Only one friend can’t join our server

If everyone else is joining fine, it's 100% an issue on their end, probably something to do with their network. Could possibly be VPN (some auto-connect in the background) or firewall related too. To troubleshoot, they could try connecting on a different network (like mobile data/hotspot), try without a VPN (if using one) or with a VPN (if not using one, Cloudflare WARP could help too), making sure they have no firewall on their network/PC (like antivirus software especially) etc.

I will forward this to them. Thank you. I used playitgg for the IP forwarding thing (sorry I’m a noob, don’t know all the technical terms) Would giving them the direct IP help? They’re a close friend so not too worried about them having it

Ah I thought it was a dedicated hosting provider, I've not used playit.gg so not entirely sure how the networking works (maybe someone else is more familiar) but you could try that too if needed

No, giving them the direct ip would not work regardless of the existence of playit

The server is not port forwarded on OP’s network

I’d suggest trying out a vpn first as above

My suspicion is that they are flagged as a bot for some reason by playit, restarting the router meant he obtains a new wan through his isp using dhcp, so the block is temporarily evaded

Assuming he needs to restart the router as well, it’s unlikely for the antivirus to be the issue. If he had disabled av, please tell him to turn it back on again

AV is antivirus? like Microsoft built-in antivirus?

Yes, that one (Windows Defender) should always be on

I was referring to any 3rd party AV since they're very intrusive, don't play nice with a lot of software and can have built-in firewalls that interfere with or drop connections

I see. Last night the player did try to launch into the server on a completely different computer and was still struggling. I’m assuming this kind of dials it down to a network issue. I feel bad because he’s able to join any other server however everyone else is able to join completely fine…. Not sure if it’s an issue on my end or completely on his or maybe 50/50.

Unfortunately he doesn’t have access to a hotspot to try that method

Any other suggestions on the network side for them to try?

The player sees this

And on the console side, I see that he’s tried to join but failed to connect

Also giving them the direct IP did not help

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Will just say, playit.gg's routing is awful and can explain your issues

Make him try https://1.1.1.1

Is it possible that it’s a port forwarding issue on my side? Just confused how no one else is having problems

playit.gg ignores portforwarding

Ah explains why in the tutorial I watched I didn’t need to mess with any of that