1 v 1 gaming over the internet.

McGraw · 01-06-2004, 09:47

My mate and I both have 600k NTL BB. His through an STB, mine through a SACM through a wireless router.

We want to play games such as Medieval Total War against each other only.

There doesn't seem to be any way to do it.

I haven't really looked into Gamespy as I just assumed you have to play against other people. Can you host private games on it?

I thought about setting up a VPN but that seems impossible due to static IP issues. Is this the case?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is one of the main reasons we both went for 600k.

Cheers.

Jon M · 01-06-2004, 09:52

All you need to do is start a local server on whichever game and let your mate know your current external IP address (which changes rarely if you leave your wireless router on 24/7) .. if you're not sure what your address is.. use the tools here http://www.all-nettools.com/toolbox (the last two being the appropriate ones)

McGraw · 01-06-2004, 10:26

Cheers, will try it tonight. I thought about doing it like that but just assumed it seemed too simple to work.

McGraw · 01-06-2004, 11:21

I have been reading some post on the Total war forum. Apparently, the subnets on both machines must match (first three ip numbers must be the same I think?).

I'm on a router, he's not. I suspect this won't work but I may be wrong.

what do you think?

zovat · 01-06-2004, 13:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by McGraw

I have been reading some post on the Total war forum. Apparently, the subnets on both machines must match (first three ip numbers must be the same I think?).

I'm on a router, he's not. I suspect this won't work but I may be wrong.

what do you think?

Depends on whether the Total War software understands about NAT, as the IP of your machine will be different on your network than it is to the outside world (It will show as the IP of your router)....

McGraw · 01-06-2004, 14:34

So what IP do I use for gaming then?

Surely I can't use my 192.168 address as there must be hundreds on the internet just like that.

I have never understood this side of things and would love to have it explained to me.

zovat · 01-06-2004, 15:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by McGraw

So what IP do I use for gaming then?

Surely I can't use my 192.168 address as there must be hundreds on the internet just like that.

I have never understood this side of things and would love to have it explained to me.

the IP address your mate would need is the IP address of your router (the external one).

you then need to tell your router to forward all packets on the relevant port number(s) (for TW I don't know what they would be), to the internal address. (192.168.x.y).
The ports should be detailed in the documnetation for the game.

How this works....

(very basic version)

As far as the world is concerned, there is one device connected to the internet in your home. That device is the router.

you have more than one device connected to the router, and they all send/receive data from the internet. The NAT (Network Address Translation) part of this work along the lines of:
(<disclaimer - VERY basic version - not hugely technical, and not in depth - but gives you an idea of the way it works>)

A request is made by machine A, this is sent via the router, and the NAT changes the source address of the packet to be its own external IP, the request is received the the host, and a reply is sent back to the source IP (the NAT device) the NAT device knows where the initial request came from, and forwards the reply to Machine A.
Machine B works in the same way, and the NAT application remembers which packets came from which machine, so even if both machines are accessing the same website, the packets go back to the correct machine.

NAT devices also ignore packets received that it does not know about, ie not requested by one of the machines behind it. This has been called a NAT firewall, but it is NOT as secure as a true firewall (but it is better than nothing).

see http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101218.asp for a bit more on different types of firewall. (netgear sell it so they tend to try to make it as sinple as possible)

HTH

SOSAGES · 01-06-2004, 16:08

connecting from the web and the router will be the last of ur worries its finding some games that work ok like that - probably best to make a public game and set a pw on it

McGraw · 01-06-2004, 17:37

I'm more confused than ever now.

Not about NAT because I know all that business.

If I use Ipchicken to find mine and my mate's address, are those 80. whatever ips the one to use?

They must be surely, and if I didn't have a router this would be extremely straightforward.

zovat · 02-06-2004, 16:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by McGraw

I'm more confused than ever now.

Not about NAT because I know all that business.

If I use Ipchicken to find mine and my mate's address, are those 80. whatever ips the one to use?

They must be surely, and if I didn't have a router this would be extremely straightforward.

Yes, they are - but you need to tell the router to pass the data to the correct macine locally.