possible: LAN network over WAN?

[DANNY61902]

I play a lot of online games, and most of them are through central servers like Battle.net or Westwood Online. These servers crash all too often for my own liking, and I'd much prefer to play over a LAN, or at least a LAN setup. I know of the Dial-Up Server method to create a connection like this over the internet, but is there any way to do this with broadband? To sum it up, I'm looking for a way to trick Windows, or at lest Red Alert 2 or Warcraft II into believing that I'm on a 2-person LAN network with my friend on the other side of town, or maybe 2 if possible. Is there any way I can do this?
-sorry.. wasnt sure which forum, so i posted in software too-

 

[oceano]

i dont think thats is possible..

i think theses games send Broadcast packets to see if there is any computer on LAN with then....
Routers dont foward these packets so you would never be able to "find " a server by doing this...

 

[Woodchuck2000]

It's entirely possible, you need to use Virtual Private Networking (VPN). I can't say I've ever done it myself, but the theory is that you make a sort of tunnel through a WAN such as the internet, and get the effect of being right next to each other. Businesses use it so people telecommuting can act like they're on the corporation's Intranet.

That said, I havnt got a clue how to do it, but that may point you in the right direction

 

[FUBAR]

Not to overlook you're networking question, but don't both of those games allow you to go straight IP to IP? I thought that RA2 did... but I was wrong one other time

I do know that they both offer to use IPX. I used to use a program called Kali to get around that before many of the games started using TCP/IP natively. It captured the game info and sent it's IPX data over tcp/ip. They used servers too but I think it was more of just a chat server and the game was actually peer to peer. Look that up and see what comes up. www.kali.net

 

[DANNY61902]

ive tried using a vpn before, and i had one of my friends connected, but im not sure what exactly im supposed to do from there...

 

[FUBAR]

For those particular games I believe you would both need to have IPX/SPX installed/bound to the VPN connection, it should look like your networks are connected then.

 

[dbx]

Why would he need to use a vpn? its just game information that is being sent, vpn has overhead that he doesn't need. At least thats how I see it from my perspective. Most games have a way to host a server from a machine and then have other hosts connect to it via the internet. You shouldn't have to fiddle around with anything other than the game server configuration screen.

 

[DANNY61902]

ive tried installing ipx and binding it to my vpn connection, but it still doesnt show us as being connected in the game. how would i check to see if this is working within windows? im not quite sure how my connected friend is connected, or if he has access to my network. i also tried messing with bridging connections, but, i have no idea what im doing

 

[dexter333]

Start - Run - \\(his comp name). If your provider blocks SMB stuff then this won't work if you are not connected through that vpn.