L4D - friends get dropped when we join my dedi server from the lobby

[Spiney]

Thanks in advance for your help. THis is my first Source server, but have ran CoD servers in the past.

I have a dedicated Left 4 Dead server set up on my home network along with my game PC. Everything seems to be running fine and ports appear to be forwarded correctly. The server says that it's communicating with the master servers, etc. I can join the server myself and play without issue.

-But-

When I create a lobby, invite friends (or let a couple of random internet players join), everything looks good until I start the game. Everyone times out and is dropped except me.

I can host games locally (PC) no problem. Any ideas as to what the problem is or where I should check first?

[MjrNuT]

1. Am i reading right that you are hosting on the same machine that you are playing on? For the most part, that is inadvisable.

2. You are on the LAN, while your friends are not. I am assuming you have sv_lan 0 set? meaning not a LAN server.

3. Since you are acting as LL, I believe this is mixed results on successful connection to play. Have you set the default port for the DS to be NOT 27015???

[Spiney]

Thanks for the response MjrNuT,

1) Two separate machines on my home network - the DS and my 'game PC'

2) Correct - I have sv_lan 0 set

3) Default port on the DS is currently set as the default 27015. What other port should it be? Is there a preferred alternative?

[MjrNuT]

Great clarification.

For your situation, you need to set the game port to 27016 or higher. Just not 27015. This is b/c you are on LAN and it uses the default 27015 with respect to YOU connecting to it. That is my recollection from an experience of over 6 months ago.

We used 27016.