for a classical session system, where the clients can host their own servers on their PCs and the lobby acts as a kind of listing service, you need the following:

1. Professional edition for session_connect
2. a server running 24/7 which does all the "lobbying"

if you don't have both of this, forget about what I am writing next and skip to the bottom of the post.

so you have both (prof ed and server). this is where the problems start with 3DGS:
its not suited for this, but it is possible. with A7 and the send_.._id functions, it is easier.

the hardest things are: 1. servers run by clients have to send their status to the lobby system, and 2. the servers have to be connectable. in case of 3DGS, the players who host the games have to route several ports from their router to their computer (if they are using a router, which more than 50% of all internet users seem to be doing (estimated)). most people are not capable of this...
I'm quite that there are no workarounds in 3dgs. if I'm wrong, correct me.


if you don't fulfil the two needs above, there are other ways:
1. use a normal windows UI and programming language for the lobby function and start the engine from this interface when needed. this way you don't need prof-edition. I've once done a simple server list this way, using Delphi as the windows programming language and php with a mysql database on the server side.

2. if your game is simple and uses very little traffic, every game can be run on the one server you provide. no prof-edition needed, no problems with ports and routers. but your server has to be fast and have a nice connection. and the programming is a bit more complicated, but possible!
just noticed that you need a server in any case. no luck if you can't provide one that's online 24/7.

It is possible to set up one of your servers as a mirc server and link that directly into your game as the "lobby" [similar to old Asherons Call game lobby]. The chat window is directly linked to the mirc channel.

I have not tested this with GS but have with others.

strange. even the basic connection stuff in GS doesn't work under Vista

It works fine under Vista here, you can try with the multiplayer sample in the samples folder.

thanks, i'll try it

EDIT
published it, created shortcuts for server and client. server initialises fine, client cannot connect and gives me Error E480 "Network error: DPNERR_INVALIDDEVICEADDRESS"

It works for me fine under Vista too, I tried it on the same PC and also on 2 PCs because I want to do a little 4-player tennis game. I think the reason is not Vista, from the error message it sounds like a DirectX problem. Have you installed the latest DirectX?

yep, still no luck. are there any other possible reasons?

Maybe a problem with the network card? Can you connect to another PC via LAN and access its files?

There was a discussion recently in Ask Conitec whether the Gamestudio network is reliable or not, and Conitec said it is reliable. As far as I can tell this is true for the multiplayer sample. But you could post your problem as a bug report. If it's a problem with the multiplayer functions they should be able to tell you whats wrong, or fix it.

network card seems to be fine, as i can download files from local network and play online games both as client and server. i already posted this in beta section, but got no reply. i'll post in bugs section too. maybe it's really because of the network card - i've recently upgraded my pc, but i'm not very familiar with hardware\networking

IP address (static or local)? Open ports if using dsl with static IP's?