I don’t often get time to play games any more but when I do a quick multiplayer game of Age of Empires 2: The Conquerors is still one of my favourites. Each time I come to play at least one of the computers in the house has been reinstalled and requires AOE to be setup on it again.
The problem I always come across, and one that many others seem to have come across, is that the computers can’t find the game. None of them have firewalls activated and they are all able to communicate with each other for other tasks
The trick is in the connection type when setting up and joining the game. It seems like a really odd choice but select “IPX Connection for Direct Play“. The most obvious choice would be a “TCP/IP Local Area Network” connection but no games are ever found.
To use the IPX protocol you may have to set it up in the network settings for your LAN connection. This can be done in a few simple steps:
- Go to the “Control Panel”.
- Double-click on “Network connections”.
- Right click on your LAN Connection and choose Properties.
- In the list of protocols, choose Add.
- Click Microsoft, and then click IPX/SPX Compatible Protocol
- Click ok to add the protocol
- You may need to restart
If I remember correctly this was also a problem for Age Of Empires 2 without the Conquerors expansion as well. Its always best to double check firewall settings as well because they seem have a habit of blocking things you’ve already asked them not to.
43 Comments
Wow this helped a lot, THANKS!
Thank you! This was excellent post.
I’ve been trying to figure this out for a few days, but now I can finally play some AOE.
This was an outstanding contribution. loads of guff all over the web with TCP-this and Port-that, and of course Microsoft still cling to the IPX protocol buried in the bowels of every Windows they ever released. This worked straight away. Thank you so much.
Still doesn’t seem to be working… I want to know if we are to use the IPX connection or the Local Lan Connection…
Thanks
Thank you! this helped a lot I can finally play some AOE
I’m using a laptop with XP and a desktop with ME. linked by a wireless LAN, and i’ve tried a cable. I’ve tried hosting on both computers about 50 times and have tried IPX/LAN/TCP. I can see the game on the other computer using LAN or TCP but I cannot join it. Except for one time when it randomly let me join it (both computers trying TCP on wireless LAN).
Neither computer can find the other when using IPX.
As per some other post on a forum, I disabled “internet gateway”. The game worked great using the LAN setting, and I could play on my LAN – however, I could not use the internet (which is more important than AOE) and had to reinstall a bunch of software to get the internet to work again.
Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Thank you.
Oh, I also installed an LLTD responder as someone mentioned it might help.
I have the IPX/SPX protocol on my list of protocols, but AOE2 Isn;t Picking it up, It only has the 4 Usual ones.. =’[
Can anyone help?
with no firewalls on and all ports open and with all protocols you mentioned adding working perfectly on both sides (my friend and I) AOE just doesnt seem to want us to play multiplayer… any suggestions?
i got 2 pcs and on the one i can see the game but then cant join. on the other i jus cant see it. any suggestions? i done the stuff above on both pcs and restarted both.
how to do this in vista?
me and my friends used to play aoe 2 over tcpip all the time, but now we cant connect the only way we can find each others game is using hamachi, but then it just says unable to join game. i can still play with lan though. im about to try using a cat 6 ethernet cable hope it works.
I tried to setup to ipx setting both on my pc and laptop and tried to connect them, i can see the game created on my pc frm laptop but then connection fails.
What should i do??
I have query regarding local connection problem. Previously we can play dota in our office during lunch break using our company’s LAN connection but after quite some time, we can no longer see each other’s created game. Can you please advise me how to resolved this problem?
Many Thanks!
Awesome, tip – it works now! Thanks.
aint creating a server any buddy can help me????mr_jagaur@live.com
I’m having a similar problem.
When I start a LAN game i scan see the game on my other PC but when to go to join it tries to join but fails(usually takes more than 15 seconds). I tried using the IPX/SPX Compatible Protocol and i cant even see the game. I restarted and still nothing shows up. Can anyone help me?
Hi, I like to play AOE2 with my friends on the Local Area Network (LAN) connection. We usually play 4 people against 4 computers . Somewhere closer to the middle of the game everything ridiculously slows down. I have tried to set screen to 800*600 with low details but it barely helps. Does anyone know what could possibly slow it down so bad? Thank you.
where is the ‘add button’ on 4th instruction.
i cant find.. can you please make pic~!
thank you..
