ICS and Online Games

[sammo]

I have two PC's both running XP pro.
The main PC conects to the internet via Telewest's Broadband cable modem service, the second PC has been set up to connect using ICS. All went well, both PC's being able to browse the internet share files, use printers etc...

But i cannot get the second PC to connet to a game server so we can both play games such as Medal of Honour.

Any ideas?

[Greenstead]

ICS presents itself as a single IP address and your PCs hide behind it. The MOHAA game server sees both your PCs as the same PC as does the rest of the internet.

I don't think there is anything you can do other than your 2nd PC has to connect to the internet via a different connection and IP address.

[sammo]

I thought as much, the problem as i see it is the Host PC cannot translate the IP address.

What about using a Cable/ADSL router, with NAT would that resolve the issue?

Thoughts please, before i rush off spending money on Routers!!

:) :(

[Greenstead]

ICS is a NAT router. Its a soft version of a hardware router.
Same problem.

You need a 2nd ISP.

[sammo]

Ok thanks - that sort of backs up some research i have already done.
There is another possibility by using a PIX firewall it could be possible as this uses PAT (port address translation) i need to check this with some network guys at work, but will probably be to expensive.
:(

[Greenstead]

I'm no expert in this area.
I don't think port translation will help. Its the IP address thats the problem.

I wondered if there was some proxy service on the internet if one of your PCs went via that it might present the proxy IP to the game. I don't know - I'm guessing really.

I checked one of the MOHAA forums and there were people there asking the same question - no answers though. If you can solve this there are quite a lot of gamers would be interested.

[yankee1]

your solution lies in ports. do the following:

1. add "+set net_port 12203" to the command line of the shortcut of moh on the first pc.

2. add "+set net_port 12204" to the command line of the shortcut of moh on the second.

this way the server will be able to see two distinct clients instead of seeing one client that is trying to do two things at the same time, since it was interpreting the requests and info from both of you as the same client. i know about this from q3 but had to go to planetmedalofhonor.com forums to find the right command/port numbers. turns out the command is same as q3 :)

[sammo]

Thanks for that.
MOH starts ok, but cannot see any servers when i click browse internet, also if i try to connect to a known server i get timed out. So it isn't working.

Can you let me know which thread you found this on so i can do some further digging.

Thanks in advance

From what i have seen it cannot be done, but i refuse to give up just yet.

[yankee1]

so basically its the same problem as you had before? after you used my suggestion, was the problem you describe happening when only one tries to connect at the same time? does it happen only on the second comp? the command i gave you should be entered in the target line of the shortcut's properties without quotes and outside any quotes that enclose the .exe.

[sammo]

Yes basically it mae no difference to my access.

Just to clarify.
The main PC has 2 NICS one connected to a cable modem for Internet access. The other connected to a HUB for LAN connectivity, this NIC also is configured to allow internet sharing for other PC's on the LAN.

This PC has no problem playing MOHAA.

The second PC has a single NIC connected to the LAN via the HUB, this PC can access files and printers on the first, plus it can also browse the internet with no problems. However when you try and play MOHAA mulitiplayer you cannot connect to an internet server.

I am wondering if your solution would work, if i installed a router? As then in theory I can route the traffic from each port to the two PC's, BUT and it is a big BUT, is this how the internet servers work, I suspect that they need to establish a link IP address to IP address....and I only present one IP address to the internet.

Any thoughts would be welcomed....
:confused: :rolleyes:

[yankee1]

yes it would probably work if you got a router.

however, you should try to check the settings of the built in firewall for xp and the setting for ics. i dont know anything about it but there could be port forwarding or a place where you can open ports through ics.