How to Run Games on a LAN

[dtp]

Hi I hope someone can help me out there I recently Hooked my 2 computers together (1 with XP the other with Windows 98)I hooked them through a Belkin Router so they could share my internet connection. Each machine can see each other in my network places,and I can use the printer on my 98 machine that is hooked up the XP machine so I know that they are communicating OK.Maybe I thought that the gaming end would be alot easier to set up I'm using Rainbow Six (Eagle Watch))as the game -thats the only one I have so far,which I have played over the net,in the game options there is a place to select Internet or LAN I check off LAN the Join Port,Info Port,and Anounce Port all have numbers in them which I have no idea what these numbers are for (I'm real new to networking and playing games over it)I dont now if I have to set something up in the router or what? if its not too much trouble could anyone help me out there with this also any good racing games that you can play on it. Thanks to all that post on here for me.

 

[jlanka]

in the router you have to "forward" those ports to the machine that is running the game server.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[dtp]

I'm sorry but as I said I'm not really familiar with this stuff at all,1st what is a (game server) and how do I forward these ports to it. If i guess right the ports your talking about are the 3 boxs that have the #s in the game set up screen on the game it self.How do I get into the router to forward these ports.Thanks I hope your still out there.

 

[slickstaa]

This is not the case on a lan. Port forwarding is for getting outside of an internal network, which is often necesary for online gaming behind a router. Your router should have DHCP enabled, meaning it automatically assigns an IP address to each PC that is connected to it. There should be no trouble connecting to computers inside your LAN. Basically, the default ports in the game should be fine for a lan server. Simply fire up the server in LAN mode, make sure the game versions are the same, and try to connect (it should detect the server under LAN games on the other computer. If not, you may need to type in the ip address of the server and connect directly). Do NOT make it a dedicated server if you want to play on the comp running the server. Good Luck and have fun.

BTW a racing game that me and my friends had some fun with at LANs was Midtown Madnesss 2.

<font color=blue> If it ain't broke, don't fix it...tweak it.</font color=blue>