UPDATED: Thanks to dutchnapoleon.

I have recently had the ip-address problem with Age of Empires and with this post I would like to "instruct" you guys what to do what it happens to you. The exact message is: "The IP address the game is trying to use is invalid."

(1)
- close the ESO online mode for Age of Empires
- close your game
- start your game
- start the ESO online mode for Age of Empires and watch if the IP problem is still there, if it is go to "2"

(2)
- go to your router's setting page, default is: 192.168.2.1
- log in
- click on system settings
- disable / able, depending if disable or able is checked, the option named Universal Plug and Play (UPaP)
- log out
- start your game
- start the ESO online mode for Age of Empires and watch if the IP problem is still there, if it is go to "3"

(3)
- close the ESO online mode for Age of Empires
- close your game
- visit www.whatismyip.org and write somewhere down what your IP-address is.
- browse where your "Startup" map is for Age of Empires, for example: my documents\my games\age of empires 3\startup
- click on "Tools" and select "Map Options"
- click on the view tab
- in the advanced settings list, look for the line "Hide extensions for known file type", uncheck it if it is checked.
- click Apply at the bottom of the options window,
- click ok.
- open notepad
- add OverrideAddress=[the IP address you found earlier]
- click file -> save as
- in the save window browse to my documents\my games\age of empires 3\startup
- file name = user.cfg, save as type as all files, click ok
- start your game
- start the ESO online mode for Age of Empires and watch if the IP problem is still there, if it is go to "4"

(4)
- deinstall every single thing from Age of Empires
- install Age of Empires and see if it works now

If all these things don't work I don't have a clue what to do next...

Hmm ok well I have this problem so I was following the instructions up until it said open start up, which when I opened it there was nothing in there, could this possibly mean that somehow some of the data in there got deleted and that I need to reinstall? Also any idea if this may be related to when I open up internet explorer it can't find any website and says there is a problem with my proxy server? Which firefox works perfectly fine though.

If I need to reinstall the game I am going to be offline for a while since I just recently reinstalled the whole thing, and I am getting tire of doing it.

GeneralMichael wrote:

Hmm ok well I have this problem so I was following the instructions up until it said open start up, which when I opened it there was nothing in there, could this possibly mean that somehow some of the data in there got deleted and that I need to reinstall? Also any idea if this may be related to when I open up internet explorer it can't find any website and says there is a problem with my proxy server? Which firefox works perfectly fine though. If I need to reinstall the game I am going to be offline for a while since I just recently reinstalled the whole thing, and I am getting tire of doing it.

First of all, when I had this problem I could open websites and didn't have the problem that my internet was not working anymore. I can't help you that way.
Second, if you open "Start Up" you have to make sure that you change your files from "Just show word files" to "Show all files". If you changed it, it should work and it should show you all the files.

Good luck with fixing the problem!

Ok well how do you make it show all files? I went into properties, and set everything that I saw was hiding something to show it, though I still see nothing. So I must have done something.

Well if I open the Start Up map I get this:
It shows automatically all files like .con and .cfg. I think you can change that kind of things by pressing tools and look for some option to change that. I am not sure, sorry.

The most likely problem is the UPnP setting in your router.

Universal Plug and Play allows the games able of using this setting to configure the router themselves, usually increasing the game's performance but sometimes causing problems.

To disable this setting go to your router's setting page (default is: 192.168.2.1) and click what is usually displayed as "system settings". In order to do this you will have to log into your router's system with the admin password (default blank). Once inside your router's admin section enable or disable the UPnP setting depending on the current state.

I hope this solves the problems, if not leave a message or mail me at
ralphvangurp @ wanadoo.nl

Thanks for the help guys, but I still can't get it to work, and unfortunately I am using my college's internet, so I have no control over the router. When I do a diagnose of the internet explorer's problem it says that my computer is having a problem with the proxy server, so I'm guessing my labtop is still having problems with connecting to the schools internet. I'm going to take my labtop to the computer guys on campus to see if they can help me fix it, or at least go wireless with my labtop since I have no idea what the password is for students