seeing lan games in lan lobby

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seeing lan games in lan lobby

Postby crappenfest » Apr 12 08 3:32 am

have had some time to test the set up a little more, and hopefully i can explain my set up a little better.

My setup includes:

Windows 2003 server = Wingate VPN host machine
192.168.1.x
255.255.255.0

Behind router/firewall > wingate ports open to server

Wingate VPN set up with firewall disabled, dhcp service disabled
Default wingate VPN UDP relays enabled (except the 2 for c&c generals)
Local Participation = Local network

One Laptop on the same physical network as the wingate VPN server,but not running vpn client, behind router/firewall network
192.168.1.x
255.255.255.0


Another pc connecting remotely running wingate vpn = wingate VPN client machine
192.168.123.x
255.255.255.0

wingate setup exactly as server, except is a client

Behind firewall/router with same wingate VPN ports open

I can connect just fine to the VPN server, can browse, file share, ping all good
(And to be able to keep same ip and subnet mask is a huge plus over the RAS/VPN server i was intially trying to get setup that would have to have ip's in same subnet and net mask of 255.255.255.255 , which restricts broadcast of UDP packets I need)

I go to create a game on the remote machine (testing with C & C Generals Zero Hour, I have added the relay ports 4321,27900 on the VPN client and on the VPN host machine). Then I have the laptop try and connect to my game but he cannot see it in lobby.

Do I even need to open the relay ports on the VPN host machine or only on the machine actually hosting the game , albiet on the VPN server or the host machine? Or both? (I had them open on both)

Windows VPN I had set up works of course using direct connect via ip , and im sure wingate vpn would also, but alot of the games I would like to host do not have this feature and rely on lan lobbies to find games. And windows VPN does not support upd relays unless it involve alot of adding routes which I'm not to savy at (yet)

This is the functionality I have been looking for this looks to provide this in a very simple set up,
so far I have only the time to test with this one game, but I thought it has the perfect platform for it.

I would like to get this working on the type of set up i have now to verify working order, and then implement more remote machines all running wingate VPN to participate in lan to lan gaming. (will be buying licenses)

I hope this info i provided will shed some light on what I need to do to get this to work.

Thank you in advance.
crappenfest
 
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Joined: Apr 12 08 2:11 am

Postby cerebrave » May 05 08 7:31 pm

crappenfest,
Apparantly we have the same problem here. My goals is also for playing LAN games, but as you said, LAN games relying their lobby in finding hosted game, which infact relates on how the game "bind" to which LANAdapter it use.

I had tried another free software called Hamachi, but it just failed me. I'm going to give WGVPN a try (havent tried this before). But may be I can share a small light on my experience with Hamachi.. which infact, may works exactly like WGVPN.

Hamachi creates a new virtual NetworkAdapter. To bind to this Adapter, you have to set priority in NetworkConnection, AdvancedSettings, Bindings. Put the adapter on the top list as priority. I dontknow bout WG yet, but it it creates a virtual Adapter, you have to "tell" the games to bind to the correct NICAdapter, instead of let it bind it self to your NIC hardware Adapter.

After done with the above, I had another problem (apparantly someone had it here: h**p://forums.qbik.com/viewtopic.php?t=5381&highlight=game , but didn't get an adequate reply from the staff).

I monitor my network traffic using NetLimiter. It appears my games binding to the virtual networkAdapter is not complete. It keeps swithing between them (on 0.5 - 1sec intervals). As result my games is lagging, and sometimes timed-out. The IP when my game connects on my hamachi adapter is correct, but the IP when the game tries to bind to physicalNICAdapter is... guess what... directed to an Insurance Company!!!

There I decided that my PC is infested with Adware/Malware/Spyware. Well. my experiment is not yet finished. First I gotta clean-up my PC from those warez, retry Hamachi, and eventually try to use WGVPN if all is fails. If the WGVPN runs smoothly, I'll consider to buy the license.

Any WG tech experts! can you tell that I can/will be successfully use WgVPN?

Thanks!
cerebrave
 
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Joined: May 05 08 7:09 pm

Postby logan » May 06 08 4:03 pm

I was dealing with crappenfest via the online helpdesk on this issue. While researching the scenario for him, I was able to successfully view and join a CounterStrike Source game over a WinGate VPN tunnel after making a small change in WinGate.


Most games fill a lobby by broadcasting a UDB packet to all the computers on the network asking the computers if they are running a server. For lack of better terminology, I like to call this the "Are you there" packet.

Any computers that are running a game server and receive the packet will send a reply back to the computer that sent out the broadcast with it's details. I like to call this the "I am here" packet.

This is where things get complicated when gaming over a VPN. The "are you there" from the client is only sent to computers on the same network as the client. This means the client will not send "are your there" packets over the VPN, and because the client doesn't send the "are you there" packet over the VPN, any game servers on a different network can't reply with an "I am here" packet" so the client does not find out about these servers.

The solution to this problem is to configure WinGate to relay the "are you there" packets over the VPN tunnels. To do this, you will need to know what UDP port the "are you there" packets are sent to. Usually, this will be the same port that the server is being hosted on, but this will change from game to game. In CS, the client checks the default common server ports which are 27015, 27016 and some others.

With the "are you there" packets being relayed to the remote networks, game servers on remote networks can then send an "I am here" packet back to the client. The client can then add the remote game servers to the lobby based on the "I am here" replies.


1. From the game joiner side of the VPN
WinGate: Gatekeeper -> System -> Extended Networking -> Routing
WinGate VPN: Gatekeeper -> VPN -> Connectivity -> Extended Networking -> Routing

2. Click Advanced

3. Click Add

4. Enter a description for the port relay

5. Enter the UDP port number to be relayed

6. Click OK

7. Repeat steps 3 ->6 if more ports are required

8. Click OK, then Apply
logan
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Re: seeing lan games in lan lobby

Postby zx128k » Jan 26 09 10:53 pm

Logan, is there any way to do same on Cisco router? I have exact same problem, client can't find hosted game.
zx128k
 
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Re: seeing lan games in lan lobby

Postby logan » Feb 12 09 9:25 pm

I wouldn't know sorry. You probably want to contact cisco about that one.
If you replace your cisco vpn with WinGate though, you can use the solution mentioned above :).
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