The old NatNeg thread - How to avoid bouncing in Pitboss (without Gamespy)

[novice]

@Jojo_Fr: Open a command prompt and type

Code:

nslookup civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com

The result should give you the IP address 82.116.84.39. If it doesn't, there's a problem with your hosts file. The problem could be your antivirus software; you could try disabling it and then rerunning the nslookup command.

Also, the people you're trying to connect to need to have implemented the fix as well.

@Zulan, I don't mind at all - it's Caledorn's server though but he has indicated that he would be okay with anybody using it.

[sunrise089]

seems a lot of hard work considering evolve supports direct ip all you have to do his use the Hosts
IP from the party room

It depends on the crowd I think bantams.

For randoms (as many randoms as are left playing Civ IV) this is worse than Evolve since it requires some technical skill and a degree of trust. It's not as simple as 'sign up for this.' But because the Evolve solution is less than perfect, for RB our solution is probably superior. Our players tend to have the few minutes needed to apply the fix, our hosts tend to stick around, and our community tends to have better internal tech support than we'd have with a third party.

[NobleHelium]

@Jojo_Fr: Open a command prompt and type

Code:

nslookup civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com

The result should give you the IP address 82.116.84.39. If it doesn't, there's a problem with your hosts file. The problem could be your antivirus software; you could try disabling it and then rerunning the nslookup command.

No, this doesn't work. nslookup bypasses your hosts file even if it is set properly and goes a real DNS lookup, which is not what you want. So you can't confirm whether you've edited your hosts file correctly with this.

[spacetyrantxenu]

@Jojo_Fr: Open a command prompt and type

Code:

nslookup civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com

The result should give you the IP address 82.116.84.39. If it doesn't, there's a problem with your hosts file. The problem could be your antivirus software; you could try disabling it and then rerunning the nslookup command.

No, this doesn't work. nslookup bypasses your hosts file even if it is set properly and goes a real DNS lookup, which is not what you want. So you can't confirm whether you've edited your hosts file correctly with this.

While you can't do nslookup to check the name resolution you can effectively do the same thing by trying to ping civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com:

Code:

ping civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com

You should get back something like:

Code:

Pinging civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com [82.116.84.39] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 82.116.84.39:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

It's OK that the requests time out, that just means the receiving end is ignoring the ping request (which is fine). The important part is making sure that the IP address that resolves is 82.116.84.39 . If you're getting something else, try one of two things:

1. (Easiest): Restart your computer.
2. (Quickest): Flush your local DNS cache - Open a command prompt and enter:

Code:

ipconfig /flushdns

Depending on your operating system and UAC settings (if any), you may be required to run cmd.exe as administrator to flush your DNS cache. If you have trouble with that just restart your computer and try to ping civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com again. Don't try to do an nslookup civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com before you ping it or you'll populate your DNS cache with the wrong IP address again. Good luck!

[WilliamLP]

and our community tends to have better internal tech support than we'd have with a third party.

You mean you don't think you could get third party support to reverse-engineer the packets from a 10-year old game, and implement a server based on a protocol from a cached document that fixes the problem, for free?

[spacetyrantxenu]

and our community tends to have better internal tech support than we'd have with a third party.

for free?

Are you serious? Do you have any idea what it's costing to retain novice's and Caledorn's services? The costs are ruinous!

[Jojo_Fr]

@Jojo_Fr: Open a command prompt and type

Code:

nslookup civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com

The result should give you the IP address 82.116.84.39. If it doesn't, there's a problem with your hosts file. The problem could be your antivirus software; you could try disabling it and then rerunning the nslookup command.

Also, the people you're trying to connect to need to have implemented the fix as well.

@Zulan, I don't mind at all - it's Caledorn's server though but he has indicated that he would be okay with anybody using it.

nslookup civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com open a window which instantaneous close.

So I press Pause with the Keybord. And I see that :

Server : dsldevice.lan
192.168.1.254
dsldevice can't find civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com : Server failed.



I tryed to recheck the antivirus and firewall. All desactivated. I descativated the Antispybot. Then I got :

Server : dsldevice.lan
192.168.1.254
Non-Authorisative answer
Name : civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com

I retryed to connect to a game, and I am still always blocked (but maybe normal if it is "non authorisative answer").

[Jojo_Fr]

spacetyrantxenu,

ping civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com =

Pinging civ4bts.natneg1.gamespy.com [82.116.84.39] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 82.116.84.39:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),


You seem to say it's ok and should work. Anyway I tryed youripconfig /flushdns after, but the problem is still here.

[supsunny]

Hi,

Thank you so much from the entire Civ 4 community for providing a fix. We almost started loosing players due to evolve issues . thanx to you many of them have come back and we enjoy a non laggy DIP game. I have helped over 50 people to get this fix and bring them back to CIv 4 MP. I would say success rate has been over 99.99% as all of them are now playing via DIP but there are few exceptions like Jojo who i tried to help as well but coudn't fix his pc. I hope you guys can help him.


Although we have been able to host and connect players successfully without any problems, still like today we can't connect via direct ip. This happened few days back as well. Can someone look into this? Can we contact or email someone in case DIP stop's working for everyone?

Thanx alot in advance.

Regards
Sunny

[Lord Parkin]

Caledorn has had several thunderstorms where he lives recently, and has to take the Pitboss server offline for the duration of the storm - probably including the natneg server. The last one was just a couple of hours ago, and lasted for about an hour. It should be back now. Possibly this was related to your issue today?