Well, here's my experience with multiplayer:
If you're just playing with a friend or two, the best bet it direct connect. You can use the ipconfig command from the dosprompt to find your IP address, which is used by NWN to connect to games. Find your IP address, then give it to you friend and have them do a direct connect.
If you have a router, then things get a lot more complicated. If you have a home network and connect to the internet through a router, then you will have to configure your router to forward several ports to your comptuer. Here are the router settings:
"If you are trying to play through a firewall of some sort, here is some information for you to help you get connected. Neverwinter Nights uses UDP, not TCP for its connections. If you think that your firewall is preventing you from connecting to the game servers, please make sure that the following ports are open:
Ports 5120 through 5300
Port 6500
Port 27900
Port 28900
If you are wanting to make sure that your NAT is set up to allow the game to play here are some details.
Outgoing packets
Source port: 5120-5129
Destination port: 5121-5300
Incoming packets
Source port: 5121-5300
Destination port: 5120-5129"
(basically what you need to do is set up port forwarding for the above ports)
It is very important that you set this up with UDP ports rather than TCP ports. Once you get your router set up, you can then play a game as normal through direct connect. In order to get to your router to change your settings, go to the dosprompt and type ipconfig. It will then tell you your IP is something like 192.168.2.2 Go to IE and type a similar address into the address bar: xxx.xxx.xxx.1--where x is the same number as what ipconfig gave you. That should open up your router settings page, and you may need a password to adjust things.
It is also important to note that if ipconfig tells you your IP address is 192.something then you will still need your internet IP. To get this, go to
http://www.whatismyipaddress.com--they will tell you what your internet IP is, and you use that number for direct connect.
This is pretty complicated, but if you have any questions feel free to email me at
pstonebraker2@cox.net.
It took me about a week of searching the net and playing with settings before I finally got it working--but once you get it working, you never have to worry about it again.
Good things come to those that wait--but only what's left over from those that hustle.
