Tried looking for a similar thread to post in, got lost. ;(

Here goes...

When playing soldat, it's usually with bots offline, or by joining others online games. I just tried hosting a game, and a friend tried connecting, but he said a dedicated server option appeared and he couldn't connect. Any ideas what i can do to let him in? I looked for a dedicated tab/checkbox in the settings menu but found nothing.

So you're trying to host a dedicated server? I believe you have to use the dedicated server application, not Soldat. Also, make sure you have all the necessary ports open and other such steps by reviewing this information.

I'm just trying to host a regular ol' net game. I have zone alarm, windows XP's firewall, and the firewall that came with mah' modem. I'm sure that's going to cause some problems with connections. I know how to access the router's terminal and open/close ports for the game. Which ports exactly should I leave open?

"Never forward clients: if you have a firewall with open ports check this, so that clients don't have to override the firewall through the lobby server."

Not sure about this either. Should this be enabled in my case, or disabled?

Gah, and I shoulda put this in the server corps forum. ;(

Soldat requires whichever port you're hosting on and the port 10 above it to be open. For example, if you use 23070, you'd also need 23080.

If you're certain that your firewall(s) all have the appropriate ports open, then I would enable the Never Forward Clients option.

Okay, I opened up them ports...somehow, after a half hour of trying to figure out how.

But my ping (i've been told), doesn't ping when people scan for the server. They say it's just ????.

:3 Did I break something. >,<

Also, quick question. Do a lot of folks with broadband have to mess with these ports, or are they usually open by default? And in general, can people create a server right off the bat that connects with folks via internet?

No, it is because of your firewall. Are you sure you opened all the ports?

Yeah, that happens to me too, I always shut down the whole firewall; it doesn't give me an ability to go to the internet :P

The thing is, i've never messed with firewalls before. I can turn them all off easily enough (maybe not the built in modem firewall though), is it recommended I close any background explorer windows after turning them off? (or lowering security settings)

Yeah, you should turn the whole firewall off. That should do it.