Using Game Center behind a firewall

Summary

With most Wi-Fi networks, Game Center will just work. If you are on a Wi-Fi network that is behind a firewall, see below.

Products Affected

OS X Mountain Lion, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch

About firewalls

Frequently used by corporations and educational institutions for increased security, firewalls work by blocking certain Internet traffic from entering or leaving a network.

Internet traffic moves through a firewall based on service-identification numbers that are referred to as ports. Certain ports must be open for Game Center to work. Network administrators typically open a minimal set of network ports, allowing the traffic for approved applications to enter and leave the network while blocking other network traffic.

Ports to open

If the Wi-Fi network router that you are connected to uses a firewall or security software to restrict Internet access, contact the network administrator and refer to this article. To use Game Center on a restricted Wi-Fi network, port forwarding must be enabled for ports 443 (TCP), 3478-3497 (UDP), 4398 (UDP), 5223 (TCP), 16384-16387 (UDP), and 16393-16472 (UDP).

The Wi-Fi network administrator can refer to their router, firewall, or security software documentation for information about configuring port forwarding.

If you encounter other issues when using a Wi-Fi network, use standard Wi-Fi network troubleshooting.

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