What does port 80 do for C&C Generals?

[Derek Meister]

After spending the day at work attempting to use as many dumb C&C Generals quotes as possible (ie, Boss: "You need to get X, Y and Z by noon" Us: "Could we please have some shoes?" Boss: "Here's the supplies you requested" Us: "China can USE this!"), a co-worker and I got the urge to play the game later that night.

Both of us are on Adelphia cable modems, a service which blocks incoming port 80 requests. I've noticed that incoming port 80 seems to be on the list for several C&C Generals FAQs as a required port to play the game, and in fact we both would see the other person's name show up in the direct connect list of players, but then get connection timeouts, despite opening up every requested port and even moving ourselves out into the DMZ.

So, anyone know if the blocking of port 80 inbound could be a problem with direct connect, and if there's a way around it?

[Erik Andersson]

Blocking tcp port 80 will at least mean that you can't host a regular http server on that machine. If C&C actually requires it then I think that they've made a stupid decision.

[Talisker]

* FIREWALL PORT OVERRIDE OPTIONS ITEM - Firewall Port Override values can now be set on the Options menu from the Main Menu.

The game will need to talk to external servers that use the following port numbers. These ports need to be open in your firewall in order to play on Generals Online:

TCP ports: 80, 6667, 28910, 29900, 29920
UDP ports: 4321, 27900

If your firewall does not allow outgoing packets to open ports to incoming traffic, or you experience problems connecting to other players, you will have to specify which port you want Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour to use for communicating with other players. To do this, go to the Main Menu and then select Options. There is a box labeled ‘Firewall Port Override’. Assign the port you want to use to the port override entry. After you enter a port number, be sure to hit Accept.

You will need to open the chosen port in your firewall for communication with players external to your firewall or NAT device. If you use the port override feature, the port you have chosen can not be masqueraded by a NAT device.

“Direct Connect” does not support firewalls.
If it MUST have port 80 available to work, then yep, they're idiots. No idea why that would be a must, since I doubt the game is serving webpages while you're playing.