Set up your router for hosting

If you are planning to host games, it is highly recommended you set up your router for Full Cone connections. Full Cone is preferred over the Symmetric NAT_TYPE because once your router forwards Battlezone's port, any player can reach your game through it. Symmetric NAT gives each connection a different, unpredictable port which can sometimes cause issues.

For the exact definitions, see Nielk1's code notes.

The steps below are simplified on purpose and written for Windows 11. Look up your own router's documentation to find the equivalent settings. If you aren't sure about anything here, Google or your favorite AI tool can walk you through your specific setup if you give it screenshots and these steps.

Set a static IP for your PC

  1. Log in to your router's configuration interface. For most routers, this means entering an address like http://192.168.100.1 into your browser.
  2. Find the MAC address of your PC. There are two ways to do this:
    1. If your PC has a unique name, look for a client list in your router's web management console. Your PC should be listed with its MAC address.
    2. Open Command Prompt in Windows and enter ipconfig /all. Look for the Physical Address field and note its value. If it uses hyphens instead of colons, you may need to convert it depending on your router.
  3. Assign a static IP to your PC using its MAC address. This may differ depending on whether you use Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

Forward ports

Once your PC has its static IP, forward your Battlezone ports:

  1. Find the port forwarding section in your router settings.
  2. Set up a new port forwarding rule:
    1. Name: call the rule something like Battlezone or BZCC.
    2. Type: use UDP or Both.
    3. Ports: set ALL port values (for example Inbound and Outbound) to 17770.
    4. IP: use the static IP you set earlier.
  3. Host a game. You should now see a message in the lobby mentioning Full cone, which means it worked.
Not on the devtest branch yet? How to join VSR games.