How to: Play Age of Empires III over Hamachi/LAN : Divide By Zero

I ran into a problem a while back where me and my friend wanted to play AOE III over Hamachi.

If you don’t know, Hamachi is a virtual private network program but it’s real easy to use. It creates a LAN between you and anyone in your server (in my case, some of my friends). You can password protect your server and invite only people you trust.

Naturally, this means you can easily LAN with people when they aren’t on your home network. Sometimes this can be tricky but the first method I’m going to show you should work for almost all the games.

Method 1: The Windows XP/Vista Route

Windows XP

There is a little known feature in Windows that lets you specify what network adapters are most important. Many games like Age of Empires will use the network card with the highest priority.

Click Start and go to Control Panel
Go to Network Connections
In the menu at the top, click Advanced and then Advanced Settings.
You’ll see your Wireless or Local Area Connection in the list and Hamachi under “Connections.�?
Click Hamachi and click the Green Up Arrow to move it to the top.
Click OK to close the dialog.

Now Hamachi should be configured as a higher priority connection.

Windows Vista

Click Start and go to Control Panel
Click Network and Sharing Center
On the left side, click Manage Network Connections
Press the ‘Alt’ key and click Advanced then Advanced Settings at the top.
You’ll see your Wireless or Local Area Connection in the list and Hamachi under “Connections.�?
Click Hamachi and click the Green Up Arrow to move it to the top.
Click OK to close the dialog.

Run Age of Empires 3 and try to host a LAN game. In the top corner should be your Hamachi IP address.

If it’s not the right one, then you’ll have to set it manually for the game…

Method 2: Set AOE 3 Manually

Before using this method, update to AOE 3 1.04 or above! You can find the patches here.

Here’s a way to force AOE 3 to use a specific IP address:

Go to your My Documents/Documents folder.
Go to your My Games folder.
Go to the Age of Empires III folder.
Go to the Startup folder.
If there is not a user.cfg file, open Notepad. Do File > Save As… and save it as user.cfg (make sure to use “All Files *.*�? not “Text Documents *.txt�?) in that folder.
In user.cfg (right-click, Open With Notepad) add the following line:

OverrideAddress="5.x.x.x"
Change “5.x.x.x�? to your Hamachi address. This can be found by opening up Hamachi and seeing what the big numbers at the top say.
This will force AOE 3 to use the Hamachi address instead of your LAN IP address.

Now start AOE 3 and host a LAN game. You should see your Hamachi address now, for sure!

[View the Hamachi AOE 3-specific wiki entry for details and also the general Gaming wiki entry for more than what I’ve covered]

Troubleshooting Network Problems

If the address shows up but your friend still can’t connect, first make sure their IP address is showing correctly.

Use the same version. All users wanting to play AOE 3 over network need to have the same version. To see what version you have, browse to where you installed AOE 3 and open up “patch.rtf.�? At the top it should tell you what version you have.
Make sure your EXE is the same. If you’re like me and buy games but don’t want to keep putting in the CD for them when you want to play, you’ve “cracked�? your Age3.exe file. Make sure your friends all have the same one, otherwise it probably won’t work.

Comments

Thx alot m8 this rly helps me out for all games! this tactics works when ur playing pro streeet aswell

Posted by: Burre
On July 29, 2008 9:19 AM

Hmm, Yeah it works but when my friend tries to connect it says the host is shutting the game down.

Posted by: Frida Beekman
On September 21, 2008 10:17 AM

Ok. it worked perfectly on my Windows xp. I didn't have to create the IP override. But on my Friends Vista I did everything and It didn't work at all I made Hamachi the higher priority and created the cfg file and it didn't change anything...Is there anything else I can do?

Posted by: Phill
On October 14, 2008 2:29 AM

horrahh
got it...tnx. But, now we can't see each other's games in the lobby What to do now?

Posted by: phill
On October 14, 2008 2:43 AM

Did you try directly connecting to his IP address? That might work.

Posted by: Kamran
On October 14, 2008 9:01 AM

yes, it didn't work either.

