Forum Discussion

New Rookie

3 months ago

NHL26 Failed to find opponent

I am deployed and for some reason I cannot get matched up with an opponent in Online Vs. I tried CHEL and had the same issue. My other games are working for online play.

New Rookie

3 months ago

Thanks Fox, I'll try these when I wake.

But, when you say "your router", do you mean the hotel's router? Because I doubt I have access to alter any settings there. Or did you mean the mobile hotspot from my laptop?

FoxHoundTiger

New Veteran

3 months ago

The "Hotel Router" Problem

When I mentioned "your router," I meant the Hotel's Router. You are correct—you cannot access their settings to change things like "VPN Passthrough" or "MTU."

Hotels often have very strict firewalls to prevent people from using too much bandwidth or to block "suspicious" traffic like VPNs. This explains why:

NordVPN UDP failed: The hotel is likely blocking UDP ports used by VPNs.

You were kicked: The hotel's "Load Balancing" or "Security" probably saw your high-speed gaming data and cut the connection.

How to Fix This in a Hotel (Plan C)

Since you can't touch the hotel's hardware, we have to bypass their restrictions entirely:

1. The "Mobile Hotspot" from your Phone (NOT the Laptop)

The Fix: Use your Phone's Cellular Data (4G/5G) as a hotspot and connect your laptop to that.

Why: This bypasses the hotel's router and firewall completely. If the game works on your phone's data, then we know the hotel's Wi-Fi is the culprit.

2. Use NordVPN "Obfuscated Servers" (Crucial for Hotels)

As we discussed, if you must use the hotel Wi-Fi, you must use OpenVPN (TCP) + Obfuscated Servers in NordVPN. This makes the hotel's router think you are just browsing a normal website, so it won't block you as easily.

3. The "Mobile Hotspot" from your Laptop

If you meant a hotspot created by your laptop (sharing the hotel Wi-Fi to another device), that will still be limited by the hotel's main router. It won't help with the "kick" issue.

hootiehome
New Rookie
3 months ago
Thanks again Fox. Here were the results. This is all using Nord, as it seems more robust that Hide.me. Still no joy on getting this to work.
Fix NordVPN: Enable "Obfuscated Servers"
Did this and received this message from my Xbox: DNS isn’t resolving Xbox server names
Also, see HF7 for what it looks like on Nord.

2. Fix the Network Adapter "Enable" Issue
Done.

3. Adjust MTU Settings (Prevents being kicked mid-game)
Done.

As for using my phone as a mobile hotspot, my U.S. based plan does not have the data or bandwidth to support gaming. And I did try a local eSim on my phone and tried to use it as a hotspot again, but the same issue as the hotel, seemed blocked and also used a 172 IP.
hootiehome
New Rookie
3 months ago
As a reminder Halo works. I have no issue matchmaking with that game. For some reason that one works. And I am plugged directly into the hotel LAN port to my Xbox. No hot spot or VPN in use there. It's only NHL26 that isn't working.