Multiplayer Gaming

[Rabster]

Any help on this would be appreciated on this one as I cannot play multiplayer.

2 night ago I played 2 DirectIP games for the first time where I conected to a host and everything was fine. Last night I tried to host 2 people at different times without success. I also couldn't connect to a host either.
I really wanted an online game so wasted a couple of hours trying to register matchup without success. I keep getting the system error (99).

I am running XP with IE 6 SP1. I have the original game which I pre-ordered from Amazon and works great in stand alone. I have re-installed FIFA 2003 as a clean install. I am getting really frustrated at the lack of support from EA's official support forum.

 

[iceboy]

make sure both parties don't have firewall on. Host should be waiting first, then the other person connect to it.

 

[Rabster]

Yeah, tried that mate. I have crappy mcafee and disabled the firewall and anti-virus for the game. The thing is I could connect the night previously. I'll check again tonight. BTW, is it worth pinging each other first to make sure you can both contact each other?
Anyone know a fix for this sysem error (99) on the matchup. I was just wondering if they were releated.

 

[iceboy]

No idea on matchup. Anyway what i wrote was my experience on playing directip some time ago.

For my case, restarting pc before playing might also work cause sometimes, games detect funny ip which my friends couldn't use when i was a server. Restarting pc seems to reset it or fix the ip.

 

[Rabster]

Cheers for the input Iceboy, I'll give it a try tonight.

 

[Rabster]

This might sound like a daft question but can anyone confirm to me that if before playing a DirectIP game both players should be able to ping one another. I am trying to get a game with a guy from Israel, I live in Scotland, and when he tries to ping me he is getting a timeout. I tried another UK user and the game worked fine and he could ping me.
Any ideas guys?

 

[bizjer]

im sure lots of you already do this but b4 u start the mp game do restart match a couple of times.it helps with connections..since ive been doing it ive had little or no out of syncs or bad lag in a game

 

[NerazZurRo]

for Direct IP.. the host doesn't necessarily have to be able to ping the other player.. while whoever's trying to connect should be able to ping..
if the guy was getting a timeout then probably due to heavy traffic esp he's in israel.. it's a good idea to try to play after 10 p.m as the connection is generally better..
about the system error (99) it happened to me and could be due to a couple of reasons:
1- u have to download the internet explorer 6 SP1
2- make sure ur IE6 browser isn't set to "work offline"

 

[Rabster]

I downloaded IE 6 SP1 and it's not set to offline. Thanks for your input though mate. It seems a lot of people have had this problem but EA can't give an answer.
Cheers for the feedback on the timeouts though. I'll definitely try the game later which is Ok for me but maybe not so for my opponent as he is 2 hours ahead but that's not my problem.
Cheers also for clearing up who should be able to ping who.I wasn't sure as it's along time since I've done any network stuff. In fact is was Win95 with NT4.0 and Novell 4.1 servers so my memory is a bit vague.

 

[Rabster]

DirectIP is OK now but I can't play matchup. Any ideas anyone? Ea are really pissing me off on this one. Seems to be a lot of people that have had the problem but no one has been given an answer or an indication of what may be causing the problem.