When I play Diabotical, the game lists available servers, but attempts to join them fail unless I enable a VPN. I contacted one of the server hosts, and they said no connection packets reach the server when I try to join normally. What could be blocking the connection, and how can I fix it without relying on a VPN?
1 Answer
This sounds like traffic to those servers may be blocked or filtered somewhere between your connection and the hosting network. It could be a regional restriction on the server side, filtering by your internet provider, or a routing problem. Since the VPN changes your route and makes it work, compare different VPN locations and try changing your DNS, restarting your router, and checking whether your ISP blocks the required ports. The server host may also be able to confirm whether connections from your region or ISP are being filtered.
Could the regional blocking be configured by the server hosts, or might it be coming from my government or internet provider?