A thought that frequently assails the veteran and hardened player already in a thousand battles is that, without a doubt, things were much easier before for those of us who enjoy this hobby.
It does not mean that they are worse now, well (that is already the subject of another discussion), but there are so many complications that we face today when we just want to sit down for a while with the controller in our hands to play a game, that sometimes we end up abandoning the attempt in utter frustration.
These kinds of desperate situations are particularly common when we talk about the online game on console, a terrain especially conducive to errors and incompatibilities of all kinds, in many cases with no apparent logical explanation.
In fact, I am convinced that if I tell you about the NATMany of you will snort as a sign of the many headaches that these acronyms have caused you, hindering or directly preventing you from playing online games with your favorite games. But what exactly does this term refer to and why is it something I should be concerned about when all I want to do is play games? Let's try to understand it a bit.
There are so many complications we face today when we just want to sit down for a while and play a gameBut what is NAT about?
It is not the aim of this article to be insufferably technical or to become a class on networks, but it is inevitable to have to go a little into flour and clearly explain what we are dealing with when we talk about NAT. Specifically, the acronyms correspond to Network Address Translation, that is, network address translation, a necessary process when trying to establish communication between two points of a network that are not compatible because they are not "speaking the same language" (and here that the experts of the place allow me to simplify in please the clearest explanation).
The most common consequences of NAT errors are unresponsive voice chats, eternal matchmaking, or games that cannot be played
The need to start conversations between points that are not able to understand each other in the first place arises when a network such as the Internet reaches dimensions that make it impossible to have sufficient addresses (in this case, IP addresses) with which to identify all the computers connected to it. . As a far from ideal compromise, this huge network is compartmentalized with its own "linguistic rules". The NAT thus acts as an interpreter between these compartments.Although its simultaneous translation capabilities can be put to the test when we get to play some games with colleagues.
When that happens we are suffering the consequences of a very imperfect solution arising from the problems caused by the reduced scalability of the IPv4 address model, unable to respond to the gigantic expansion of the Internet in recent years, something that does not happen (and in theory, will not happen for a very long time) with the IPv6 model . As I said, you can delve much more into the technical part, but for this you have more than enough documentation at your mouse's fingertips.
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What types of NAT are there?
When our console shows us an error in this field, it usually refers to the type of NAT that is causing the communication failures. The most common consequences of this are voice chats that do not respond, eternal matchmaking or games that cannot be played directly. Although they may sound like you after so much warning message, we are going to comment the types of NAT configuration that we can find and what they mean for our experience:
NAT type 1 (open): with this mode there are no problems when establishing a connection between our platforms and the game servers, so it is the ideal option for everything to go smoothly.
NAT type 2 (moderate): It is the most common option when using a router for the connection and here obstacles can begin to arise such as a slow gaming experience, the inability to speak to certain users or to act as a host in a game.
NAT type 3 (strict): Under this configuration, we will only be able to have a direct communication channel with the players that have an open NAT, which leaves us a fairly small margin of maneuver and in return gives us innumerable moments of despair.
This is why we sometimes have NAT errors with some users and not with others. In fact, these problems will most likely always persist with the same friends, until we put an end to them by tightening the relevant nuts. Here we find that the particular situation of each user is a world (by game machine, router model and other factors in its connection), but some brushstrokes we can give to try to have a clearer way to follow in order to free ourselves from this yoke.
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And then which one should I use?
As I said, it is impossible to make guides here to solve NAT problems in all the possible situations that each of us may experience and that is not the objective of this article, but the documentation on the vast majority of common configurations that may occur. it is not at all difficult to locate. Said that, there are a few tips and master points that they will be useful to you on the battlefield.
The network diagnostics of most current consoles will reveal what type of NAT we are using
In most network configurations that home computers allow, the most that we can aspire to is a NAT type 2, something that should be enough to avoid much of the problems if everyone spends a few minutes adjusting their settings. The network diagnostics of most current consoles will reveal what state we are in, a necessary starting point before putting on the overalls.
I will leave it up to each of you to figure out how to access your router, although the process is usually quite similar in all models supplied by Internet access provider companies. If you have a router purchased independently, I am sure you will know how to do this. Once inside the menu managed by this team, the easiest way to get everything to go as it should is find the UPnP setting and make sure it's active. This parameter is compatible with the vast majority of current routers and once it is operational it should serve as a solution to our problems, although we well know that sometimes things are not as easy as they seem.
At this point it may be that we touch assign a static IP to our console and face the always challenging task of having to open ports to free the way for communication between the console and the server; Once again, I will leave it up to each of you to figure out how to carry out this process on your router, because each model has a different interface to make these adjustments. What will be valid in all cases is the list of ports that each console will need to have open for proper operation:
Network ports used by Xbox Live on Xbox One
- TCP ports: 53, 80, 3074.
- UDP ports: 53, 88, 500, 3074, 3544, 4500.
Network ports used by Xbox Live on Xbox 360
- TCP ports: 53, 80, 3074.
- UDP ports: 53, 88, 3074.
Network ports used by PS3 and PS4 games
- TCP ports: 80, 443, 5223 and 10070 - 10080.
- UDP ports: 3478, 3479, 3658 and 10070.
Network ports used by PSN
- TCP ports: 80, 443, 5223.
- UDP ports: 3478, 3479, 3658.
In certain particular cases It is possible that not even with all this opening of ports it will be possible to solve the problem, and in this case you would have to investigate what particularity in your network is causing the restriction. Configuring the use of a DMZ would be the last option to resort to if none of the above has worked and if your network itself does not have any other physical impediment for the proper use of the online game, a task for which once again You can find numerous tutorials on the web.
For each particular case, I advise you to visit the support pages of your console and your router, where you will already find the concrete steps that will allow you to hit the appropriate key now that (I hope) the concept of the NAT and everything it represents for our gaming experience has become clearer. The modern video game is loaded with great ideas to enjoy, but it also has a price to pay.
