LAN play help

[yyrkoon]

I was having this same issue this weekend at my house.

1) are you certain you have connectivity between the 2 comps? i.e. can you shar files across the network or map drives.

2) have you tried this with any other games and had success?
for me, i play AOE3 or BFME2 with all pcs on my lan frequently so i know it was not a port or firewall issue.

3) are you on the same game versions?  this was the solution for me. I had downloaded the copy on one pc many moons before I tried this, so my other 2 pcs were on the same patch version and my host comp was not.

if you answer yes to all 3, you need to check the firewall config to see if certain exe files are blocked. since you are not going outside your LAN (should be within your house if hardwired or possibly farther if wireless) it should not require any port forwarding.

[slider0]

I am try to set up a host server for the game in 8 player so I can still play 8 player with ppl that are overseas and what not. unfortunately we don't have a hosting option for that capacity.  I would love to see AH add on; in trade for assistance with development and debuging.  I use a direct connect feature with ysflight; but that is open GL, and open source.  I think that AH could continue to have 8 player or a direct connect feature, allowing the players to be responsible for the game problems and host to be responsible for virus control as it wouldn't be on AH servers.  


To get to the point. I think it is possible to use the LAN in this capacity having other players off the network connect to the 2nd pc on the system and the administrator host the room.  any thoughts?

[bbosen]

8-Player LAN mode works splendidly. Here are a few things that help:

-- Make sure each PC can fly AH offline. Configure all of your controls, sounds, video, framerate optimization, etc. before messing with LAN stuff.

-- Make sure all of the PCs are using EXACTLY the same version of Aces High. It doesn't matter whether you're all using AH1 (Version 1.11patch4 is popular) or AH2 (current version).

-- Make sure all computers are on the same IP subnet (usually 192.168.0.x or 192.168.1.x)

-- Verify that all of the computers can "ping" each other. "Tracert" should show just one "hop" from any of these computers to any other (all on same subnet). When everything is local like this, pingtimes should be less than 5 ms. Usually they'll be less than 2 ms.

-- If something unusual is wrong with your "Multicast" routing, you won't see the AH hoster. This is unusual, and most people don't have to worry about it, but it can be an issue under LINUX with DirextX emulation. I've never had a problem with this under Windoze XP. If you want to experiment with this, make sure the "route PRINT" command shows a line that says 224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 followed by your own IP address twice, followed by a small integer under "Metric".

-- If something is unusual with your "Localhost" definition, you may see the AH hoster but you won't be able to join his arena. This is unusual, and most people don't have to worry about it, but it can be an issue under LINUX with DirectX emulation. I've never had a problem with this under Windoze XP. If you want to experiment with this, you might edit your WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file to change the "localhost" entry from 127.0.0.1 to your actual IP address. (Save a backup of this file before changing it, and restore it if this doesn't help.)

-- If one computer is MUCH faster than another, it can sometimes be difficult for the slower computer to see the XP host. Sometimes it helps to exit AH, start over, and try again.

-- You should have no hardware firewall between participating computers. This means no PAIRS of NAT routers (it's OK if all participants are plugged into the SAME single NAT router's Ethernet connectors, because it isn't really routing in that case, just sharing Ethernet thru a hub or switch. It's also OK if everybody is accessing through the same wireless LAN).

-- If you are one of the miserable unfortunates that are running a software firewall, you'll either have to disable it or configure it to allow access for aceshigh.exe.

Once you take all of these steps you'll find that 8-player LAN mode works splendidly. AH Vox works as advertised, and warps/lag pretty much disappear. You can host more than one arena simultneously on a LAN too, so if more than 8 people show up at your LAN party, just designate 2 hosters and let each entertain as many as 7 guests. This is a great way to recruit young people into the hobby!



Regards,



-Peabody-
Learn about ping, traceroute, and network troubleshooting here:
http://www.askmisterwizard.com/Netw/NetworkTroubleshooting.htm

[bbosen]

Slider0 wrote:

"To get to the point. I think it is possible to use the LAN in this capacity having other players off the network connect to the 2nd pc on the system and the administrator host the room. any thoughts?"

It is possible to arrange a free 8-player "LAN Party" over the Internet, but you need to use a layer 2  VPN to do it, and HiTechCreations can't help you coordinate, police, or recruit for it.

The best tool for this is "Hamachi". Google it....


-Peabody-