[GraemeRoy]

Hi everyone, first post here - and of course I have a problem! It's really bugging me and I'm hoping someone here has some ideas to help.
Here's the scenario.
I play Age of Empires 2 with a laptop that connects via wireless router to my desktop. Both computers communicate freely - I share directories between the two, I can use the DirectPlay test in dxdiag to make sure they talk just fine. Everything I can think of to test that they are talking shows they are just fine.
My problem is that when I start a multiplayer game, on either machine it doesn't matter, I can see the game on the other computer - no problem. But when I click join, I get an error that says 'cannot join game'.
I can't figure out this problem. I've tried disabling any anti-virus (Norton) and worm detection that is running. I've tried opeing the appropriate ports through the router, although since it's a lan game I don't think that's the problem but I did it anyway. I've reinstalled both games and installed the appropriate patches. I've got DirectX9.oc on both.
It's been a little while since I played this with my son, but I can't recall when we last played - but it wasn't ages ago, I think we played over Christmas. Since Christmas I have installed a new DSL modem, and installed an Apple Airport Express so I can pipe itunes to my stereo over the network. I don't know if either of these things could make any difference, but I'm really starting to clutch at some straws. Plus, I don't know if I've successfully played the multiplayer part of the game since installing this stuff, I can't recall.
If anyone has any ideas, I'd really appreciate it. My little guy keeps asking me to play!
Thanks,
Graeme

[north_rider]

hi there
i also have a wireless router, I play aoe2 online at msn game zone, I had a problem with getting into games until i opened the right ports you can find it them on gamezone on the router make sure you have your firewalls set to ignore aoe, if you are playing through your modem online you may want to check the modems security settings. good luck

[GraemeRoy]

Thanks north_rider....a fellow Canuck!
I'll check the ports again, but I did open some from the info I've found elsewhere - I'll see what the game zone says. Although I'm not convinced that should have anything to do with it since I used it hundreds of times before without having to do anything at all. But who knows, when I installed my new Sympatico modem it changed system settings for sure. I had setup a static IP address for the machine and it got changed, so I guess anything could happen.
I'll give a look to the port settings again. I'm not usuing the Windows firewall at all, but have included AOE in the exceptions anyway.
Cheers,
Graeme