is there a way to play a lan only game with friends over the internet?

[$pade]

I am just wondering if thats possible and if so how is it done?

 

[theXing]

Do an internet search for VPN.

 

[$pade]

i just did some research on vpn and how to enable it on winxp pro. Here is the problem though, I am sharing an internet cable connection through a router and my friend is doing the same. I set up my computer to accept incomming vpn connection and I set my comp up as dmz host. then I told my friend to create a new network connection, basicly a new vpn connection to my external ip address. Well that didn't work and my friend just says that he gets an error saying a connection could not be establish or something like the server is not configured correctly. Anyways I am lost and would appreciate any help.

 

[MichaelD]

Do you want to:

1. Setup a LAN game so only people connected to the router can play
2. Setup so that people connected to the router AND people on the internet can play

Setup will be slightly diff depending on what you want to do.

One other thing: most "home" routers do not support IP loopback. IOW, you can't go "out to the internet" via the IP your ISP gives you, and then "come back in from the internet" via the same IP.

You should have your router setup as a DHCP server so that all boxes connected to it obtain an IP from the router automatically. Saves mucho headache that way.

 

[$pade]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
Do you want to:

1. Setup a LAN game so only people connected to the router can play
2. Setup so that people connected to the router AND people on the internet can play

Setup will be slightly diff depending on what you want to do.

One other thing: most "home" routers do not support IP loopback. IOW, you can't go "out to the internet" via the IP your ISP gives you, and then "come back in from the internet" via the same IP.

You should have your router setup as a DHCP server so that all boxes connected to it obtain an IP from the router automatically. Saves mucho headache that way.

It's the second case for me. At the minimum I want to be able to play a lan only game with a friend over the internet. The best case would be if I could merge my lan with his lan so that we can all play, but for now if I can just get one person from each lan to play over the internet then thats fine for now.

 

[Devistater]

What do you mean by LAN only? If you objective is merely to host a server that will accept connections from a LAN and the internet, let's take an example. Counter Strike. It will accept lan connections and internet connections at once, just set it up as a listen server (i.e. default) and password it or something to prevent the public from joining. You may have to forward ports for it to work.

HOWEVER, if your objective is to set up a LAN server that won't ask valve for authentication, this is a bit differant I'm not sure how to go about doing that. I don't think it will accept connections from internet in that case, I think it may actually block ranges of IPs, but I'm not sure. I never really tried it.

Note, I know nothing about VPN, so I have no idea how/if that factors into it. But I have run a CS server on my personal computer while it was hooked to the internet, and people on the internet as well as people on my network could see it. I have tried both dedicated and non dedicated counter strike servers.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. It just depends what your ultimate objective is.

Also, any computer behind a lan on your buddies system that then goes through a NAT system and can access the internet, then should then be able to access your counter strike server if its a "public" one.

I just chose counter strike as an example because I'm familiar with it. If you provide more details about what you want to do, I imagine I or more likely other people can probably help better.

 

[$pade]

with lan only i mean a game that only allows multiplayer over a lan. I don't want to run a server but just somehow create a virtual lan that allows players over the internet to be part of my local network so that we can play any regular lan game.

 

[WarSong]

lemme guess... Warcraft 3?

 

[Slogun]

One of your computers will have to function as a game server host be it dedicated or not. You are not really talking about a LAN, you are talking about a game server that is available to people over the internet, although people on your LAN could join as well.
If I understand you correctly.

Perhaps what you are trying to envision is a bunch of people trying to play a game together without a centralized server, that reality has not yet materialized.

 

[Hork]

Check out Kali at Kali or ilangame at ilangame.

 

[$pade]

ok, kali seems to work nicely but I have a questions. It seems like they are going out of business so will it be easy to add support for future games?

WarSong
good guess that is one of the game I am having trouble with. I own a copy and my friends own one copy but would like to be able to play a 3 + player game where the other players are from our lans.