NHL26 Failed to find opponent

As you can see, you can connect in Japan. This is a common issue in hotels that use the 172 IP address.

Ahh, good point.  I don’t speak IT very well, what some good verbiage I have the hotel ask the ISP? And do you know why Halo matchmaking still works, by chance?

Thanks again. 

I couldn't tell you why Halo matchmaking works, unfortunately. As far as what to say, just let them know you can't match up against other players and that using a different connection works.

Hello Again Aljo.

I purchased an eSIM to try and connect that way.  It did not work.  The IP address also starts with 172, but it's 172.20.  Where the ones from the hotels were 172.16.

Any thoughts?

Hello, are you still around?

It's still a 172 IP though. Unfortunately, this is an issue with the hotel's internet. It's not something we can help with.

That message means you’ve been assigned a private IP address by the hotel’s network, which is causing a handshake issue with the game servers.

​The 172.x.x.x range is reserved for internal networks. Here is a breakdown of what is likely going wrong:

​1. Strict NAT Type

​Hotels usually "hide" hundreds of guests behind a single public IP address. This creates a Strict NAT, which acts like a wall. Game servers often can't "see" your specific device through that wall, leading to connection drops or the inability to join matches.

​2. Port Blocking

​Hotel IT admins often block specific "ports" to save bandwidth or for security. While they allow standard web browsing, they might block the specific ports EA games need to communicate, making it impossible for the game to stay connected.

​3. Double NAT

​Because the hotel has its own internal routing (the 172 IP) before it even hits the actual internet, your data is being translated twice. This "Double NAT" often causes games to time out because the data takes too long or gets lost in the internal layers of the hotel's hardware.

​What can you do?

​As the forum staff mentioned, they can't change the hotel's hardware settings, but you have a few options:

​Mobile Hotspot: If you have a decent data plan, using your phone as a hotspot is almost always better for gaming than hotel Wi-Fi. It gives you a much more "direct" connection to the internet.

​Use a VPN: A VPN can sometimes bypass the hotel's port restrictions by "tunneling" your traffic. However, this might slightly increase your ping (lag).

​Wired Connection: If the hotel room has an Ethernet port (LAN), try a cable. Sometimes the wired network has fewer restrictions than the guest Wi-Fi.

This was NOT through the hotel.  This was an eSim and using my phone as a hotspot.  Still the IP started with 172.

Thanks Fox.  I have tried all of these. 

• Mobile hotspot allowed me to connect to an opponent once, but has stopped working for some reason.  But the connection that one time was pretty slow anyway, and the game play was a bit laggy.  
• I do have a VPN with port forwading, but the Xbox would not connect to the interent with it turned on.  I'll try to get the exact wording of the error.
• The hotel does have a wired LAN port, which I am using.  With it I am able to play multiplayer on Halo, however, NHL26 still will not find an opponent. 

Apologies for all the frustration with this. Unfortunately, I think it'll continue to happen until you can get off the 172 IP. Can you tell me what the NAT setting is? You can see this under the network settings on your console.