I was messing around today connecting two Xbox 360's to Xbox Live at the same time from the same connection using UPnP and it led me to this idea which could be useful for JJ2.

Basically, practically every router out these days has something called 'UPnP' enabled and the ones that don't, can usually have it enabled with ease.

UPnP is Universal Plug and Plug which is a network technology widely deployed with Windows XP and Windows Vista and most home routers.

It allows applications to automatically request ports to be open to allow communications back and fourth from behind a NAT.

For example, when you connect to Xbox Live from an Xbox Console, it automatically opens ports it requires on your router, saving you have to set it up. Or like in Windows Live Messenger when you make a voice/video chat, or send a file it opens the ports needed. Its known as zero-config because it requires no network knowledge or configuration by the end user.

So why don't we adapt this for JJ2? I don't mean including it into the Jazz2 executable, well thats maybe possible but not required. But a simple program coded by one of our residental coders that would automatically connect to a UPnP enabled router and open the required ports for JJ2 to function.

It could solve a lot of problems for people playing who don't understand how their routers operate, or have difficulty setting up port forwards.

Secondly, this would also work without any of the nasty setting up static IP addresses and issues like that arousing with port forwarding. As even if networked PC is using DHCP to get IP addresses and keeps changing, the program can be run each and every time and set up the port forward.

I know there are a few routers that don't have UPnP enabled, but hey if it helps 90% of users, its worth looking into

Its just an idea, but something that maybe is worth some people looking into, it would solve so many problems