Getting 5038f-mw1 error on connection attempts potential fix

Apols if this has already posted but I was not fully aware of this when starting on MHW and there's still people posting about this every day on twitter, so I thought I'd share.

I started slightly late to the Monster Hunter World party but I eventually picked it up for the PS4 and all was great..... that was except for this error every time I tried to connect to any hosted game. I could only connect one in 10/15 attempts which was a right pain for me.

The fix was setting up a DMZ for the PS4 through my router. Sounds complex but in reality it was quite straight forward.

Firstly you need to specify a fixed internal IP address on your PS4. To do this you need to see what IP address you normally get from your router. You can find this in "Settings", then "Network" and "View Connection Status". On here you will find your current IP address and also the Default Gateway. Make a note of both. Look at the IP address and you'll see it should be in the format of 192.168.. (and the Default Gateway will be similar).

You want to then go back to the Network screen and select "Set up Internet Connection", select the connection type then choose "Custom". On the IP Address Settings screen choose "Manual" then you need to fill in the following details ;

IP Address - put in the first 3 parts the same then choose a high number for the last and keep it below 255 eg 192.168.1.210 - you want it to be high as no other device would have it specified on your router. Make a note of what you choose. Subnet Mask - 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway - keep that the same Primary and secondary DNS - I added two public ones which were 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.8.4 respectively.

Once done continue, test these settings and make sure you can connect to PSN still. If it doesn't then either try a different IP address or a different public primary/secondary DNS (contact your ISP and get them to tell you the address for them or just google it lol).

Now that that's specified, you need to get a computer/tablet/mobile that is connected to the router and open an Internet browser. In the address bar type in the Default Gateway address you made a note of earlier. You should get a page appear asking for login details for your router (these are normally located on a sticker under your router). Enter those details and you'll see the dashboard page for your router (some routers will display a basic page with 2/3 options, you may need to select an Advanced view). Essentially don't click anything else other than an option that should be called "DMZ" (just in case you click something by accident and cut off your Internet connection).

The DMZ page will normally ask you to choose an IP address to put in and if you want to enable the DMZ for it. Enter the PS4 IP address which you made up earlier and save that setting on there. Close the page, go back to your PS4 and from that moment I connected every time on my 1st attempt since. I'm still bloody useless on the game though lol

I know that's a fair block of text and it does need a half-decent understanding of browsing etc but after pulling my hair out for a few nights this worked a treat. I'm not on the game that much, PSN ID = JecciusC if anyone wants to laugh at me :p