Next week we start testing our A5 multiplayer game using Game Spy as our lobby. Players will "Create" a game in Game Spy that will be the A5 host "-sv -cl" and we will wait for 1 to 3 more clients to join in, "-cl" then we will launch the multiplayer session.

The LAN version of the game is working awesome. I have not found any information in the manual that accounts for Internet connections via a Lobby or regarding a computer that has both LAN and Interent connections. Since Direct Play really only needs an IP address for the host and its clients life should be good for a host.

My question is this. I have a DSL connection at the office and we share the DSL over the network. Is there a way I can tell A5 "clients" to look for my game via the DSL Interent connection and not look on the LAN.

Will people that are connected to a network be able to find my Internet game.

Thanks in advance for any info. I will be hip deep in Game Spy lobbies next week.

Ken Patterson
ken@digcontent.com

By "sharing" your DSL connection, do you mean that you're using (for example) a Linksys DSL router?

If so, the only IP address known to the outside world will be your WAN IP address. And since a DSL router uses NAT, there won't be direct IP address that you can give to your gaming clients.

Further, most DSL providers use DHCP, so your WAN IP address *could* release without warning then get renewed to something totally different - Game Crash. Then again, you could have a static WAN IP in which case the above is not an issue.

Before pursuing further technobabble, I'll await a response to confirm your DSL router status.
Ahh, this might interest some other forum members.

The first thing you'll need to know are which ports (or port ranges) are used by A5 for Client/Server communications. (Never seen a Doc on that...Doug/JCL/Marco ?)
Then (on the router) you'll need to route those ports to your server's IP address (the "internal" IP). That's about the best you can do, since I *don't* recommend you put your server IP in the router's "DMZ" - begging for hackers, trojans, etc...

To monitor your WAN IP address you'll need a web page you have permission to update (post), and an IP-poster application - which updates the web page with your WAN IP information at an interval you specify. Hint: search for "IPApub".

Good Luck....

I will get up details on Monday about my congifuration at the office for testing. Bear with me I am a game coder not a Network Administrator.

I have been able to play "Motor City Online" succesfully so there may be hope for my configuration.

I got my "Game Spy" staging area setup yesterday.

Does the Dynamic IP selection in networks mean I will actually get a unqiue IP.

You help will be appreciated as I move along on this.

Ken Patterson

IF it uses Network Address Translator(NAT) then no it wont give out it addresses to incoming connecitons. NAT is used to go outside of your network. If you run DHCP on your network then NAT will not work the two are incompatible. NAT works by assiging port numbers to the lan conneciton systems and then assigns the port numbers to its IP address so the box or device running NAT is considered the gateway. If you want to do what your are talking about look into using a firewall and/ or Proxy server.
1st rule of networking all servers must have a static IP address. IF you are connecting via the internet then the server conneciton that is connected to the internet must have a static valid registered IP address. Normally DSL conneciton is a static IP address however if you have serveral connecitons ouccuring at once then you should be concerned by the bandwidth or throughput of your LAN and WAN connecitons. You do not want to use a 56k line for your server.
Your best bet would be to rent space a web page provider.

Yes DHCP gives out a unique IP address of the the network segment you are on. The normally changes every 8 days, this is the default lease period.