SMC 7004FW Unable to Work with Steam

[Unibrow]

Hello,
I am trying to play Steam Counter-Strike with my SMC 7004FW. It works well when I play alone, or my brother does. However, if we both attempt to play at the sametime, the player in-game has his connection frozen. This results in him being kicked out, and the second player joining.
I have followed the instructions to open the correct ports. Here, I have included two screenshots of my router to show what settings I have entered. The firewall on the router, as well as XP, is off. We both have different CD keys, MAC addresses, and client ports to connect to a server. This problem occurs regardless if we play on the same server or not. Also, the firmware is up-to-date (v2.15T2). Here is the link for the ports to be opened: Linky (http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=1406)
The images are attached in the following two posts. Thanks for any help!
P.S. My PC is .100, and my brother is .101. Thanks again.

[Unibrow]

First Screenie.

[Unibrow]

Second Screenie.

[rusty4x4]

Have you browsed the forums on Steampowered (http://www.steampowered.com) ?

There's a lot to wade through, but I think your best bet can be found in there.

[Unibrow]

Anyone else have an idea?

[rraehal]

Most of the time when I have issue like this, I start with a firmware upgrade if one is available. I then look at the router manufacturers forums for specific issues, next at the game developers site for issue's.

If the answer can not be found at the resources listed, I will post on a forum. Firmware has fixed 5 of several issues.

You may want to look through your manual to see if you can set your vritual server to use ranges of open ports. IE all systems in the range: 192.168.100.100 to 192.168.100.254

I can do it with my router at work by using an address 192.168.100.255 and then specifing the port. It may allow you to enter one port TCP and One port UDP for all your systems. Could save some time.

[Unibrow]

That won't help the situation, as I've opened the correct ports already. However, I came accross the following post (http://steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=46056&highlight=router+7004fw) in the Steam forums.
This post details the same problem, and provides a solution. But, it does not explain how to actually go in and fix this problem. If anyone could explain it to me, I would be grateful! Thanks!

[rusty4x4]

All you need to do is access the router using your browser (go to http://192.168.0.1), enter the admin username/password, find the option in the setup that tells the router to use its own MAC address instead of your computer's. Seems that SMC routers might have the latter set as a default.

[Unibrow]

That option is not there. I checked before posting the previous message. Any ideas as to how to do it?

[rusty4x4]

Odd... the guy on the forum appears to have the same router make/model as you do:

"I have an SMC 7004FW Barricade Plus router using RoadRunner Cable"

Did you check your manual? (http://www.smc.com/drivers_downloads/library/SMC7004FW_MN.pdf) Check Chapter 4.

Failing that, you might want to contact the fellow on the forum to see what he did to make his work.

[Unibrow]

Yes, I private messaged him several days ago because he did not make his e-mail address public, and I read over the manual. However, it does not specify on the MAC address issue.

[rusty4x4]

I saw you post on the Steampowered forum thread. I'm beginnning to think that the problem is one of overspecification. Having run HL servers myself (non-Steam), the only reason for me to open specific ports on my router is to allow players to access my server.

As a client, I would really have no need to assign a port number to a specific machine, which I think you did (from your screen shots). My suggestion then is to clear those port assignments (27005, etc.) for both machines, BUT specify:

This can be done by adding "+clientport 27006" (27007, 27008, etc...) to your launch shortcut.

...as Disaster13 recommended from the forum.

Also, you might want to ensure that neither yours nor your bro's machine is set to be a DHCP server (just in case). In other words, have each machine get an IP address automatically (i.e., Control Panel / Network Connections / Properties / TCP/IP / Properties...).

Steam was infuriating when it came out, and I suspect will remain so in the future. But give the above a try, and let us know how it works out.