I, like everyone else here, was frustrated w/ AOE2. I have to PCs (XP, wired) and one laptop (Vista, wireless). McAfee is running everywhere. I dorked around the other night and was able to get the laptop to see and connect to PC#2. It could see PC#1 but couldn’t connect. (All these connections are via Local TCP/IP). I got there by making sure McAfee wasn’t blocking things. I’d hit Windows-D to iconize AOE2 right after trying to connect (iconize both PCs) and then click the ‘Allow’ popup (if it showed up) for AOE2. You can also bring up McAfee> Internet & Network > Configure > Firewall Protection is Enabled > Advanced… > Program Permissions and it’ll show (hopefully) “Full Access” for AOE2.
But this DIDN’T work for PC#1. I made sure all were configured the same way in McAfee. Today I searched and found the above blog. On my way to install the IPX protocol (I never did), I right clicked on my network and selected Properties. I then clicked the ‘Advanced’ tab and ‘Settings…’. Windows Firewall is ON but the box below it is unchecked, allowing for exceptions. I then clicked on the ‘Exceptions’ tab and made sure all the Age of Empires lines were checked (exception enabled). Once I did this, all three found and connected to each other. This afternoon I’ll finally get to take on my two sons.
Note: I tried to check these settings on Vista, but it is different and since it worked, I stopped worrying about it.
Hope this helps! These were the best $9.84 each I ever spent at Walmart!
thank, it’s work
Hey thanks for this. It works great.
works OK with WinXP ‘cos it comes bundled with NWlink IPX/SPX compatible communication protocol..but for Win Vista i guess have to wait n watch for updates since vista does’nt have it as standard attachment.one can always add the protocol to Vista but it might cause system instability
It doesn’t seem to work… plus, on one of my computers I don’t have administrator rights.
The weird thing about the problem is that sometimes, the connection works perfectly, I played many games on LAN with 2, 3, 4 computers. But most of the time, it just won’t find any games.
What “add” button? I can’t find it.
AOE II is the most broken game I have EVER seen…
Im so k00l, but me no likey tis game kus twas nubs in microsuck dnt no how 2 make tis game work in lan mode
hihihihi
Solution for problem “Unable to play AOE2 over LAN”
Brief summary of Problem:
Two laptops, one running on Windows Vista(SP1) and another on Windows 7 are unable to play Age of Empires 2 multi player game via Wireless LAN.
Note:
The problems faced by you might be similar to this blog, however you can skip the steps if they are not applicable in your case.
Working Solution:
We had this problem for 2 weeks, and couldn’t find an exact solution anywhere. After a lot of search and consolidating all the suggested solutions from
various blogs and by exploring ourselves we were able to solve this. We’ve been playing the game without any problems for the last few months.
First symptom and resolution:
Able to get a response when the Vista machine was pinged from the Windows 7 machine but unable to get a response vice versa. Found that network
discovery was disabled on the Vista Machine and for some reasons we were unable to change it. The Vista machine had kaspersky antivirus(KIS8.0)
running, we stopped/disabled it.
We then started and set the following windows services to ‘Automatic’ ( Go to run –> services.msc and hit enter) as mentioned at http://forum.kaspersky.com/index.php?showtopic=75110
– SSDP Discovery
– dnscache
– fdrespub (functional discovery resource publication)
– UpnP device host
We were then able to enable network discovery on the vista machine and ping each others’ machines.
Second Symptom and resolution:
Able to host the game on one machine but unable to find it from the other. Found out that Kaspersky protection on the vista machine was automatically
enabled which was again blocking the game’s communication in one direction. We disabled kaspersky and were able find the game.
Third Symptom and resolution:
Able to host the game and find it, but unable to join. Then we installed the microsoft patch from
http://download.microsoft.com/download/aoeaok/Update/2.0a/W9XNT4/EN-US/Age2upA.exe
as specified at http://www.simonsarris.com/node/23.
Fourth Symptom and resolution:
After installing the patch we were unable to launch empires2.exe. We then replaced the file empires2.exe from an archive that was taken before
installing the patch. It worked normally.
Fifth Symptom and resolution:
After following the above steps, we were finally able to host a multi player game, find and join it. But when we start the game, we get an error
message don’t quite remember the exact message, but it suggested something like incompatible versions. As suggested in some forums, we looked at the
compatibility options of empires2.exe. (Right click empires2.exe > Properties > Compatibility). In both the machine configure the compatibility
settings as follows
Check “Run as Administrator” and “Run this program in compatibility mode for Vista”.