Posted by: phill
On October 18, 2008 9:35 AM

same problem as last. I'm going through a router. I can ping my mate but he cant ping me

Posted by: Peter
On October 19, 2008 1:42 AM

actually it was working at one point but we had different versions. he was using the nocd and i was using a cd then i got the same crack as him and then it wouldn't detect him again

Posted by: Peter
On October 19, 2008 1:52 AM

me and a friend tried to do multiplayer through lan when i hosted a game he could see me but could not get in and when he hosted i could not see him at all we turned off our firewalls and typed our ip address directly but still nothing do you have to have an internet connection to do this?

Posted by: david
On November 3, 2008 7:14 AM

hmm, i tried method 1, but i still cant detect any games when i tried connecting to my fren's ip address

Posted by: Kelvin
On November 12, 2008 7:07 AM

I did the 2 methods shown and when i connect to my fren's ip, it says" failed to join"

Posted by: kelvin
On November 12, 2008 7:16 AM

Hamachi AOE III NETWORK

Name: AoE three
password: 123

Posted by: Leeium
On January 1, 2009 11:05 AM

thanks a lot man...worked liek a charm...teh cfg bit...bloody godsend

Posted by: shiv
On January 9, 2009 11:07 AM

well i joined that network right and its still not working i did everything, is it because me and my mate have the same serial key cause we used the same game cd's?

Posted by: HELP
On January 11, 2009 6:18 AM

thanks man, realy helped :>

Posted by: Sexigirl
On January 13, 2009 3:49 PM

my friend has windows vista and i have XP. we tried to play AOE 2 but he cannot join my game and if he creates no game is shown on my system.
we made hamachi as prime network , turned off firewalls bt no success ...plz help...

Posted by: gaurav
On January 22, 2009 8:38 AM

i had the same problem as another person on here... when me and my friends try to join a game together it says failed to join, or only one of them can join... any help?

I moved hamachi up in my network connections and so did they, and we all have the User.cfg file...

Posted by: corey
On January 29, 2009 10:10 AM

Server name: ageofempires3east
Password: zxcvbnm
Join now!

Posted by: Kenneth
On February 18, 2009 3:01 PM

i dont understand what we write at the startup user.cfg
anybody can tell me

Posted by: Jurgen
On March 23, 2009 8:40 AM

Join our Age of Empires III network to play NOW:
Network: AOE3.TAD
Passwork: 123

Posted by: crazyconquest
On April 15, 2009 4:47 AM

kakacis
kakacis

Posted by: asdasd
On April 22, 2009 10:47 AM

Hey that really works, thanks alot :)

Posted by: yehaa
On April 26, 2009 10:27 AM

Ive worked alot to this game to work on hamachi...

After alot of work i found out that these things have to be done in order to get it to work:

1: Game versions HAVE to be the same for every player. Make sure to make all your friends to have the same version. Thats why some people can find the host but can't connect.

2. We had to get a small program that tricks aoe3 into thinking hamachi is the main network connection. Its called ''aoe3loader''.

3. We also had issues after we had patched the game to the version we agreed. It seemed we had to get the exact same cracks as well.

4. Also the tutorial on top of the screen. Im not sure if it's necessary when you have the aoe3loader, but i did it anyway.

Well hope this works ^^

Those are the things we had to do to make it work.

Posted by: Chris
On May 11, 2009 7:14 PM

join network= beekarry

password =123456

Posted by: kong
On July 14, 2009 7:28 AM

join aoe 3 network

= kongtheage3

password= kong

Posted by: kong
On July 14, 2009 7:32 AM

Join to play aoe3:
AoE Gaming3

password:age

Posted by: Nehvus
On August 15, 2009 4:43 PM

Join AOE network asian 1.0
eleeme88
luisn8
luis_henriquez@msn.com

Posted by: eleeme
On August 21, 2009 10:54 PM

i have tried everything thing posted on this website and on other websites and i cant get AOe 3 to use hamachi's ip address. i dont know what i am doing wrong any help?

