Hi i have a linksys router, but something is really annoying me. i cant play using ip address with any of my friends because of port forwarding. And even age of empires 2 online need to port forward + you cant host a game when you have a router. Is there anyway to fix the problem with routers or how to port forward games and stuff, and can you please explain to me why all these stuff dont work and why you cant host a game in age of empires 2 if you have router. (lol sorry too many questions hope you answer them all) Thank you afaasdvsd

and sorry i forget to say this, what is dmz and could it help me avoid port forwarding? and my router is linksys WAG54G afaasdvsd

A DMZ, or DeMilitarized Zone, can be set so that a computer is completely accessable via the Internet. instead of using port forwarding to forward certain ports, on a DMZ, a router fowareds all incoming requests to the specified. Using a DMZ has a major downside, your computer would be wide open for attacks if you don't have a good firewall (and have it configured properly). Generally, you only need a DMZ if you have a dedicated server that always needs to accept incoming requests. portforward.com has step-by-setp instructions on how to properly set up port forwarding.