can't play anything with three players

Kai Beginner Joined: 18 Nov 2025 Posts: 1

I apologize for the lengthy post, but I wanted to make sure to include as much information as possible that might help someone who wants to help.

Lately, I've been trying to use Xlink Kai to play LAN games online with my girlfriend and a mutual friend of ours. When I play a two-player game with just one of them, everything works fine, but when all three of us try to play a three-player game, it never works.

The three games we've tried are Mario Kart: Double Dash, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Armored Core Nexus. For MKDD and ACN, we are all using an emulator (Dolphin and PCSX2 respectively) running on the same PC that is running Xlink Kai. They are both using wireless connections, while I use an ethernet cable. For MK8D, I am using Ryujinx running on the same PC that is running Xlink Kai, while they are both using actual Switch consoles which are connected to the same wireless network as their PCs running Xlink Kai. Again, I use an ethernet cable, while they have everything connected wirelessly.

Here is what happens when we try to play together:

Mario Kart: Double Dash:
The game says that three consoles are connected together, and we're able to go through menus and get to the point where a race is starting, but as soon as Mario Circuit is loaded in and shown, the game seems to freeze up and then we all lose connection to each other.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe:
When one of us hosts a LAN game, one other person can join with no issues, but when the third person tries to join, they get stuck on "Please Wait..." for a while and then see something like "A communication error occurred." This will happen no matter which one of us hosts, which one of us joins first, or which one joins last.

Armored Core Nexus:
This is basically the same as MKDD. All of our emulators see each other, and we're able to go through the menus to start a battle with three players on three separate consoles, but a few seconds after the battle actually starts, the screen will go black, and we'll all see something along the lines of "Communication Error."

Like I said, none of these things happen when I play a two-player game with only one of them; the issues only arise when all three of us try to play together at the same time.

In my Xlink Kai configuration, I have both automatic port assignment and UPnP enabled. In my router configuration, I have port 30000 forwarded to the local IP address of my PC running Xlink Kai and my emulators (i.e. 192.168.0.126). I can provide screenshots of my router config, my Xlink Kai config, ipconfig on my PC, any emulator's config, or anything else if need be.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: I just realized I posted this in General Discussion instead of support. I'm very sorry, I'm new here. If anyone knows how to move this post to where it's supposed to be, I would really appreciate that too.

Edit 2: Help Request Form. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this was a thing until after I made this post. But now, I will attempt to fill it out to the best of my ability.
Is your network reachable? Yes.
Are you using a router? Yes.
Did you set a static IP on the PC running Kai? Yes. 192.168.0.126
Did you forward port 30000 to the static IP? Yes.
Did you click the globe after forwarding to see if your network goes reachable? No. I don't know where this globe is.
What console are you using? I am using emulators. Dolphin, PCSX2, and Ryujinx.
Is your console being detected? Yes.
Brief description of your network setup: I have cable internet. I believe the modem was provided by our ISP (Spectrum), and we (my family) use a router to connect all of our devices to the internet. The router is a TP-Link Archer C7. My Windows 11 PC is connected to said router with an ethernet cable.
Model numbers of the router, and modem? My router is a TP-Link Archer C7 AC1750. I don't know about the modem.
Do you use a software firewall? What brand? Have you made any changes to it? Only whatever firewall is built into Windows 11. I have not made any changes to it.
Operating System? Windows 11 Home
Problem description? See above.

COPY AND PASTE CONTENTS OF kaiUserConfig.txt HERE
# XLink Kai Engine Configuration
# Version 7.4.45 build 651430714

[KaiUserConfig]

# Use automatic login
kaiAutoLogin=0

# Use Web User Interface instead of GUI program
kaiWebUI=1

# Automatically launch Kai user interface
kaiLaunchUI=1

# User interface program name
kaiUI=kaiUI.exe

# Web UI Password
kaiHTTPPassword=!

# Web UI Has Password
kaiHTTPAccessHasPassword=0

# Web UI Skin
kaiSkin=!

# Automatically open chat
kaiAutoOpenChat=1

# Automatically assign IP addresses to Sony PS2/PS3/PS4/PS5 Consoles
kaiDHCPAssignSony=1

# Automatically assign IP addresses to Nintendo Switch/Gamecube/Wii/Wiiu Consoles
kaiDHCPAssignNintendo=1

# Automatically assign IP addresses to XBox One and Xbox Series X/S Consoles
kaiDHCPAssignXBox=0

# Automatically assign IP addresses to Original XBox Consoles for homebrew
kaiDHCPAssignXBoxHomeBrew=0

# Automatically assign IP addresses to XBox 360 Consoles for homebrew
kaiDHCPAssignXBox360HomeBrew=0

# Show your status in Discord (client must be running on the same PC as the kai engine)
kaiDiscordPresence=1

# Allow Discord invites and join requests in public arenas
kaiDiscordAllowJoinRequests=1

# Disable sleep mode
kaiDisableSleep=0

# MBCS code page for asian character sets
kaiCodepage=0

# Language
kaiLanguage=en

# Enable port address translation
kaiPAT=1

# Set UDP port for peer-to-peer connections (0=random)
kaiPort=0

# Use UPNP to attempt to automatically forward UDP port
kaiUPNP=1

# Enable experimental features. Be careful with this one.
kaiExperimental=0

# Set TCP port for Web UI connections (connect with http://127.0.0.1:[portnumber]/)
# Default is 34522 - this does not need to be changed in most cases. You DO NOT need to forward this port in your router.
kaiWebUIPort=34522

# Autodetect Proxy Server
kaiProxyAutoDetect=1

# Proxy server IP address
kaiProxyServer=!

# Proxy server port
kaiProxyPort=0

# Network adapter (!=autodetect)
kaiAdapter=!

# Automatically shut down engine after x minutes (0=never)
kaiTimeout=0

# Automatically shut down engine when UI closes
kaiUIClose=1

# Accept connections from user interfaces on other computers
kaiAcceptRemoteUI=0

# Accept connections from DDS applications on other computers
kaiAcceptRemoteDDS=0

# Show the splash screen on startup
kaiShowSplash=1