Hi everyone,
I’ve recently moved to town to go to the university and I’ve taken my PS3 with me. I live in a college where I have to use the campus connection (a wired connection with the ethernet cable attached to the socket of the wall) to surf the net. After some attempts I managed to connect my PS3 to the Playstation Network: in order to do this I have to open the browser where I’m immediately redirected to the homepage of the university: here I have to login with the username and password of the university. After that, I’m able to sign into the PSN. Unfortunately I’m not able to play online because of the strict firewall (I guess). As I’m not able to access to the router settings I’ve tried to port forward with the Windows firewall but it didn’t work. Then I decided to download this firewall hoping that there’s a possible way to forward my PS3. I’ve searched on the web the ports which need to be forwarded:
Sony Playstation 3 TCP 80, 10070-10080 UDP 50000, 6000-7000, 10070-10080
PS3 PlayStation Home TCP 5223 UDP 5223, 3478, 3479, 3658
Playstation Network TCP 80, 443, 5223 UDP 3478-3479, 3658
I’d like someone to help me to forward these ports. I’ve tried it on my own but there are too many settings and I didn’t manage to make it work. I think it should be possible because you can assign the forwarded ports to a MAC address and the PS3 has one. Thanks in advance.
If I understand correctly, there’s a router between you and the outside world, over which you have no control? If this is the case and the ports you require for the PS3 have been blocked, there’s not really much you can do, apart from asking the powers that be to open the requisite ports.
Yes, you’re right. I have no access to the router because i’m not the owner of the connection. So, my only way to go online with my PS3 is by asking the powers that be to forward the ports I need?
If the router/firewall is actually blocking your PS3 connection, you’ll have to ask whoever is responsible for the administration of the appliance to make exceptions. Another option might be to use a VPN, but will probably require a monthly fee and may not work.
Have you actually tried plugging the network cable directly into the PS3 to see if you can play?
The network/ethernet cable goes right from my PS3 to the socket of the wall. It’s the same if I want to surf the net with my laptop; in my room I have multiple “ethernet sockets”. That’s how the connection here works. As for the VPN, the college allows you to create one with your own university account and password but it actually doesn’t work, I don’t know why.
Unfortunately, the VPN offered by the University is for inbound connections and is designed to provide secure communication for staff and students when off campus. For your needs, assuming there are no other alternatives, you’ll need a third-party VPN solution and you’re probably going to need a router to host the VPN.
I cannot put a router in my room, can I? Where should I plug it? I mean, don’t I need a telephone plug? Anyway, apart from this, the only possible way is to ask the owners of the connection to forward the ports I require for my PS3?
A router sits between your PC/PS3 and the college Internet connection. You plug the network cable from the wall in to one side of the router and your PC/PS3 the other. Basically it allows you to create a small LAN consisting of your devices.
Before you do any of the above, speak to the college network administrators and ask their opinion, they may already have a solution. I doubt you’re the first person who ever wanted to connect their PS3/XBox to the outside world.
So if I understood correctly I should plug the router into the “network socket” of the wall, then with another ethernet cable I should plug the router to the PS3. Correct if I’m wrong. I’m attaching an image of the possible setting. Anyway, I’m gonna talk to the admins first.
EDIT: I’m gonna attach you the actual numbers 1/2 and 3 related to the previuos image “possible setting” which correspond to my room.
I finally talked to the admin of the connection but unfortunately there’s no way to play online. He told me the connection is given by the university but the contract doesn’t allow you to play online; he added there had been previous requests from other students but all to no avail. Finally he said he had tried to send a request to the provider of the connection (Garr) to allow online gaming but they denied it. Any suggestions?
I can only suggest you try a VPN. To save yourself the expanse of a router, at least for now, configure your PC as an Internet gateway, as described in the article I linked to Internet Connection Sharing (you’ll need another network adapter) and set-up a VPN on the PC. If you search the Internet for for something like “access the PS3 network via VPN” I’m sure you’ll find some useful links. For what it’s worth, http://www.vpn4all.com/ has a free trial, it’s only 100MB but it should be enough to see if it works. If it does, you can then subscribe.
Ok, I’m going to try what you’ve just suggested. However, I’ve got this router at home: NETGEAR DG834G v3. I can easily take it to the college. What should I do with it to use my PS3 online? Unfortunately here at the college I have no telephone socket therefore I don’t know if the router works anyway.
Unless you’re able to reconfigure one of the LAN ports as a WAN port, which I didn’t see when I skimmed through manual, you’ll need a new router, one that has an Ethernet (same as your LAN ports - RJ45) port as the WAN connection.
I don’t understand very well because I’m not that good at computer science. Let’s suppose I get a new router with a WAN port. What should I do then? Will I ever be able to play online with this super-strict connection? Thank you very much Radaghast for keep helping me.
I can’t give you any guarantees getting a router and creating a VPN, assuming it’s possible, will help. As I suggested earlier, enable Internet Connection Sharing on your PC - follow the instructions posted above - get the 100MB free VPN trial - details above - and see if you can connect. If it works, you can buy a standard router - not an ADSL modem router, which you have currently - purchase a VPN subscription and play.
Think I’m giving up. I downloaded the free trial version of VPN4ALL, inserted the License code they emailed me but when I try to connect it says “An error occurred, contact support”.
Yes, I have. You can try three different servers: one from German, one from Romania and one from Seychelles but neither of them seem to be working. As for the firewall it automatically creates an exception when you run the installation. I don’t know if this is due to the fact that I live in Italy but it seems rather strange.