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Thread: hosting games

  1. #1
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    hosting games

    what are my options for hosting games online? so that i can play against a few friends without going to a commercial site.
    i have two xp pro machines behind a adsl router, with 1mb bandwidth. some games seem complicated to configure for hosting, especially through a router. a m8 suggested using vpn software like wingate. how about a seperate dedicated server? i really haven't much idea so would welcome comments and links to tutorials etc. thanks.

  2. #2
    Ultimate Member CrazyCrusher's Avatar
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    its not to hard to configure your router if your going to host a game, you may have to change some port settings and so on, Im
    sure you have some idea how to do this.

    what type of router are you using? and what games would you be hosting? I will be able to help you out more if you can give me that, cheers.
    or try some of this
    1- determine the IP address of the computer hosting the game. Probably looks like 192.168.0.3
    You can determine this on a given computer by clicking Start > Run > (type in) cmd -enter- > (type in) ipconfig -enter-. Look at the IP Address, this is your number

    2- Firewalls block lots of your ports by default. You can allow free traffic on all of these ports through your firewall by setting your server as DMZ host. This will work, but has security issues (make sure you disable guest access and dont have a blank admin password at least). Also, you can only have 1 computer acting as a host with this method. I dont yet know if different instances of dominions 2 running on the same box with different ports will work, but if you try it use seperate installs or copies of the install directory (I non-game-disrupting crashes when I run 2 instances of the program installed in the same directory). Better to have each of your computers hosting a different game I suspect.

    Instead of setting a DMZ You can open up the specific port used, which dominions lets you pick when you start a game. Use port 1111 and point it to computer/server 1 (192.168.0.x), 2222 pointed to server 2 (192.168.0.y), etc.

    Both setting a computer as DMZ (or default host, or exposed host or whatever your firewall calls it) and opening specific ports must be done by logging into your firewall and configuring it. Typically you do this by typing in 192.168.0.1 (if this does not work, try 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.254 or 192.168.1.254) into your web browser's address bar, entering your name and password and perusing the menus until you see something about opening ports to specific machines.

    3- While you are still in the configuration, you should be able to find a global IP address, this one will not start with 192.168.0 and will be the one you want to share for your networked game. When you are playing your networked game locally, you will not use this address but the 192.168.0. one... everyone else will use the other.

    4 (optional)- Sometimes your ip address at home may change (this depends on your luck scale) so if you are planning a game that will run for more than a few days, try signing up for a free service like this one-
    http://www.dyndns.org/services/dyndns/
    which will provide you with a name like DelphiniumsRed.dyndns.org which you give to your players (and they type it in to the Server IP field when connecting). The service keeps the name pointing at your machine even when your IP address changes.

    That should do it, I had this setup with a dominions I server behind a firewall and had no trouble, let me know if it works for you.
    Last edited by CrazyCrusher; 11-10-2004 at 10:54 PM.

  3. #3
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    thanks crazycrusher for a great post. i'm using a new linksys wag54g and don't have any software firewall enabled on my pc's. i've been put off hosting because of difficulties with my main game interest which is il2 forgotten battles. my m8 and i have both tried setting it up without success, even using the router in dmz. we've followed instructions about port forwarding and running various server setups, but so far neither of us has been able to connect to the other's machine and play the game.
    so now we're wondering if vpn software might help, or even buying or building a dedicated server. the puzzling thing is that thousands of people seem to host games, surely they can't all have such hassle.

  4. #4
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    I know that a few of the Linksys wireless routers have some difficulty in hosting when compared to the non-wireless versions. I have a few games that if I use the BEFSR41 (non-wireless) I can host just fine. However, if I use my WRT54GS (wireless) I have problems, even in the DMZ.

    Have you tried, for testing purposes, taking the router out of the loop and does it work? If so, check for a firmware update on the router, that may help. Use the following link and in the upper, right-hand corner there is a link for "Firmware". It appears the latest is 1.02.1 released April 1, 2004.

    http://www.linksys.com/international...oid=6&ipid=371

    It may come down to that particular router is not playing nice with that game. If that is the case Linksys should be contacted as they may know of a workaround, or may possibly update the firmware to address the issue. I searched Linksys' forums but did not find anything about IL2 Forgotten Battles.

  5. #5
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    thanks apocalypse, i haven't yet tried hosting without the router. that's my next move, good idea. thanks.

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