>>>>>>PORT FORWARDING<<<<<<

Right, you have a router? Its impeeding your Dedicated Server or CS:S?
well heres how to open the ports on your router to maximise packet input and output in CS:S etc.

Note: The screen shots here are taken of my router, the Dell 2350, this may not have the same layout as your router.

FIRST!! make sure you know an admin login for your router, if you dont, ask the person who configured it or if you have no knowledge of there being configured one, the default login for admin should be:

Username: admin
Password: admin

ALSO!!! You will need to know your Interal IP. in order to get this you must:

a) Press start and then press "Run"
b) Type "cmd" into the little box that appears
c) When and if the black box comes up type in there "ipconfig/all"
d) Lots of crap should come up if entered correctly
e) Sift through the crap and find your "IP Address" this will be your internal one, we will use later

Right... NOW ONTO THE TUT!!!!!

Step 1) Type your router's IP into the address bar of your web browser (default is 192.168.2.1) if not then ask someone who knows :) or you can find out for yourself by:

a) Pressing start and then pressing "Run"
b) Typing "cmd" into the little box that comes up
c) When and if the black box comes up type in there "ipconfig/all"
d) Lots of crap should come up if entered correctly
e) Scroll down and stare at the crap you should find a line called "Default Gateway" and then an IP THAT Ladies and Gentlemen is your routers IP, or at least should be.

Step 2) Now that you have entered the IP in and hit the "ENTER" key a login box should appear; you must now login with your login details, and example is screenshot A.

Step 3) Now you should have access to the router screen, depending on the router there should be a menu somewhere, that allows you to port forward, usually under advanced settings, Screen shot B.

If you have any poblems with this step, either contact me by PM or on X - fire my username is "diggdude" and ill hold your hand all the way through it if you like ;) or

simply go to:

http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm

Select you router from the millions on the page, then select any old program and find out how to access your port forwarding menu


A QUICK BREATHER *Panting* Just to check we are all ok:

Considering that you have done all of the above; you should:

a) Have full admin access to your router
b) Be on the Port forwarding menu

Right... MOVING ON!

Step 4) Right we should be at the port forwarding menu. Screen shot C, We now need to add an entry to make the router open the ports we need to make our program fully functional, usually there is an add button or something simililar ;)

Step 5) A page or pop up should now appear and you can type in the details of your port forward. An example is Screen shot D

Step 6) Put in the details of the port you wish to forward, (for servers the default port should be 27015) if not, you can go in game (on CS:S) and open up the console and type "clientport" this should tell you the port CS:S will run on.

So for example if you want to port forward a server that is run on the port 27015, the layout should be something like this:

An example is Screen shot E

Check the enable box
Service name: hl2server
Incoming ports: 27015 - 27016
Destination IP Address: "Your Internal IP here, for example 192.168.2.4"
*Destination ports: 27015 - 27016
Port type: Check both UDP and TCP, or if its a drop down menu select "both"

*= This may not appear on your menu

Dont worry if yout input menu doesnt look like the one I have, just input everything you can and press submit.

THERE WE GO PORTFORWARDING HAS BEEN COMPLETED, Now wasnt that easy? :)

Next I will tell you all the ports you must open in order to make CS:S function properly in web games:

Like we did before with the server port forward, we must add a new entry by clicking "Add" or something similar (depending on your router)

Call this entry CSS1

it should be like so

Check the enable box
Service name: CSS1
Incoming ports: 27020 - 27039
Destination IP Address: "Your Internal IP here, for example 192.168.2.4"
*Destination ports: 27020 - 27039
Port type: Check TCP

Press submit

Now we need to create another, this time call it CSS2:

Check the enable box
Service name: CSS2
Incoming ports: 1200 - 1200
Destination IP Address: "Your Internal IP here, for example 192.168.2.4"
*Destination ports: 1200 - 1200
Port type: Check UDP

Press submit

Now we must make a final one, we will call it CSS3:

Check the enable box
Service name: CSS3
Incoming ports: 27000 - 27015
Destination IP Address: "Your Internal IP here, for example 192.168.2.4"
*Destination ports: 27000 - 27015
Port type: Check UDP

Press submit

DONE!! all the ports required for CS:S to run smoothly have been opened, and a happier CSS is only a button click away :D

Note: if you are port forwarding in order to make a server appear online, and you want the IP for people outside of your wireless network to connect with go here:

http://www.portforward.com/

Your external IP is situated at the bottom, this is the one people will connect to.

so the IP for your server will be:

ExternalIP:Port
For example

80.195.225.71:27015
for a server on the port 27015


If you have any Queries or are just plain STUCK
dont hesitate to PM me or talk to me on X-fire my username is "diggdude" Im here to help

ENJOY!!!!