Setting Up Age of Empires Multiplayer
Many people aren’t able to play Age of Empires multiplayer due to numerous reasons. But now let’s fix these problems and play Age of Empires multiplayer successfully.
This guide will help you setup Age of Empires to be able to play human players over Hamachi. First you will need to install Hamachi, a free program which creates a virtual network between the players. Read the Hamachi installation guide at http://www.computersight.com/Communication-&-Networks/Hamachi-Installation-Guide.320119 to install Hamachi and the Hamachi User Guide at http://www.computersight.com/Software/Hamachi-User-Guide.317079 to learn how to use Hamachi. After you have installed Hamachi perform the following steps.
The first thing you have to do is make Hamachi the highest priority connection because Age of Empires uses the connection with the highest priority. Below are instructions for both Windows XP and Windows Vista on how to specify Hamachi as the highest priority connection.
Windows XP
Double-click “My Network Places”
On the left hand side click “View network connections”
You will be taken to a page like the one below. On the toolbar select “Advanced” and then “Advanced Settings”
A box like the one below should pop up. Highlight Hamachi and then click the green up arrow to move it to the top. Press OK.
Windows Vista
- Click Start and go to Control Panel
- Click Network and Sharing Center
- On the left side, click Manage Network Connections
- Press the “Alt” key and click Advanced then Advanced Settings at the top
- Click Hamachi and then click the green up arrow to move it to the top
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Press OK
Kamran Ayub http://blog.lib.umn.edu/ayubx003/dividebyzero/2008/06/24/how_to_play_age_of_empires_iii.htm
Same Version
In order to play a human player in Age of Empires you need the same version and same game. For example if you are using Age of Conquerors (Expansion pack) and your opponent is using Age of Kings (Original), it won’t work. Even if both players have the same game, you will also need to make sure they have the same version.
Age of Conquerors
To find out your current version of Age of Conquerors, on the main menu press the banner:
Then a box like the one below should pop up. Beside “Version” you should see your Age of Conquerors version. In this case it is 1.0c.
Currently the latest version for Age of Conquerors is 1.0e. But the official version released by Microsoft is 1.0c. I would recommend either. You can download 1.0c at http://download.microsoft.com/download/ageIIConquerers/Update/1.0c/W982KMe/EN-US/Age2XPatch.exe. Visit http://www.gamepark.eu/en/DownloadStart.asp?idD=5 to download 1.0c and 1.0e. This includes both versions meaning you can alternate between the versions. Both updates are free.
Age of Kings
To find out your current Age of Kings version, click Start>Run> C:program filesMicrosoft GamesAge of Empires II.
Find empires2 and then right-click it and select Properties.
Click Version. Then under Item name click “Product Version”. On the right hand side, under value, your current version should appear. In this case it is 2.0a.
The latest version is 2.0b. But the official version released by Microsoft is 2.0a. 2.0a can be downloaded from the official Age of Empires site at http://download.microsoft.com/download/aoeaok/Update/2.0a/W9XNT4/EN-US/Age2upA.exe. Version 2.0b can be downloaded at http://www.gamepark.eu/en/DownloadStart.asp?idD=19.
Firewalls/Routers
In order to create a game so others can join or join someone else’s game, you will need to open some ports on your firewall or router.
47624 TCP/UDP, Incoming and Outgoing
2300-2400 TCP, Incoming and Outgoing
2300-2400, UDP, Incoming and Outgoing
If you use a router please download UnPlug n’ Pray at http://www.grc.com/files/unpnp.exe. This utility makes it easy to disable UPnP. There are two reasons in which you should disable UPnP.
- By leaving UPnP running, you are vulnerable to attacks
- Others won’t be able to find your games and you won’t be able to find theirs if you are using a router and leave UPnP enabled
To read more on UPnP please visit: http://www.grc.com/UnPnP/UnPnP.htm. Even if you don’t use a router, I still recommend for you to disable UPnP for security purposes.
After downloading UnPlug n’ Pray a box should pop up with 3 possible messages.
- UPnP is NOT installed on this system
- UPnP is Currently Enabled!
- UPnP is Safely Disabled
If it says either 1 or 3, you don’t have to do anything. But if it says 2, please follow below.
Please press Disable UPnP. If this is completed successfully, it should now say UPnP is Safely Disabled.
If you have followed all the above steps, you should be able to play Age of Empires multiplayer through Hamachi.
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Hi! I tried to turn off this UPnP, but it shows the following message: “Admin Privilegs Required”
The problem is that I’m the administrator…
I use Windowa Vista, could you send me a solution by e-mail?
Try right clicking and selecting: run as …. try entering your current user info or Administrator. There should be an Administrator account by default (no password)
-Waterburn (author)
If Hamachi doesn’t work for AOE2, and a lot of the time it doesn’t, you should try Tunngle. It works EVERY TIME!
yes,worked when i disabled upnp,ty.