Ongoing Usage:
. But the last and important notes in
Finally after the above troubleshooting steps we were able to play the multi player game via LAN. Felt proud
strict order as:
Add age of empires to the firewall exceptions in the anti virus programs / Windows Firewall
Disable Kaspersky protection (or your antivirus protection).
Launch the game on the Vista machine first and later on the Windows 7 machine
Game has to be hosted on the Vista machine and the Windows 7 machine should join it
Have a look at the readme.txt shipped with the game. Some option there as well might help.
how do I do this in windows 7 or windows vista??????
thanks!!
Indeed, how to do this in win7?
I have 2 Laptops, both have Windows 7 with Microsoft Security Essentials. I want to play Multiplayer Game AOE 2 on WAN / Wireless Connection, I tried many options but all in vain. Please help, my email ID is cmoonpk@gmail.com
thank you, I’ll try that
Hey, I looked after, IPX isn’t supported on win7 and on Vista.
So there is no nativ IPX/SPX support from Microsoft starting with Windows Vista.
Is there an other way to get it work?
I have 3 notebook (2 windows XP, one win7 64-bit) and I have a PC with a win7 64bit operating system.
Now, I want to make a lan game with my friends, but with the win7 x64 operating system somehow doesn’t compatible with the windows XP-s, or I don’t know what is this.
So I can make an 1v1 with the win7x64 comps and with the windows XP-s comps but I can’t make them work together.
I turned off every firewall, I am playing on LAN so I didn’t open ports, I reinstalled the games singly on every computers, I downloaded the patches, I tried it wireless connections and with cabel connections, and I have Avast installed on my computers(I think it doesn’t makes sense).
All in all it just shows ping 30 when a Windows 7 join to a server hosted by a notebook that has windows XP.
One interesting thing:
If I restart my network and I host a game, I can join with both computers. The server will see all, but the computer see only ping 30 to each other. I can even start the server, but I there is a waiing forever because of the other computers doesn’t see each others, they see only the server ? … wtf?o.O
Anyone, if you recognise any source of the problem, please help me. Thank you!
OK, I realised it!
If you play on LAN UPnP must be disabled ni the router
So if anyone has 30 ping that can mean, you didn’t disable the UPnP “protection”.
How do you get the IPX protocol on windows 7?
How do I do this in Windows 7
OK i know its been a while since the last post. However, i NEED HELP! i have a 2 win7 x64 computers and a vista. I have AOE2 +expansion and i have it installed in all computers. When the i host the game with the vista computer, it is visible to all other computers, but they are unable to join after 15 seconds.
I followed every direction possible from all the post on this forum. Firewall to opening some services under services.mcs and Re installed every game. Took my anti virus off (avast) and nothin. Could someone please help me with more details and a step by step guide…. i love this game and my little brothers do too…
Thanks email me if you can find something
danielq3000@gmail.com
Hey people that may read this.
I loved Age of Empires 2 and wanted to play it LAN with my friends. So I tried very hard to get it to work. The only way we could play was by unplugging the modem from the router and playing directly from there. (I was able to set a game up for 3 players vs. 3 computers, loads of fun.)
Basically what my settings were was:
- Three computers (One of: XP, Vista and 7)
- All connected to a LAN router
- For windows Vista and 7 there is an option in ‘Windows Firewall with Advanced Security’ that is Inbound rules. In there there should be loads of Age of Empires II with circles next to them. Right click and enable the red ones to make sure they are all green with a check in them.
- Mess around with the host computer (I know we used the vista computer to host but it may not be a huge problem)
- We had fun.
James
how to play 2 players vs computer on age of empire2:The Age of Kings using multiplayer my brother can join my game but i cant choose for ‘me vs mybrother vs the comuter’
if anyone can help please send me an email on mcleanmichael20@gmail.com
i really wanna be able to play with my brother as a team against one or two computers
How do I do this in Windows 7?!
If you play on LAN UPnP must be disabled ni the router!!!
Just for information,
In my case, AOE in multiplayer mode with mix Windows XP and Windows Seven computers is Ok with static IP address WITHOUT gateway.
With DHCP IP address, I need to disable UPnp on my router (thank’s Martin for the tips) for AOE in multiplayer mode.
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