Update: MacSoft has released the AoM 1.0.1 patch that should correct this problem.
So you want to play Age Of Mythology for Mac online eh? You tried playing through GameRanger and can’t get it to work? Well, you’ve come to the right place! The following guide will show you how to setup your Mac to play Age Of Mythology online if your computer is behind a router or firewall. All of the following information is included in the read me file that comes with the game but who reads that stuff anyway 
. If you do not use a router or firewall, this guide isn’t for you.
Note: This guide assumes you have a basic understanding of how to configure your router or firewall software. You will also need your ISP provided IP address in order to play online. The Mac OS X built-in firewall can not be used with AoM as Apple’s firewall does not support UDP ports (at least from what I can see).
The first thing to do is configure the router or firewall software so that AoM can communicate between other users when playing online. There are two sets of ports that need to be opened and more importantly, mapped to your local computer that will be used for playing the game online.
Open your router or firewall softwares configuration page. I happen to use a Linksys wireless router so I type in the address of the router into my favorite web browser, the default address for a Linksys router is 192.168.1.1. The following ports below will need to opened and routed to the local computer you’ll be playing AoM on your network.
With a Linksys router, click on the “Advanced” tab followed by the “Forwarding” tab to get to the above screen. Enter the information just as you see above, changing only the “IP Address” of the actual computer you’ll be using. Don’t forget to click the “Apply” button at the button of the page to save your settings.
The next big thing you’ll need to do is modify the user.cfg file that is located within the startup directory which in turn is located in the main Age Of Mythology folder.
Once you locate the user.cfg file, control-click or right-click (two button mouse users) on the file and select the “Open With…” command to bring up a Finder window. Browse to the TextEdit application and select it to open the file with.
After opening the file with TextEdit, add the following parameter to the user.cfg file being sure to keep the parameter on one line, OverrideAddress=”YOURIPADDRESSHERE”. Replace YOURIPADDRESSHERE with the actual IP address that is assigned from your ISP, making sure you maintain the quotes around the IP address. Save your changes and your done!
From time to time your IP address may change so you will need to edit this file after that occurs. Quite a pain yes but do you want to play online or not? 
This is what worked for me and a few other people I’ve gotten the chance to play online with. Obviously, if you have a direct connection to the internet you won’t need to follow these instructions. However, please bear in mind that some people won’t have a clue that they need to follow these steps in order to play online so be nice and point them here so they can play too.
I have no idea why MacSoft/Westlake Interactive implemented this scheme for online play but I can tell you that this is by far the worst configuration I’ve ever seen. What in the hell were they thinking? I understand that they had to remove the main online component, ESO (Ensemble Studios Online), but have some compassion for us Mac users. Most people won’t have a clue that they’ll need to do this or how to even do it.
If you have any comments about the instructions or want to add something that is different for your router/firewall, post a comment below.
Hosting Update: I found this out the hard way last night, but if you are attempting to host a game on GameRanger you’ll need to add a few more ports.
Reopen your router/firewall configuration panels and modify the existing AOM_UDP rule to support a range from 2300 to 2310. If you need to host more than 9 other players, you may need to change the 2310 to something higher.
I discovered this last night when attempting to host a game and the other player wasn’t connecting to the in-game chat. Looking through the router access logs I noticed that an attempt was being made on port 2301 instead of 2300 like it states in the read me. Once I opened port 2301 I was able to successfully host.
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19 Comments
What a bunch of assholes developped this game like that???? I still can’t connect, although I am now connected *directly* to the net. I hate them, and regret having bought the game instead of just hacked it!
ok, it works now, even with my airport. Strange, really, cause for me it doesn’t work if I’m not behind myy airport!. And I know everybody agrees with me when I say: Macsoft & Ensemble studio SUXXXX for not having done something AT LEAST a little bit more transparent. Plus it takes 1min 30 just to launch the game, so this is really boring. Hopefully someone will develop a small program to automatically ask you your new IP address when u launch the game…
Interesting. I never had a problem getting it to work with my Airport or just my regular network. If you change all the settings as set above the game will no longer with direct connections to the internet as the above is ONLY for those with networks and are trying to play online behind a router or wireless access point.
wtf?! why would they ship a game like this!? I really hope they fix this problem
this is nothing but BS its based on AOE so why break whats not broken im not behind a firewall or router and it still wont let me play on line BILL GATES UR COMPANY FUC^ED up big time
And for those users who are behind a router that *must* use DHCP (therefore never knowing their internal IP on a day to day basis) or for users without access to the router to configure it to allow traffic to pass through on a couple of ports, what then?
I don’t need to change any settings anywhere to play Frozen Throne or Neverwinter Nights, why was this coded this way?
The whole problem here is taking a game like AoM that was originally a PC title that had a built-in game matching service that is very similar to Battle.net. What the Mac team had to do was remove all references to this service but they apparently decided not to rewrite the networking protocols that this service was using.
Instead, you now have to setup your routers/firewalls and the game to use these parameters even though it really shouldn’t be necessary. If the matching service was available like it is for WCIII this wouldn’t be a problem and everyone could just play the game online without this major hassle.
I’m trying to get this thing set up through an airport and it’s busting my balls. I’ve opened all the above ports using the airport admin utility and the Panther firewall is off. Any suggestions?
-and yeah, macsoft wasn’t doing anyone any favors on this one, but they did get it out just in time to pork everyone on christmas
Make sure you also make the change to the user.cfg file that is located in the Startup directory under the root of the AoM installed directory. This set is critical in making sure you can connect via GameRanger.
I’ve made these changes (including the user.cfg file) and it still doesn’t work. When I try to host a game it still says my IP address is the local one at the top. Heeeelllpppp!
Andrew, Make sure you added the command into the user.cfg with the quotes and you changed YOURIPADDRESSHERE with your IP address provided by your ISP not the router. This is the only way AoM will know that you actually have an external IP address otherwise it will continue to search for games on the local network.
I did the user.cfg file part in text edit but i use a belkin router not a linksys router so if any one would help me with that part of the prob it would be greatly appreciated.
yeah wtf im on dial up no fire wall or router i can host and play AoE 2 fine but this game AoM wont work i dont know what to do can anyone help me
wow… thanks for the helpful info. i’ve just another question. would you happen to know if pcs can play against macs in multiplayer game? i’ve had a hell of a hard time finding out.
Joanne,
From what I’ve seen, the Mac version is not compatible with the PC in any form for online play matching or even LAN based play. This is mainly due to the removal of the play matching service and any PC code that relies on it to play online. Hence why we have so many problems playing AoM online ourselves. Ugh.
iv got a modem 56k and i have no router or fire wallhow do i start online i have got AOE 2 and that works fine but it wont work with age of mythology plz help me
does enyone anser u on hear
If it’s not working for you then it’s more than likely the fault of either the hoster on GameRanger or those that are trying to join your hosted games. Dude, trust me, this game is way screwed up and frankly I don’t even play it anymore due to the obvious lack of developer support.
AoM was released in Nov. 2003 and there hasn’t been a SINGLE patch since. Screw em. Play Warcraft III instead.
Sorry your unable to play James. I too have given up on AoM only because there isn’t anyone to play against due to this glaring issue. AoM now sits all boxed up in my closet and Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne is my RTS game of choice.