Game Broadcasts

[GrahamWager]

I'm currently establishing a community network across my village. One of the uses of this network will be to play games.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but when games "advertise" themselves for joining, they use a network broadcast to, I think, a special IP address. I have a wired network, and a wireless StarOS router in my loft, and would like to have these broadcasts routed to both networks from any client either wired or wireless.

Is this possible? And if so, how?

Many thanks in advance. :D

Edit: Just to let you know, I'm running a fully routed system - bridging isn't really an option with the amount of expansion I want to do in the future.

[lonnie]

I don't know how the games advertise but would assume they talk to a mother server somewhere that acts as an intermediary. I'll ask my gaming guys.

I'm glad you are off on the right track as far as routing goes. As you know this has become a pet peeve of mine. You are well on your way. Congrats.

[GrahamWager]

Just to clarify, I'm talking about LAN games which would have no "central" server. A friend told me that they use standard broadcasts to the x.x.x.255 address of their current 255.255.255.0 mask (i.e, so computer 192.168.0.2 would only broadcast to 192.168.0.x), and so they could never broadcast to my 192.168.2.x wireless network... I'm not 100% sure of this, though.

Thanks.

[georgew]

lan games that use IP broadcasts will be confined to other players within the logical network, and cannot be run across a routed network. This is how IP works, broadcasts are not routed.

The only way to do what you are talking about is to have a bridged network.

But there is a problem here... to share all of your broadcasts with everyone in the network means that when the game is in play, the network will be very busy with a storm of broadcasts.

Essentially games that do not use a game server are not condusive to a properly functioning community network. These types of games were designed to be run on small private networks where broadcast storms are ok.

A properly configured community network is not going to support these types of games. If you bridge the whole network so the games will work, you will not have a very stable network, and the StarOS guys are not going to want to help make it work.

A routed network, and central game servers are the way to do it. If the games don't support servers, ask the authors to make the change. Many games operate in server or serverless modes... you want to run in server mode for the health of your network.

[georgew]

Something you might want to try...

Set-up a dedicated pptp server for the gamers... On that server give out addresses from a single class c address, so everyone is inside the same broadcast domain. Then the game players will see each other's broadcasts, but you have not bridged the entire network.

This might just work.

Run the pptp sessions without encryption if you can, so you don't need as much cpu to do the job.

[tony]

Which game server are you planning on using? All the game servers we've used in the past are all IP-level client-server using UDP. There should be no problems running these games on a routed network.

I've yet to run across a game server that relies on local broadcasts for joining unless it is IPX-based. (ie, older DOS-based games)

[georgew]

Tony,
They were not trying to run a game server, only the game clients with a common broadcast address. They either need a bridge or a tunnel... or to find a way of using a server.

[tony]

When using games such as these, there is no ad-hoc method for joining, and require one of the clients to be set up as the game server to coordinate everything. If the client is on the same subnet as the server, then a broadcast request should bring up a list of local servers (if it is supported by the game). If the client is on a different subnet (such as a friend from out of town), then they would need the IP address of the game server.

Once we determine the game in question, we may be able to assist in a little more detail as to the setup needed.

In today's games, when one sets up a game server, the game will notify an on-line master server of its presence. The game server can typically be set up to require a password for those who wish to join.

When the clients' want to join, the game would normally have a built-in game browser that polls this on-line database of active games, and pings them all. At this point, the client can either pick out of the list, his friend's server, or type in the IP address if he already knows it.

[tony]

Note that this is typical of most modern games, but may not be the case for the game in question. If it does local broadcasts to determine which games are available, and does NOT allow you to enter a game server IP manually then one of the only solutions may be to bridge the two network segments together. Until now, I've not seen an IP-based network game with restrictions such as this.

[GrahamWager]

Thanks for all your replies so far.

The game in question is Medieval Total War. While it does support internet play, it requires Gamespy to do so, and the community network is not internet linked.

I've tried looking up command-line options so as to force a connection to a specific IP to no avail, and it has no Direct IP button or similar in-game. I also tried a PPTP link into the StarOS router from my wired network to receive a 192.168.2.x IP but that failed too.

I'll try a PPTP link to a separate server for both players and let you know what happens.

Thanks again

[tony]

Ahh yes, as I thought.

I will be more than happy to help you get this game server operational, however since this is no longer a StarOS specific question, I'll have to move the conversation to PM or Email.

I am downloading the demo as we speak, and will contact you later tonight with instructions on how to set it up for use on private LANs.

Thanks!