This behavior is actually correct. You should just need to open a rule allowing an out bound destination TCP port of 27030. Many firewalls by default allow all outgoing connection to be established so you may not need to create a rule.
Basics of TCP: When you connect to a server the destination port will be the port on the destination server, in this case 27030. Your computer will randomly pick a source port that is not currently being used on the computer. The remote server will communicate with you by sending packets back to your source port. The source port will be different for each connection to the server. How NAT plays into this: The NAT firewall will look at the source port your computer picked. If the firewall is not using that port for any other connections it will forward the TCP and track which server currently has a session using that source port. If another server behind the NAT firewall has already established a connection using the source port your computer picked the firewall will pick a new source port then forward the packet (with the new source port picked by the firewall) to the steam1 server. When steam1 replies the firewall will convert the destination port back to the port originally selected by your server and forward the packet to your server. You might have to read that a few times. In trying to be brief I may of made it sound a bit muddled. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of CHiLLZ Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 9:01 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [hlds] Port forwarding problem- random TCP port This is a multi-part message in MIME format. -- [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ] Ok, I have been trying to figure out why one of my servers is not showing up on the master server list, and I think I have the issue nailed down. I am running a Win2k Server box behind a basic NAT router. People can join my the game if I give them the IP, and I can see it on the LAN tab, but it never shows up in the master server list in steam. I have observed the packet traffic on the connection and found the following when starting the CS:S dedicated server... Every time the server runs there is UDP traffic from the server box to the steam1 (207.173.177.11) and steam2 (207.173.177.12) master servers, both over UDP port 27015. The other traffic that happens every time the server runs, are TCP packets trying to reach port 27030 of steam1 (207.173.177.11). No surprise right? Well, if it were being SENT from TCP port 27030 on my server that would make sense, but here is where the problem occurs... every time I run the server, hlds.exe uses a different TCP port to *send* those TCP packets from that are destined for TCP port 27030 of steam1!!! So for instance- 3 TCP ports that were used by my server on 3 consecutive startups: 1212, 1306, 1411 These ports appear to be totally random and nowhere near the 27030-27039 range that we are told to forward. Correct me if I am wrong, but this seems to make it impossible for complete and proper data exchange to occur (as far as I can tell so far) because not only does my hlds send packets from those random ports, but the steam server then tries to *talk back* to my server on those ports, which of course does not work since I have no way of forwarding that port because it changes EVERY time I restart the server. Hence my guess that this is why it wont show up in the master list. So the bummer about all this is now I am pretty sure what is wrong, but am no closer to solving the issue than when I started. I have already tried specifying the IP and port in my startup command line and that has not made any difference. There was a somewhat similar issue on Unreal Tournament 2003 dedicated servers when that game first came out and the developers wound up having to code in a check for the server "port swapping" the query port. This makes me sad to think there might be a similar issue here that is beyond my control. Which would also mean that we would have to wait for a fix... ugh. Thoughts anyone? - CHiLLZ -- _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
