LAN Lobby Visibility Fix

Age of Empires II: DE II - Report a Bug
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:play_button: GAME INFORMATION

:backhand_index_pointing_down: These details are CRITICAL; DO NOT skip them or your issue may not be reviewed.

  • GAME BUILD #: 101.103.48086.0
  • GAME PLATFORM: Microsoft Store
  • OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 11

:play_button: ISSUE EXPERIENCED

LAN Lobbies were not visible to other machines on my local network, despite opening all the ports described in the guides. I found a solution that is working for now!

After beating my head against the wall for a while, I asked m365 copilot to help troubleshoot the issue, and it seems that Windows 11 has a spare hyperV networking adapter that AoEII DE binds to if present and available on the system. This may not be applicable to all others, as this VEthernet adapter apparently is only enabled if you enable virtualization components on your system. I don’t use this system for virtualization, so this doesn’t seem to break anything else on my system, but YMMV.

It was not possible to disable this adapter entirely as the system protects it, but you do have the ability to keep this adapter from binding IP addresses. This was the last change I made, and LAN lobbies were immediately visible again. I ran this powershell command via administrative powershell window:

Disable-NetAdapterBinding -Name “vEthernet (Default Switch)” -ComponentID ms_tcpip

I will update this thread if my LAN hosting breaks again, but this was the last change I made that fixed the issue. If this is indeed the long-term fix for this issue, I would hope that the game could be updated so that we don’t have to make this change in the future.

:play_button: FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

:backhand_index_pointing_down: How often does the issue occur? CHOSE ONE; DELETE THE REST !

  • 100% of the time / matches I play (ALWAYS)

:play_button: REPRODUCTION STEPS

:backhand_index_pointing_down: List CLEAR and DETAILED STEPS we can take to reproduce the issue ourselves… Be descriptiv e !

Here’s the steps to reproduce the issue:

  1. Try to host LAN lobby with other LAN players, players cannot see lobby

  2. Run "Disable-NetAdapterBinding -Name “vEthernet (Default Switch)” -ComponentID ms_tcpip" in an administrative command window

  3. Restart the game, host LAN lobby, LAN players can now see my lobby.

:play_button: IMAGE

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