Two computers with a network card in each of them.
Starcraft: Broodwar.
A D-Link router.
Internet connection (No dial-up-modem)
If you haven't ever handled a router and basically don't know anything about networking, this guide could be hard for you to understand. There can be many words that you would not of seen before, Therefore, I'll try to explain this on a low level, so that it doesn't matter how much you knew about it before.
Everytime your computer receives incoming data, it is sent to a port. Your computer has many different ports that can receive data and different activities will utilize different ports. Battle.net uses port 6112-6119 and 4000 to send your computer information via the protocols called TCP/IP and UDP. This is usually called port forwarding, but can also be called Virtual server. If you need any help with configuring TCP/IP and/or UDP, pay a visit to » http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=msi0423p to get information and suggestions about all kinds of networking.
If you haven't configured the battle.net ports before, you might be new to routers and firewalls too. A Router is a link that connects from your internet source (such as a modem) to your network and forwards it to computers in your network. Many routers have got a built-in firewall to block unknown sources to access your network, and that's what this guide is about - how you configure your router to "know" or "allow" the battle.net data to be sent to your modem -> through your router -> and to your computers. Anyhow, your router is operated through a tool called firmware (often built on the same basics as in a homesite) to access to all the necessary parts in your router, so that you may configure it.
First, here is a guide to help you update your firmware, note that all pictures are ment to be enlarged by clicking them:
If you want to update your firmware follow these simple steps:
*note that all your previous settings totally dissappears in your router when you update the firmware.
1.1 Visit the developer of your router in this case D-Link.com and go to the support section.
1.2 Select your product (in this case DI-604) and press the 'GO' button.
1.3 There are different versions of the DI-604 model, so look at your router and press the picture that matches your router. Once inside the the download section, simply download the latest firmware update and save it to your disk.
1.4 Go to your router and find the 'Tools' tab, then you also should find the 'Firmware' tab. Once you're there browse for the file and open it.
1.5 Now your firmware is updated. Like I said before, all previous settings are gone. So you now need to complete the guide step by step.
First of all you need to open the firmware of your router (in most cases 192.168.0.1) in your web browser. The pictures here are from a D-Link DI-604 router which is very common and not very advanced to operate. I highly recommend that you use the latest firmware version for your router, scince it sometimes makes it much easier to complete this guide. If you want help with updating your firmware, there is an explanation at the end of this guide. If you haven't got this router you need to refer to your own and try to find all the sections by yourself. If you haven't ever been inside the firmware before the login name probably is 'admin' (remove the quotes) and the password field should be left blank (usually). If you can't login you need to take a look in the manual for password and login name. If you have been inside the router before and changed password, but can't remember, you probably need to reset the router (read the manual for instructions). Anyhow here are the steps to follow:
2.1 Go to the 'LAN' menu.
Try to find some sort of 'Clients list'.
Check your both local ip-adresses for your computers and remember them. As you can see below mine are 192.168.0.129 and 192.168.0.170. Note that this is different from router to router so don't just copy mine! You can either do like this or open the winipcfg.exe file in your windows folder. (Not available in Windows XP). If you insist on doing it this way in XP you need to run ipconfig.exe in C:\windows\system32\ to see your computer's local ip, or press start -> run -> type "command" -> and type "ipconfig".
2.2 Go to the 'Advanced' menu.
As you can see here I've given the first ip (192.168.0.129) port 6112 and the second one (192.168.0.170) 6113 (the battle.net ports that the packages are sent through). It's important that you don't allow the same ports on both ip-adresses. I've also allowed port 4000 on the both computers, some routers also need to have port 27960 allowed too.
Apply the new settings and restart your router. This makes your connection disconnect for some seconds, but it's necessary.
I've tested many programs to handle this problem and I've found Zonealarm from Zone Labs inc. the easiest one to use. You need to set up the program to allow all ports in broodwar.
3.1 Download Zonealarm Pro from http://www.download.com and install it. Everytime you open a program with Zonealarm running, it asks if you want to allow it to access to internet. So if you start Starcraft.exe it will ask first if you want to. Just press "remember this program" and you will never see this info again.
3.2 Once you've installed and started it through start -> Programs -> Zone labs -> Zonealarm and started your trial period you should find this screen 'Program Control'.
If you didn't start starcraft.exe before you ran Zonealarm you need to add it to the list, press 'Add' in the bottom-right corner and browse for you starcraft.exe file in the original starcraft folder. Make the blue questionmarks turn into green ticks by simply left click them and chose 'Allow'.
3.3 Now you need to allow the ports in starcraft.exe, so mark starcraft in the list and press 'Options' in the down-left corner. Go to 'Expert rules' and Press the 'Add' button.
3.4 Just fill in the Name field with All and Press 'OK'. Your computer will now allow Starcraft to send and recive all packets sent through any port on battle.net of both TCP/IP and UDP kind.
