Solution to AOE2 + MSN Zone + MSN Dsl not being able to play multiplayer on The Zone

[AJ Stanilawski]

I came up with a solution, after much research on various forums and
Newsgroups. You were on the right track when you said the packets were not
reaching the machine, because of NAT. You need to go into the arescom
router configuration. You can download a gui version of this software at
ftp.arescom.com/pptp. After installing this software, if you know the
password, you can gain access to the router configuration information. When
you start the software it automatically finds the router attached to your
computer. You then have a window in front of you that has three options.
Configuration, Status, and Tools. You click on the Configuration Symbol and
that will open up another windows with other various options. You then want
to click on the general configuration option. This will open another screen
that is in directory form. You then look for "Auto Forwarding Table" You
click on it, and by default, there is no table set up. You then click on
the "Add" button to add the enable both the TCP and UDP ports that AOE2
uses. It also has a place to enter a "control port". The last value you
need to enter is the ip address of your computer, which is being assigned to
you by the arescom router. For that value I entered 192.168.1.2, which is
the IP address that is being assigned to my computer. You also need to add
ports from the "High" to "Low" range for the ports that AOE2 uses, and a
control port. I added ports 2300 (for the low range) to 2400 (for the high
range) for both TCP and UDP, and used 47264 for my control port. After I
added those, I now have 2 entries in my "Auto Forwarding Table" for my
router configuration. Please pass the good word to your colleagues at MSN
dsl! Thanks for your help. You and the person at Microsoft games were by
far the most helpful!