iPad game center multiplayer games behind a router

[mogulman]

So, I have 2 iPads. An iPad 2 and a NEW iPad. I was trying to play a few online multiplayer games with both iPads behind my netgear wndr4000 router.

I couldn't get it to work. Tried turning off SPI firewall. Tried some port forwarding. No luck. I gave up.

Then I went to a friends house and tried it with a cheap SMC router and it was working. I was amazed.

I created a support ticket with Netgear without much luck. Also posted on apple and netgear forums. No luck.

I then tried a Dlink dir-655. Also no luck.


Finally today I purchased a Linksys EA3500. Woohoo. It works.

Anyone know why it would work with Linksys but not Netgear or Dlink?

 

[overdrive31]

It likely depends on the game, but it might be related to WAN ping block. Netgear and Dlink enforce it by default, Linksys and SMC may not.

I like how the Dlink can selectively respond to ping from specific IP addresses(safer), not just an on(respond to all pings - not safe) or off(block all pings - safe) switch.

 

[mogulman]

I tried turning on SPI firewall on the linksys, which blocks wan ping. Ipad game center still works.

 

[overdrive31]

Try enabling WAN ping on the Netgear?

*Filter Anonymous Internet Requests* setting actually does the block ping not SPI

If not WAN ping, it could be that UPnP was disabled, it's on by default for all routers specified, so I figured it had to be something else. Siri doesn't like to function with WAN ping blocked, so thought it was likely the cause as well.

 

[mogulman]

I couldn't get the WNDR4000 working. I'm going to keep the Linksys and sell the WNDR4000 on ebay.

Wish I didn't have to lose money by changing out, since technically, these routers are pretty similar.

I do noticed that the EA3500 is able to keep a 300Mbps connection, where the WNDR4000 would only do 144Mbps. Might have been a compatibility thing with my laptop, or just that the EA3500 is more tolerant (less nice) of other signals nearby.