Why Port Forwarding?
Multiplayer activities in Elite: Dangerous are what the Xeno Strike Force is all about.
Unfortunately issues do arise, often caused by the games networking.
Port Forwarding reduces issues with instancing and desyncing in multiplayer scenarios greatly, when set up correctly by every player in the instance.
With Peer to Peer games the players connect directly to each other. One player’s computer sends packets directly to the other player’s computer. Any information about actions from Players in the Instance will have to travel through and inbetween the players’ networks.
What is Port Forwarding?
Port Forwarding is a set of rules for your networking. Communication between the Players works more reliably with them compared to the default uPnP function which is not always supported.
This is essential as Elite: Dangerous uses peer-to-peer networking between Players for all direct Player-interactions , only falling back to Relay servers when necessary – and this can have bad consequences for Instance synchronisation.
Setup
Follow the steps below to setup Port Forwarding.
| 0. Ensure UPNP is enabled in Windows | UPNP / Network Discovery should be enabled inside your Windows settings for things here to function properly. Follow the Link below for a step-by-step on how to enable the setting. https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001367.htm |
| 1. In the Games Main Menu head to Options > Network Settings |  |
| 2. Navigate to the IPV4 section and turn Port Forwarding ON |  Change the Port Forwarding Setting to ON if it isn’t already. |
| 3. Now select a Port Number |  Note: You can select any number but you MUST select a number explicitly or the setting won’t stick! Note: If you use more than one game-client on the same network, please make sure each client is set to their own specific port. Using the same port across multiple clients will create a routing conflict and break networking for the game. |
| 4. Apply Settings |  Hit the APPLY-button at the bottom of your settings-menu. |
| 5. Quit the game to dekstop | Head back to the Main Menu and click EXIT. |
| 6. Relaunch the Game and confirm setting apply |  Head into Network-Settings again and confirm that your Port Forwarding Settings remained in place. |
If you successfully went through all the steps above you now want to do a test in-game.
Get into a Multiplayer Gamemode and meet with another real CMDR,
if you can see and interact with each other; this is a good indicator nothing went horribly wrong atleast, you should be DONE with your setup! Your Router is able to handle the rest.
However it is not a guarantee that you can make forwarded connections – the game can fall back to relay mode. Which lets you interact but can cause heavy desync.
If you COULD NOT apply the settings or Player-interaction does not work – we need to go a little further in your setup.
Configuring Port Forwarding on your Router
(Recommended – Required if previous steps above did not work by themselves, or you want more control over your networking)
This is more complicated and will require access to your router, but it will be more reliable.ย
- Make sure your computer has a static IP address assigned, Guide below here:ย
https://portforward.com/networking/static-ip-windows-10.htmย
- Find your Router Model on this Website and check:ย
https://portforward.com/router.htm
- Follow the steps for opening the port you chose in-game (5100 for example) to your computerย
https://portforward.com/router.htm
If you have gone through these steps, please restart the game and test once more if you can interact with other Players directly.
We know not everyone’s circumstances and network-situation allow for this. But we hope you can make it work for an overall more reliable multiplayer-experience in Elite: Dangerous.
Special thanks to CMDR Mgram for his previous posts on Port Forwarding in Elite
