Hosting your own game on DSL

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eye_suc

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Alright, laugh all you want...

I have recently discovered (being new to DSL) the joys of online gaming. Now, since some servers really suck or are always empty or down or whatever, i would like to know how to setup my own server in certain games.

Let us use Soldat as first example.

From what i have gathered, i need to tell the router that all related ports should be forwarded to the pc that will be hosting the game, right? We have given this a bash but it still would not allow us to connect. The router is a Dlink something or other (does the model make a difference to the process?).

I am sure the ports are not blocked since i can connect to other servers, just not to the server that we created. Oh, and must it be a dedicated server? I do not think it has to be, since we are able to that over a LAN (play and serve).

Any hints?

PS: i did do a quick search on the gaming forum, couldnt find the result i needed, and we did google up some results which did not solve our problem.
 
the only info i can know is that most games come with a readme.txt file which tells you what ports those games need to host/play online. Try to find info on the game in question as to what ports it uses, and then unblock or double-check the router's settings so it matches the game's needs.

sadly those are my only 2 cents...
 
Lets see :
Game -> PC -> Router -> Internet. Ug. I've never gotten this one to work.

But :
Game -> PC -> Internet. Yup, this i've gotten to work easily enough.

I run my adsl modem/router in bridge mode, and my "server" has 2 N/W cards. So - the server actually has the correct international ip address, and there is no port forwarding and NAT to make work.

Soree - couldn't help, but methinks it's not working cos of something to do with the IP Address the game is being hosted on, and the actual outside ip address that it must be found on. i.e. The game does not support a NAT (Network Address Translation) setup.
 
For an ADSL NAT router, you have to set up port forwarding for the ports used by the server. If you start up the server and type "netstat -a" in a dos window, you may get some idea idea of which ports needs forwarding. The easiest might be to use netstat twice, once with and once without the server running and comparing the results.
 
Usually the router will have a setting called DMZ or "De militerised Zone" Your are able to set up this dmz to an ip of you choice on the network. This perticular ip will not go through things such as napt or nat on your router, and is perfect for hosting games, or webservers, just make sure u are using a software firewall on this ip address. I used to use this method when i hosted my Enemy Territory Server in the UK.
 
Hosting Soldat

eye_suc said:
Alright, laugh all you want...

I have recently discovered (being new to DSL) the joys of online gaming. Now, since some servers really suck or are always empty or down or whatever, i would like to know how to setup my own server in certain games.

Let us use Soldat as first example.

From what i have gathered, i need to tell the router that all related ports should be forwarded to the pc that will be hosting the game, right? We have given this a bash but it still would not allow us to connect. The router is a Dlink something or other (does the model make a difference to the process?).

I am sure the ports are not blocked since i can connect to other servers, just not to the server that we created. Oh, and must it be a dedicated server? I do not think it has to be, since we are able to that over a LAN (play and serve).

Any hints?

PS: i did do a quick search on the gaming forum, couldnt find the result i needed, and we did google up some results which did not solve our problem.
Click to expand...

OK, soldat was a bit of an interesting setup, but here's how I got it going on my NetGear DG834G, as far as I know the firmware on the D-Link and NetGear are virtually identical.

First, open up TCP/UDP port 27073. Then set up forwarding to the machine you want to host soldat on. Say ur PC is 192.168.0.2 (u might want to setup a static host on your DHCP for this PC), set up a route that anything coming in on 27073 is redirected to this address. Now, the client side must be pointed TO YOUR PUBLIC ADSL IP ADDRESS, ie 165.146.xxx.xxx. When they hit that address, your router will redirect them to your PC et viola!!

To make things easier, check if your router (or a firmware update) can offer DynDNS support. So instead of the ballache of checking your IP every 24 hours, the address stays constant, ie bobthemighty.dyndns.org.

Hopefully in the next 2 weeks, soldat.sigmasquared.dyndns.org will be up for us South Africans to jol on. Ambo and I have been having great fun...

Ciao 4 now

PS: You rock for playing Soldat!!!
 
I recomend switching your router to bridge mode... it will save half the work.

Then just host and internet game (if your game has the option) otherwise LAN should work.

Make sure the game is in the list of exceptions in the windows or any other firewall you have running.

DynDNS / NoIP will make it easier for your friends to find your game.
 
I've gotten this working with BF2 - although I had to configure a crapload of forwarding rules for it specifically.
 
thisgeek said:
I've gotten this working with BF2 - although I had to configure a crapload of forwarding rules for it specifically.
Click to expand...

Hence switching to bridge mode and saving a few hours.
 
thisgeek said:
And leaving yourself wide open for attack.
Click to expand...

Nah, all you need is a semi decent firewall, the Windows firewall works really well. It's a full stealth firewall!

I run it like that at home and the office and we've never had a problem.
 
Carlhead said:
Nah, all you need is a semi decent firewall, the Windows firewall works really well. It's a full stealth firewall!

I run it like that at home and the office and we've never had a problem.
Click to expand...

Right, do yourself a favour and go to http://www.safer-networking.org/ and download SpyBot S&D and/or HiJack This! and/or IBProb (Itty Bitty Process Manager). Run this on the machines that are using ICF (Windows Firewall) and tell me if you still think it is a safe plan. Rather get yourself an old P166MMX with 32MB Ram and load an ISO of ClarkConnect or IPCop or something the like, hardly chews bandwidth and there is virtually nothing you need to do.
 
I've got a number of those tools on all my machines, none of them have been subject to any malicious attacks.

In fact I'm so confident in the crappy windows firewall that my IP is: 165.146.202.150

Give it your best shot... oh and don't DDoS me, cause that'll just irratate me, and prove nothing.
 
Carlhead said:
my IP is now: 165.146.202.150, any luck? :D
Click to expand...

I haven't tried, seeing as though that'd be a nice little sticky wicket I could get into legally...

:cool:

Sigh, just got back from holiday and already starting work...
 
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