Multiplayer LAN Games between Vista and XP

[Javalr]

I want some help to connect a multiplayer lan game among Windows XP and Windows Vista computer. Some of my friends are trying to play a common fps game. The game is Age of Empires II. It is installed in Vista computer. I can see other Vista systems are able to connect, but the XP systems are not able to work. The same issue appear with Total Annihilation. Somehow multiplayer gaming is giving a issue. In network we can see each other. The pc can access share files also, but cannot be connected on the same gain. Is this issue related to the version of OS we have. The games on different computer are not able to connect with each other.

[Hayworth]

It looks issue with the firewall settings. Ensure that all systems are unblock. Sometime the security settings cause issue with connectivity where you can do nothing. Second thing you can try games like CS:Source. This games works better among different network. I had some XP computers which works well with Vista. Different games have different type of multiplayer settings. You can find a valid manual on web through which you can find the right way of connection. I never find issue with CS.

[Patter-Son]

I have Vista x64 operating system on laptop and a desktop with Windows XP installed on the same. Games like Command & Conquer works quiet well on LAN. My friends does the server setup. He first disable all security settings from this computer. The game must be installed well. At the multiplayer level the best game is CS. Here you just need to type the computer name or IP address. The commands are also very simply. To join a game you just need to type connect <name or ip of computer on lan>. It is right that games have different kind of settings. Ensure that all computers on your lan are on single workgroup and they have common access.

[Janairo]

It looks like a plain issue of firewall to me. Go on Control Panel and disable that from each computer. Once you do that it will work fine. Because firewall does not allow any incoming traffic without consent. If you are serious about the system security then you can do one more thing. Go to Firewall > Exception tab and add the game under the list. You have to do this manually to each and every system you have in the network. You can try some third party lan game servers. You can find ample of them on web. This lan game servers offer all computer to connect at single place. There are tons of games they support.

[Superlapin]

The Vista to XP Lan Games connection problems Solution!!

After trying to play several different lan games with my Vista equipped machine and not being able to join I finally found the way to make it work!! OH JOY! SO many forums browsed in vain. Finally I found it. For all of you, the problem was ipV6.

To fix that problem you need to disable ipv6:

1- Open the Network and Sharing Center in the Control Panel on the Vista equipped machine

2- Click on the little blue letters "View Status" next to your LAN connection (my wireless connection for me)

3- Then click on the Properties button (not wireless properties or anything else, just properties)

4- Click continue on the little annoying pop-up vista window if any

5- Now look for the field under "this connection uses the following items" there with Client for Microsoft Networks/QoS Packet Scheduler etc. You should find many of those with little checkboxes next to them.

6- Now i'm not very sure if it's only ipV6 that you need to disable, so to make sure, do steps 1-5 with you XP equipped machine to check what they have in that field, and keep the checkboxes checked for only those items. Uncheck everything else. I uncheked Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) , and the two Link-Layer ones.

7- Try again to join your lan game it should work fine ( it did for me and our Dungeon Siege 2 Lan Party!)

Hail! to the Grand Superlapin that saves us all!!!!

[Conquerorz]

The Vista to XP Lan Games connection problems Solution!!

After trying to play several different lan games with my Vista equipped machine and not being able to join I finally found the way to make it work!! OH JOY! SO many forums browsed in vain. Finally I found it. For all of you, the problem was ipV6.

To fix that problem you need to disable ipv6:

1- Open the Network and Sharing Center in the Control Panel on the Vista equipped machine

2- Click on the little blue letters "View Status" next to your LAN connection (my wireless connection for me)

3- Then click on the Properties button (not wireless properties or anything else, just properties)

4- Click continue on the little annoying pop-up vista window if any

5- Now look for the field under "this connection uses the following items" there with Client for Microsoft Networks/QoS Packet Scheduler etc. You should find many of those with little checkboxes next to them.

6- Now i'm not very sure if it's only ipV6 that you need to disable, so to make sure, do steps 1-5 with you XP equipped machine to check what they have in that field, and keep the checkboxes checked for only those items. Uncheck everything else. I uncheked Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) , and the two Link-Layer ones.

7- Try again to join your lan game it should work fine ( it did for me and our Dungeon Siege 2 Lan Party!)

Hail! to the Grand Superlapin that saves us all!!!!

Unfortunately, I'm not getting the same joy as you are. I'm facing the same problem but your 'fix' didn't fix anything. :cry:

I'm trying to get Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings to work.

I've searched through hundreds of forums and I'm on the verge of giving up.

My ports have been forwarded corrected. I've set firewall to allow all ports the game. I've done what you told and tried many other things.

Nothing is working. :cry:

[absolom7691]

This is a very OLD thread but, I recently had many many problems with this on Total Annihilation. Tried to get a LAN party together with one Vista box, one 7 box, and three XP boxes. The only way I was able to get all of them to see the host was to set static IPs on all the boxes.

I set them to 192.168.1.11X. Left the subnet mask at 255.255.255.0 and left the default gateway blank (when I originally set the default gateway as the router's IP address, the boxes would NOT see eachother).

The 7 box was hosting and the XP boxes saw it with no problems. The Vista box needed to have the firewall enabled with permissions set allow TA. Also had to search for the host via IP. All went well and we played all night.

This was after hours and hours and HOURS of mucking around with it. I don't know if it was a problem with the routing table in the router or what.... maybe TA uses old ports that a router will block, even if the boxes are all behind the firewall.... I am not sure. This was the only thing that worked.

NOTE: 2 of the XP boxes were VMs... they worked fine.

Hope this helps anyone who still enjoys this old classic as much as I do!