Posted by: paul
On August 28, 2009 11:15 PM

JOIN MY HAMACHI SERVER...
NETWORK: hiddensouls222
pass:123

Posted by: derek
On September 8, 2009 3:40 AM

dimshadow
pasword: hf,lpl]

try it

Posted by: dim
On September 16, 2009 2:27 PM

it says: the host canceled the game.. why? what is wrong

Posted by: Zigmoncius
On September 21, 2009 11:52 AM

Join my Age of Empires II and III Network with or without expansion. If a player is not on for more than THREE DAYS he/she will be removed to create space for more active members. Yes, I will be following it closely.

Network name:FireSting
Network Password: fierylight

PS: CAPS SENSITIVE NAME

Posted by: François
On September 22, 2009 11:06 AM

Age Of Empires 3 Network Asian Dynasties

network: aeo3asian
password: 123

Posted by: Multinet
On October 6, 2009 10:39 PM

when ever i start i ask for cd key i entr cd key and thn start playng but after quit when i start it again it ask for cd key ..plz tell me what shuld i do

Posted by: Malik
On December 9, 2009 4:23 AM

id: AOE3_twc_tad
Pass: 123456

Join! I just created it..
Only for people who are online if you're not you will be kicked...

Posted by: Noctrueh
On December 21, 2009 10:24 AM

OK I have one computer with XP and one with Vista. I've got Warchiefs working fine on both of them, but not Asian Dynasties. The correct Hamachi IP address shows up on both computers when I try to host a game, but the other computer can never connect. Please help!

Posted by: Cooper
On December 22, 2009 10:37 AM

I just created one for AoE III.
Network ID / Password :
Satbee1 / Satbee1

Posted by: satbee1
On December 24, 2009 11:40 AM

hehe if u want to play warcraft 3 over hamachi join

Posted by: kong
On January 6, 2010 11:42 PM

somebody create for warchiefs game?

Posted by: tonco
On January 24, 2010 7:24 AM

Age of Empires III:

USERNAME: Manasseh88

PASSWORD: enter

Posted by: FB
On February 14, 2010 2:01 PM

Hello, me and my brother tried to play this game we tried the Method 2. The only thing what could be a problem is dat we have only 1 CD, we switch from CD ( if one is in the game we switch from CD ). Is that the whole point? Before we got Sitecom Internet Connectors, everything worked fine.

Posted by: Casper
On February 19, 2010 6:02 AM

Guys ...

I have a problem, i made all like its said above,i host the game, my friend joined, BUT the game was all about 10 sec. And then it disconnects us

Help me pls i ll create Warchief game :))

Posted by: nenad
On March 1, 2010 2:39 PM

JOIN

name: aoe3 clasic
pass: 123

Posted by: shone
On June 1, 2010 3:46 AM

name : lovewilliamson
password : 05806093

Posted by: Arnaud
On June 1, 2010 4:37 PM

name : aoe3ivorycoast
pass : 123
for normal, warchief or asian. always available lol

Posted by: Arnaud
On June 5, 2010 9:54 AM

yes but when I change my IP in user.cfg my IP in game is 0.0.0.0 what is it please write me to email

Posted by: pDcko
On June 22, 2010 2:29 PM

wanna play aoe 3 so join

network: avinashkong

>no password

with latest patch aoe 3 ... tad etc

Posted by: kong
On June 24, 2010 2:54 AM

join AOE3 hamachi

patch 1.0

network Ghostspeed
pw roflmao

Posted by: Karayolda
On July 9, 2010 3:58 PM

PLAY DAILY AGE OF EMPIRE 3 FOR FREE

NETWORK ID:AGEOE1
Password:123

Posted by: jestin
On July 22, 2010 9:33 AM

Join for AoE III, Asian Dynasties, patch 1.0.1:
Network: "AoE_III_AD_1.0.1"
Password: "none" (the pass is "none")

Posted by: Eyurt
On September 2, 2010 1:14 AM

Join, new server need active players:

network: aoe3 mj
pass: 123

Posted by: MJ
On September 2, 2010 5:45 PM

Hey ive got this problem, nothing works, BUT.
I tried the AoE3loader, but its just sayin, It cant find any aoe versions thats right.

if i got 1.6.3 loader, do i have to install the 1.6 patch then?

