I worked on a multiplayer game once, and I never had issues with people connecting. But I did host the server myself.
It's not unfair to request that users who want to host games should configure their router.
You could just allow the user to change ports and then suggest they use port 80. this might however clash with any webservers currently running on the LAN :)
Some nasty firewalls even scans packages and only lets HTTP packages through in which case you'll have to support wrapping your packages inside "html" :)
If people have an outside IP they should tell the others to connect to that IP. If there are multiple computers behind that IP then port forwarding must be used.
Having a master server hosted by you where servers "sign up" is another way to go but a bit harder and usually only recommended for huge online games.
This would allow the master server to direct the traffic, but hosts would still need their router configured. There's just no other way about it.
A last suggestion is to look at your default port. Is it within the user range (which I totally forgot :). Some routers might have whole port ranges open, while locking out anything outside those.
But don't start explaining people technical stuff. Tell them to look at their router manual. Even huge games like counterstrike and everquest needs open ports just to play.
You don't want to be excusing yourself. Make it very clear on your website and in the manual that this is a requirement. So people can see it before they buy, because then it's their own decision and can hardly come as a surprise later :)
A default router configuration however usually either blocks everything or nothing at all.
Please make sure that people have software firewalls turned off as those are guaranteed to be restrictive (*cough* windows firewall * cough*)
Zonealarm asks you if you want allow a certain program trying to send network packets access.
Long post. Maybe I repeated myself :)
It's not unfair to request that users who want to host games should configure their router.
You could just allow the user to change ports and then suggest they use port 80. this might however clash with any webservers currently running on the LAN :)
Some nasty firewalls even scans packages and only lets HTTP packages through in which case you'll have to support wrapping your packages inside "html" :)
If people have an outside IP they should tell the others to connect to that IP. If there are multiple computers behind that IP then port forwarding must be used.
Having a master server hosted by you where servers "sign up" is another way to go but a bit harder and usually only recommended for huge online games.
This would allow the master server to direct the traffic, but hosts would still need their router configured. There's just no other way about it.
A last suggestion is to look at your default port. Is it within the user range (which I totally forgot :). Some routers might have whole port ranges open, while locking out anything outside those.
But don't start explaining people technical stuff. Tell them to look at their router manual. Even huge games like counterstrike and everquest needs open ports just to play.
You don't want to be excusing yourself. Make it very clear on your website and in the manual that this is a requirement. So people can see it before they buy, because then it's their own decision and can hardly come as a surprise later :)
A default router configuration however usually either blocks everything or nothing at all.
Please make sure that people have software firewalls turned off as those are guaranteed to be restrictive (*cough* windows firewall * cough*)
Zonealarm asks you if you want allow a certain program trying to send network packets access.
Long post. Maybe I repeated myself :)