Nobody can play with their friends , which is pretty disheartning

Agreed. Had I know about not being able to co-op since release I wouldn't had picked the game up just yet and would have waited for the fix.

I've been able to play with a pack of 4 other friends. I was server. Had to do the following:

Forward ports: 8766 (this port and a restart of the game might be necessary), 27015, 27016

I had to restart Brink at least once so that it would go through the "First time Install" -- not sure why it didn't do this after file decryption.

Hopefully that is more successful for you.

Cheers,
Tatsumaki

I would definitely make sure you are forwarding all those ports, it worked for me.

We shouldn't have too.... it should be working fine we tryed it and once a random guy joined it lagged it to holy hell i want to play co op campaign with my friends yet we can't what is this bs

Yeah man, sorry, i wish there was a solution i could serve up to you but I got nothing other than the port forwarding.

I've been able to play with a handful of friends last night though and other than the VOIP not working (we resorted to Vent) it seemed to be working just fine.

you want the game to configure your router for you, how odd
try plugging direct into modem

I'm having the same issue.
Can some one explain what and how to foreword a port without being demeaning, please?

Yeah that is very annoying, glad I'm not the only one experiencing these problems,...lets hope the FIX it. I hear a lot of negative things coming from Console gamers about BRINK

Yeah that is very annoying, glad I'm not the only one experiencing these problems,...lets hope the FIX it. I hear a lot of negative things coming from Console gamers about BRINK

I tried that last night, no go for me =(

[img]http://i55.tinypic.com/312acts.jpg[/img]

I tried opening my ports as well and no go. Friends have the same issue as well. FIX IT!

Both me and a friend opened up the proper ports on our routers and software firewalls to the same end result as most people in this thread, an error message stating "Server not available". We can't simply plug directly into our router, as the device is a router/modem. It is my hope that the developers fix this issue quickly. While I am thoroughly enjoying Brink solo, playing with my friend would be even better.

Port forwarding did not work for our group either. All three ports forwarded in our routers and in software firewalls (Norton for me). We may try one of us running a dedicated server, but my guess is it will still not find the server when clients try to connect due to requiring Steam. I can't plug directly into my modem due to router/modem location in the house.

My group of friends all bought this game for the express purpose of playing private games together... we are pretty frustrated.

My suggestion is to use Shields Up @ Gibson Research to test the ports to unsure they aren't in Stealth mode. I found that when the ports are listed as in Stealth no connection can be made; however, listed as Closed a connection is possible.

Good luck

From Microsoft / TechNet:

Stealth Mode is always Enabled.

Stealth Mode is considered a critical security feature of Windows Firewall. It is "enabled by default", and there is no supported way to disable it. Even when the firewall is disabled, Stealth Mode will be active.

Also:

Stealth mode blocks outgoing ICMP unreachable and TCP reset messages for a port when no application is listening on that port.

Isn't a Steam/Brink server a listener on those ports?

I honestly cannot say, as I'm not a networking guru. This was simply trial and error on my part and a sudden flash of insight whether wrong or right in concept. My friend who only uses Windows 7 firewall simply turned it off.

I just posted in another thread that we were able to play co-op last night after some trail and error. None of use had to open and ports to play. We were able to see friends and invite friends as well. Worked well once you figure it out from within the game.

Gruug what did you do to get it to work? I have never had to open ports EVER for any game, so kinda dont like having my ports open for BRINK. You said after some trial and error, and worked cone you figured it out??? can you explain your process please. and thanks.

Hey FCRybke,

The best way to learn how to forward ports is at www.portforward.com . They have a ton of walkthroughs for a ton of different routers.

Don't download/buy anything from the site, just follow their tutorials.

Once you've done it a couple times you can run through it really quick.

If you ever switch routers you will either have to set your ethernet connection to revert to being assigned an IP (super easy) or you will have to reconfigure the router (need admin access to router and you need to know which ports to forward).

A tip, if you have overlapping ports being forwarded your router may not like it and won't save the change.

Hope this helps,
Quango

[Edit: Port forwarding cuts down on the middleman for communications between your computer and the internet, you have to configure a static IP so that your computer is always at the same "location" on the network behind your router. Be sure to use a higher number for the final octet of your IP address (anything over 50 but under 255), so that your router doesn't assign it to another computer on the network. Once you have the static IP, you forward the ports so that information coming through designated ports comes directly to your PC instead of having the data traffic managed by your router. This speeds up the rate at which certain information gets in and out of your network. This is my understanding of the process, by all means correct me if I'm wrong.]

same here. find your router, go to the forwarding port section online and make the changes. It works perfectly after that.

Also then go to freeplay and click direct connect and type in their IP without ports and whatever password they set when they set up a private match.
To find your/their IP open CMD and then type ipconfig and put in your IPv4 address.

Bzzt!!!. Doesn't work. Splash Damage needs to fire the current team and hire guys who know how networking works in the real world.