Updated: 12th June, 2009

After experiencing my own fair share of the connection issues with Demigod, I put several days into educating myself about networking and what I could do on my end to ensure I could connect with as many people as possible. Many long hours and a few grey hairs later, I discovered the caused of my problem; my modem.

After purchasing a new modem, my connection issues literally disappeared. I went from being unable to connect to most people or being stuck attempting to connect to one person, to being able to connect to everyone in a matter of seconds. As I know a lot of people here on the forums are still having major problems despite all the work done by Stardock and Gas Powered Games to help, I thought perhaps a thread detailing all of the modems and routers that people have and which ones work and don't work might help people. Or, at the very least, provide some assistance in figuring out what's causing your problem.

Before you start though, please know that there is no simple answer. Figuring out your own problem is going to take time and effort and, in my case, a lot of self-education. I nearly lost my cool on several occasions, and I can certainly understand the frustrations you're going through - as my now destroyed modem can attest. Also, please make sure you've correctly tried forwarding your ports, having varified that they are open. After that, head over here and see if anyone else has solved your issue.

Does your Harware Work?

Like most people, I didn't exactly have some spare money floating around to just go out and buy a decent modem on a whim; purchasing new hardware wasn't really something I wanted to do, however since doing so several other seemingly unconnected issues I had with other programs, such as Steam's Server browsers and BitTorrent, have also been corrected so it was worth the hassle in my case.

First of all, you need to make sure the problem is your modem/router and not your Internet Service Provider (ISP). ISP's can use a technique called Traffic Shaping, which is a method used to cut down on Peer 2 Peer (P2P) traffic for programs like BitTorrent by limiting the number of connections a person can have at one time, and unfortunately Demigod uses P2P for it's multiplayer. Unlike games like Battlefield 2, Counter-Strike and Left 4 Dead, there is no Server in Demigod. You connect to every person as if each person was their own Server. This prevents any hacking and provides lower latency or Pings, however instead of just one connection you now have multiple. In a 5 VS 5 game, for example, you have 9 different connections. If your ISP limits your connections to 5, for example, you can't play anything above a 3 VS 3 game as this requires 5 seperate connections. Traffic Shaping is a real pain in the ass for gamers depsite the additional stability it provides.

I had originally intended to supply a list of ISP's which shape their traffic, however as the validity of that list has been called into question I can no longer supply this in good conscience. Please search out for your own ISP and try to discover if it shapes your internet traffic. If your ISP does indeed shape your P2P traffic, then I'm very sorry to say that I have been unable to find a solution for your problem and the only possible solution I can locate is to actually change your ISP. If you have discovered a solution to this problem, please contact me via the Personal Message system and I will update this post.

If your ISP is not listed, this doesn't mean they don't shape your traffic in some way. Head over here and run the online test. This will check to see if your ISP Traffic Shapes, or throttles, your internet connection. If the test returns the result that your Internet provider doesn't shape your traffic, than please try this test which tries out several other features of your Broadband Internet connection. Needless to say, please close down all programs besides your internet browser and make sure you're not currently loading any webpages to ensure an accurate result. If either of the tests failed, and it happened to me on several occasions, please re-try. If you have continued problems, you might need to contact Glasnost's support.

In the Broadband Connection Test, the Upstream Queue is the part we're looking at. If this Upstream Queue is higher than normal, and the test will tell you if it is, this likely means that your modem/router is having difficulty processing all of the upload data that would be received from multiple connections, such as multiplayer in Demigod. However, it's not always the case. I came across several cases where people altered their Operating System's (OS) settings and correct their problem. SpeedGuide is a great place to look, and to save time Windows XP users can go here and Windows Vista users can go here, however other operating systems are also covered. If after optimising your connections you don't achieve any kind of performance increase, then please search out your own modem/router and see if anyone else is experiencing issues with them, and believe me you'll find plenty. Remember to be specific with your searches, I can't count the number of times I re-worded my Google searches before I found the one I needed. For Australian residents, I highly recommend the Whirlpool forums. I managed to find a small community of people with my modem who were united in their hate of it. They made me their king. Long story.

So, if you're able to come to the same conclusions as me, that your ISP provided you with a worthless piece of plastic shaped like a modem and there is no way around it, then you'll need to puchase new hardware. Be sure to have exhausted all possible avenues before arriving at this conclusion. I tried so many things I had to re-format my PC and re-install the operating system after several modifications I tried failed to produce any kind of results. These are now correctly labelled as incompatible on SpeedGuide.

What works and what doesn't?

So, you've established that your modem/router, like my old one, was a piece of junk. Below I, hope to eventually, have a list of modems/routers that are known to either work or not work with Demigod to save some trouble, as well as to help people quickly identify the causes of their issues. If you know your modem works or doesn't work with Demigod, please reply below with the manufacturer and a link to the modem/router's webpage. If your modem/router doesn't work, please provide the general situation you used with your modem, as different setups may or may not effect a modem or router's success rate. If a modem is listed as working or not working, and you have experienced a different result please contact the poster, or reply below.

The general rule, and this has numerous exceptions in my experience, is that modems/routers that contain 'Rate Limting of IP Traffic' seem to cause a problem. Some Modems are able to be re-configured to provide a higher 'Rate Limit' and this could prevent you from having to purchase new hardware. Please refer to your manufacturer's website for further information. As supplied by DeadlyJackal, a Network Architect, there are several features you should look for when purchasing new hardware to ensure you have maximum flexibility, and these include the ability to set up DMZ hosting (named differently by most manufactuers, its the ability to setup an IP that will bypass the NAT firewall), ability to Port Forward, make MTU size changes (you can check with your ISP and find out what the interface you are served off of has its MTU set to), ability to setup as a bridged device and spoof a MAC addy, WAN ping blocking (which most all have but have seen some that don't support this, usually the much older hardware). As DeadlyJackal so perfectly put it: You'll get what you pay for; buy cheap, get cheap. However, in any case be sure to research any proposed purchases before putting down the cash. The staff at the several computer stores in my town gave me some strange looks while standing around their stores for several minutes writing down the names and models of all of their modems, however it was quite worth it.

Modems/Routers known to work:

Linksys AG300 (Modem/Router) More information can be found here.

Linksys WAG160N (Wireless Modem)

Linksys WRT54G Rev 8 (Wireless Router) More information can be found here.

Linksys WRH54G (Wireless Router)

Belkin Wireless G+ MIMO ver 5000 (Router) Unable to locate additional information.

Comcast ARRIS TM602G/CT (Modem) Unable to locate additional information.

Netgear DG834GT (Wireless Modem/Router) More information can be found here.

Netgear DG834N (Wireless Modem/Router)

DLink DSL604-T (Wireless Modem/Router) More information can be found here.

DLink DGl-4300 (Wireless Router)

DLink DFL-800 (Router/Firewall)

Surfboard SB5101 cable-modem (Modem)

Siemens/Speedstream 4200 (Modem) More information can be found here.

Modems/Routers that work but are known to have issues:

DLink Di-524 (Wireless Router)

2wire 2071-a (Modem)

Speedtouch 780 (Modem) Can connect in most cases via NAT and Proxy Servers.

Modems/Routers known not to work:

Thompson/Alcatel SpeedTouch 536v6 (Modem)
Windows Vista. No router used. More information can be found here.

DLink DIR-855 (Wireless Router)

If you have something to add or change, please contact me via the Personal Message system and I'll make the required amendments. Please try to remain as On Topic as possible, as I don't think people want to scroll through pages of unrelated posts before finding one that might help them.