED 1000'S OF GAMES IN THE PUBLIC LEAGUES, THAT MEANS NOTHING. WHEN PLAYING IN PRIVATE LEAGUES YOU MUST OPEN YOUR PORTS. FAILURE TO OPEN YOUR PORTS WILL RESULT IN FAILURE. EVERYONE should do this. In theory if one person does it may work, but sometimes it still won't. In practice BOTH people need to do it. Step 1 is the big one, and fixes most people's problems.
The good news is, once done I've found the multiplayer game very reliable and since I've done is back at the start of season 2, have never had a problem.
1- Ports not forwarded to a static IP address. This would prevent you from connecting at all rather than making recurring disconnect happen mid game. Nevertheless it is worth to give it a check just in case. Some routers do not require any forwarding at all while others need this bit of tweaking to allow the game play properly. Double check that your ports are correctly forwarded just in case:
Port UDP 9103
Port TCP/UDP 16962
There are several ways to open your ports or to check they are open, but the following two sites are quite popular for help:
a)
http://www.portforward.com : this one is a classic, it explains how to creat static IP addresses and gives instructions step by step on how to forward ports in your router, it has an extensive library with (almost) any router.
B)
http://www.simpleportforwarding.com/download : this one I think is even better as it has a great application that does all for you. Its FAQ is also quite detailed and the admin, Shane, is lightning fast in responding to questions or issues using his application. EDIT: this tool has been updated and now you need to pay a fee to access the full functionality.
Note: Some routers may not need a static IP address as they already recognize each PC (or rather their network name) connected to the network. In those cases port forwarding has to be referenced to a specific PC name that shows in the available list at your router port managing menu.
2- Your router may be one of the ones that seem to be NOT quite compatible with Bloodbowl, see following threads for more info. In essence Bloodbowl data transmission code seems unable to handle certain router models and makes them disconnect randomly.
http://www.cyanide-studio.com/forumBB/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=14707http://www.cyanide-studio.com/forumBB/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=14131Some have attributed this instability of the game to the fact its data transmission system is based on UDP packages which allegedely are more prone to router issues.
Try for example connecting your ISP modem directly to your PC without the wireless router (if you have one) involved. See if you still have disconnects. If you dont then this isolates the problem to how the game interacts with your router.
3- You are maybe playing with a 2 screen set up and have pop up events in one making Bloodbowl disconnect/crash. See this thread:
http://www.cyanide-studio.com/forumBB/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=154954- Sync errors related to the animations while playing. Some disconnects have also been reported due to different animation options selected by each player. See post number 7 on page 6 of the following thread:
http://www.cyanide-studio.com/forumBB/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=14131&start=505- Also connection issues related to antivirus preventing bloodbowl exchanging data. Make sure your antivirus is set up to allow Bloodbowl through. This would prevent the game from connecting altogether so not sure this may be your problem.
6- BT Home Hub 2 in particular seems to have its share of issues but here a fix was confirmed to work for it:
http://www.cyanide-studio.com/forumBB/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=25385&start=20Again, make 100% sure nothing has changed in your system. If everything worked fine earlier but not anymore, chances are that something has changed albeit small. Maybe your ISP has introduced some changes in your line, maybe you have changed router, or its set up for portforwarding, or even its actual position.
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