Posted by: Räz
On September 11, 2010 12:48 PM

aoe of elgin
pass:aoe3

Posted by: hado
On September 29, 2010 1:25 PM

It works perfectly thx alot.

Posted by: Megauploader
On October 18, 2010 7:08 PM

join us :

server : danyshor11
pw : danyshor11

w8 4 players.

Posted by: danyshor
On November 18, 2010 3:20 AM

or add my yahoo ID danyshor_ghost.rider@yahoo.com .
thx.

Posted by: danyshor
On November 18, 2010 3:21 AM

age10:00

pass: 123

Posted by: leo
On December 31, 2010 5:53 AM

join my aoe3 network

bmxerlol
bmxerlol

Posted by: bmxerlol
On January 6, 2011 2:14 PM

Initially I thought Hamachi (fish), commonly used in sushi but reading on, you meant a zero-configuration virtual private network (VPN) shareware application. Lucky there is Wikipedia.

Posted by: Age Yourself
On April 1, 2011 2:50 PM

Oh thanks! Me and my friends were looking for this solution.

It`s great!.

Posted by: Emiliano
On April 10, 2011 3:14 PM

Join us:
ID: AOE3BD
PASS: AOE3BD

Posted by: bdboy
On April 23, 2011 3:27 PM

ID : pyzza
PASS: 12345

1vs1

Poland

Posted by: Rafał
On April 24, 2011 9:52 AM

Thanx! Worked for me and my brother.
I had some problems in beginning but then i noticed that im on patch 1.00 :)
So i patched our games to 1.04 and it worked perfectly!
Thanx again for this tutorial!

Posted by: BLurBLur
On May 11, 2011 10:21 PM

ID: AOE3-077
PASS: 123

Asian Dynasties

Posted by: Luiksta
On May 27, 2011 5:12 AM

Thanks man.It's work for me. I'm very grateful.

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x86 Vs. Windows 7 Home Edition x86

Posted by: João Carlos
On June 26, 2011 7:24 PM

join my server
user-hughage
pass-hugh

Posted by: hugh
On July 12, 2011 10:19 AM

The problem the most of you have is get the same version!

Posted by: Nico
On July 19, 2011 7:37 AM

Thanks for posting this info. I was having trouble with the ip thing in AOE3 with Hamachi and the info, Method 2: Set AOE 3 Manually
worked absolutely flawlessly!!! THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!

Posted by: DarkPhantom
On January 29, 2012 12:59 AM

@ Darkphantom. Did you and friends both do the ipoverride as mentioned in method 2 or only the guy who hosted the game?

Posted by: Eaglry
On January 29, 2012 8:50 PM

Few tips from me, I am lan maniac, I managed to play with my friends over Hamachi some games, which are considered hard to manage via Virtual LAN. So, lets begin:
1.Always, for lan games, stop the Windows Firewall from the control panel. 2.Always make Hamachi top priority network by the means author suggested upwards.
3.Always stop your antivirus program before playing if you don't know how to configure it properly for network play (Eset smart security is pain in the ass in that manner).
4.Always use Hamachi 1.0.21 - newer versions SUCK (guaranteed, I used all and 1.0.21 works best). All network members SHOULD use the same version of Hamachi.
5.Always configure Hamachi manually: enter network settings in control panel, right click on Hamachi network, then click properties. On the TCP/IP protocol 4 tab, enter properties again. In IP section enter your Hamachi IP (visible on Hamachi main window). Subnet mask is always 255.0.0.0 and Gateway is always 5.0.0.1. Leave the DNS empty (in Windows 7, this is the ONLY way of making Hamachi "home network"). That way, you both should be able to ping your friends via hamachi without problems.

Posted by: Yuli
On February 21, 2012 10:56 AM

hi. i try to use hamachi but he show me my real IP! what i have to do?

Posted by: Daniel
On February 28, 2012 4:19 PM

Hello to all, how is all, I think every one is getting more
from this website, and your views are good for new users.

Posted by: pid temperature controller
On June 4, 2012 7:42 AM