all ports are closed, causing game issues

[railz68]

I have visited every site I can find that scans ports. All are closed (or filtered). While everything seems to work that I try, online games do not. They seem to skip, I am guessing this is when certain packets are dropped / blocked. Single Player games run fine. I only have this issue with "online" games.

I have tried bridge mode with my own router (edgerouter-x) with the same results. With pppoe credentials in the router and without. It is my guess that bell is using some kind of firewall rule that drops certain packets causing online games to not work correctly. I've tried Windows 7, 10, 11, many different linux flavours all with the same result. I have two computers and both exhibit the same issue. So it is not hardware or software on my end. I've tried both older games and newer games. Would paying for a static ip solve this ?.

I have tried every single thing I can here, the issue is outside my home.

[Vanadiel · Accepted solution]

I play many different online games, without an issue.

The ports are blocked by default, but as long as connection traffic for a port is initiated from the client side the port will be accessible for return traffic from a remote server. It allows online games to work, while at the same time blocking hosting servers on a residential internet connection.

That is why an online port scan will show all ports closed, because the requests for the scan are initiated from a remote client.

You could be experiencing routing issues to the remote gaming server, causing packet loss. Using WinMTR should help identify any such issues, but you would need to know the address of the gaming server you are trying to connect with.

This Blizzard article describes how to use it and they also provide all the server addresses for Blizzard games. For other games you would need different server addresses.

Another thing to try is enabling UPNP on your home hub. However, that is in many cases not required and can cause security risks.

In general online gaming should "just work" without any issue.

[railz68]

Thank you for information and advise. I will try the tool you linked. As mentioned, the only games I have trouble with is "online" games. I did not know that about the ports being blocked and how they function. This issue I have is on 2 different computers, various OS's. On this newer one, bought 2021, I have changed all hardware. And I mean everything, motherboard, ram, mouse, kb, added sound card..... everything. I got to a point where I gave up trying to fix it and only play single player games. I bought a few games from gog, single player and worked as they should. Then I saw Enemy Territory, it's free and I used to play it. So I downloaded it, small by today's standards. When you join a server you are connected as spectator by default. I discovered the servers were all bots, so I didn't join. But spectating I noticed my issue was on full display. As the bots played I could see and hear that my computer was hiccuping. Seemed to be as the bots sent voice sounds to each other, or fired weapons. Not only can I not play, I can't even spectate without issue. This is when I found ports were being blocked. Certain things (packets) are being dropped or blocked. I've seen bad packet loss and this is not it. It's as though certain packets are dropped / blocked by a firewall. One game I've tried through steam (windows 10) shows game in dead lock. Found process that caused dead lock, killed it, and a new process goes into dead lock. Step, repeat, it never ends. Linux gives a different error, but the result is the same.

Online gaming should "just work" without any issue. On that we can agree. I have done everything one can do with hardware and software, the issue is not on my end. It is blocked/dropped packets by a firewall. It's not mine, I've tried many times to turn off the firewall in windows and linux.

I think I've tested every way with the bell hub, but I'll try the UPNP on/off it hopes it fixes things.