Here I have created some kind of checklist. This should also be portable to other computers or software, because the tricky parts are always the same. I would recommend connecting your PC to the Router via cable at first.
Normally a Firewall retards data coming through on the from Reflex uses ports. Reflex must be listed in the exceptions list of your firewall. Normally this happens automatically. But it might be that this function is switched off.
This instruction is for the built in Windows Firewall:
- Open the System Panel
- Open the Windows Firewall
- In TAB “General” active must be selected.
- In TAB “Exceptions” you must activate the function “Notification if a program is blocked by Windows Firewall”.
Open the configuration panel of your router.
- Go to the network settings
Standard settings are:
- DHCP: on
- PPPoE Pass-Through: Off
- NAT & Port: On and all on “Preset”
- Dynamic DNS: Off
Security:
- Filters: Off
To create a flight meeting by yourself where others can participate there are some more settings necessary:
The IP-Address of my PC is fixed. This is necessary because the router must know the address where to forward external requests. My PC has the IP 192.168.178.21.
How to set a fixed IP-Address:
* Open the network settings in the System Panel
* Go to LAN-Connection
* Click on “Properties”
* select Internetprotocoll (TCP/IP) and go to „Properties“
My settings are:
IP-Address 192.168.178.21. The router IP-Address is the standard gateway address, in this case 192.168.178.1. This is the same number that you opened the router configuration with. The subnet mask is responsible that all requests, except of those for the local network, are forwarded to the DNS-server. The DNS-server is also the router on my PC; therefore it has the same IP-Address.
Make the following settings in the router configuration:
* Click on “Network”
* Click on „Network / NAT & Ports“
* “Define new rule”
* Go to Web-server and enable the ports for Reflex with the following settings:
1. Name: Reflex 1, Protocol must be UDP and Port 6073 must be enabled
2. Name: Reflex 2, Protocol must be UDP and Port is a range from 2302 – 2400
To make sure that requests from outside can be forwarded to our PC it is necessary to route them to our Reflex PC.
Settings of Router:
* Click on “Network”
* Go to NAT and Port rules
* NAT :ON
* Standard server, use server: ON
* Put in the IP-Address of the Reflex PC, in this case 192.168.178.21.
Addition:
IMPORTANT: If the IP adress of the Host is changed during the session, others can not participate anymore and the meeting is listed still some time after ending. The IP-address does change e.g. after a forced disconnection of the Internet provider or after a longer inacitivy. I am not talking about the IP-Address in you hone networt, but about the IP-Address of your router in the Internet, which is assignet by the Internet provider with each new connection.
If I configure my router normally, it cuts the connection after 5, 10 or 15 minutes inactivity. The problem is, that if I open a meeting and during this time no other participants appear there is no activity and we have a "dead meeting" where nobody can attend. Note: Another setting to be made is on the network card of your computer. The function "TCP segmentation Offload" must be switched off. This function transfers some jobs from the network communication from the CPU to the network card - similar to graphics cards.
Have fun
Klaus Eiperle
