How do you play Online with a router

[tmacarter115]

I heard a router might be the reason why I cant host games. Can someone tell me how to fix this annoying problem thanks in advance.

[curious101]

After searching the EA Support page, here's what I found:

Question
Which ports are required for online play?

Answer
NBA Live 2006 uses the following TCP and UDP ports for Internet play:

HTTP: 80 (outbound only)
HTTPS: 443 (outbound only)
TCP 13500 - 13599 (outbound only Messenger)
UDP 3658 (inbound and outbound Game Packets)
UDP 28600 - 18699 (inbound and outbound Lobby)

Please consult your router or personal firewall documentation for information on how to allow game related traffic on these ports. If you are attempting to play on a corporate or school Internet connection, you will need to contact your network administrator. You may need to contact your Internet Service Provider to open these ports on their end as well.

If you know how to configure your router to forward the above mentioned connections to your local IP address, then perhaps it could solve your problem. I think you don't have to configure ports 80 and 443 as they are already open. You might also want to disable the firewall within Windows if you're using Windows XP SP1 or SP2.