Luis wrote on 01/23/15 at 21:20:36:
If nothing else works and things seem completely hopeless, you might want to give the following cheat device codes a try...
FYI the codes below are raw/unencrypted and designed for the NTSC-U version of TMBO. Use something like Omniconvert to encrypt them for AR MAX.
Mastercode902A38B0 0C0A8DD4
TMBO Revival Server (173.198.252.240)204E7638 2E333731
204E763C 2E383931
204E7640 2E323532
204E7644 00303432
204E7648 00000000
204E764C 00000000
204E7650 00000000
204E7654 00000000
204E7658 00000000
20316AEC 2E333731
20316AF0 2E383931
20316AF4 2E323532
20316AF8 00303432
20316AFC 00000000
20316B00 00000000
20316B04 00000000
20316B08 00000000
20316B0C 00000000
The aforementioned codes programmatically change the server TMBO tries to log into. By using them, there's no need to deal with adjusting DNS settings. Just make sure you clear your custom DNS setting from step 7 of RoaDiE's guide before trying to log into TMBO.
The downside of using a cheat device for this is that you'll have to deal with the hassle of starting up the cheat device before playing TMBO every time. The DNS method is a lot more user-friendly because you only have to set it up once, and then everything is saved so you don't need to do anything special afterwards.
Lastly, regarding port forwarding, that has no bearing on whether or not you can connect to the revival server. Players with blocked ports will always be able to login, but will be greeted by a warning message as their lobby announcement.
Once you sort out your DNS problems and manage to login successfully, I suspect you're going to end up seeing the warning message in the lobby. The message will mention your router's LAN IP address (192.168.1.1) as well as your PS2's LAN IP address (192.168.1.
x). Upon seeing the warning, note down your PS2's LAN IP. Then, login to your router, go to
its port forwarding settings and replace "173.198.252.240" with your PS2's LAN IP at the bottom.
Good luck

!