I'll Be Your Server Today

[GreyBadger]

Evening Pilots

 

I'm sure you're catching on by now that most anything technical brings me down with a bad case of facepalmitis....... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

 

In need of a bit of variety from my ongoing single player learn-a-thon, I encouraged a friend of mine (a lapsed Warthogger) to download "DCS World" and upgrade from his standalone to the A-10 module, on the basis of our being able to fly occasional coop missions together.

 

My short/mid term goal, would be to learn how to use the mission builder and create a series of simple scenarios we can fly, to help with our ongoing practice. Eventually these would hopefully evolve into full blown missions with targets. But to begin with I was thinking more of just a simple take off, follow waypoints and land safely somewhere else.

 

Today we experimented with the multi-player component, just at this stage to make sure we could link up and that our respective machines could handle it smoothly and wouldn't you know it, we fell at the very first hurdle. :(

 

He could not see the server I tried to create and I could not see the server he tried to create.

 

So we ended up joining an existing server which had "free flight" in its title and were at least able to verify that our connecting was basically viable and that both our machines coped admirably.

 

Since then I've had a look on the forums and found a few threads touching on the same subject and which I read with an increasingly sinking feeling, involved my old friend "port Forwarding." And when I say "old Friend" I'm sure I don't need to tell you that I'm being sarcastic, because he is certainly no friend of mine!

 

On any occasion in the past that this swine has raised his ugly head, I have turned tail and run. I'm not clever enough to mess with these kinds of things. My modem/router (whatever) does what I ask it to both in terms of talking to my PC and to my Games Consoles (Someone smart helped me with the games consoles by the way) and I don't want to mess that up so that suddenly it doesn't work properly anymore.

 

But I was really looking forward to this......

 

I started gaming in a time when single player games meant messing about with Config.sys and autoexec.bat file. Creating boot disks which shifted high memory about (or some such) to enable the games to run. When multi-player meant carting your entire PC system across the country to connect up at a friends house (many happy hours spent playing "Doom" or "Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix") or too a mass event like a LAN Party. Hundreds of gamers sitting in rows with their PC's. Many like me waiting for the tech guys to work their way over and help set you up properly. I can't tell you how I managed it...except to say that back then I knew a lot of clever people. These days....not so much.

 

But that's not what gaming is anymore. Single player games run right out of the box and if they don't there's hell to pay! Multi-player is there at the touch of a button and I play "Portal 2" every week and have done for years, with a friend from St.Louis USA ! Yeah... I sit in foggy cold old England and play games with and talk live to someone in St.Louis ! (Anyone reading this and thinking "so what", stop reading now. Oh..and pull your trousers up for goodness sake and put your hat on the right way round. it looks silly you know!!)

 

Anyway, I just don't understand why in this day and age, where games can and do make it possible for mental midgets like me to do such amazing things, there are still games which wrap themselves in their cloaks of binary snobbery plus five, and insist that we try to learn science in order to prize open their arcane portals and prize out the exiting goodies nestled within. :cry:

 

But you know what?.. My moaning about it changes nothing. I'll either be able to manage it or I won't and no amount of belly aching and griping will make the slightest bit of difference will it.

 

So where to begin... we begin our epic journey with a single step. By asking a question...

 

Can anyone point me at a laymans guide for "How To Do Port Forwarding And Make Your Warthog Server Go Zoom, Without Breaking Stuff You Already Have". Because I've used the search function and I've looked on the net and while I might be missing the obvious, I ain't seein one.

 

All the best as ever

 

Badger

Edited April 25, 2013 by GreyBadger

[Frostie]

Go here:

http://portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/

 

This site will show you the way, so follow the bouncing ball ie. Select your router.. then the game; DCS and follow the instructions presented.

[bradleyjs]

>> When multi-player meant carting your entire PC system across the country to connect up at a friends house ...

 

Boy do I remember those days -- and carting along a Null-Modem cable to boot!!!

[Blooze]

you may just need to check the allow box in the public column for DCS in your firewall settings. I don't use a router or hub and that's all it took for me.

[ATTACH]80127[/ATTACH]

Edited April 25, 2013 by Blooze

[Subliminal-SS]

Port forwarding I think you will be nicely surprised at how easy it is nowadays, given the right conditions. By this I mean you have the home setup 99.9% of the general public do.

 

So firstly what make and model is you're router?

 

If youre not sure, take a picture of the big label or write whatever you see.

[ENO]

More often than not the instructions end up as mentioned before: Log into your router... typically the IP address of the router is written on the router as well as any stock password. If you've changed the password and can't remember it then there's a little button on there somewhere you can press (usually recessed that you need to push in with a pin / pencil) and you can reset the router. I'm getting the impression that you won't be screwing up any in depth settings- so should be easy. Then you can use the stock details on the router itself. Go into internet explorer / browser and type in the IP address (while you're connected to the router by hardline). It will give you a chance to log in... input the username / password.

 

Once you're logged in you're going to generally look for a gaming / port forwarding tab. Once you're in there, you'll have an option to put in a port range (generally for us it's 10308-10308 and if that doesn't work 10308-10309) and you need to assign that to your computer.

 

Well how do you do that?

 

It's not looking for your external IP address so you won't be able to find it on google with a "what is my IP" search. It needs to be the IP assigned by your router- you can figure that out by going into your network connection ICON in the taskbar, right click on it and go into the network and sharing center. In there, you'll see an "access type: Internet / Connections: Local Area Connection. Click on Local Area Connection, then on Details.

 

From there it will give you a 192.168.0.XX number- and THAT is the number you need to assign that forwarded port to. Enter that in the appropriate location in the port forwarding section next to your 10308 and save the settings. Give it a DCS title if there is a place for it.

 

Log out of your router- start your server.

 

Make sure that the connection type is set to INTERNET (in the multiplayer menu) and that your speed setting REGARDLESS OF THE SPEED is set to LAN and ONLY LAN in the options menu.

Edited April 26, 2013 by ENO

[GreyBadger]

Thanks for the great advice as ever you lot. I'll grit my teeth and see if I can muster the courage to tinker. :thumbup:

 

Meanwhile, the petulant pout was wiped slightly off my mush (sorry...face) by my best flight ever yesterday:)

 

I learned how to use the mission designer to create the basic nav flight I talked about in the original post (easy) and I took my hog from the ramp at Batumi (sp?), up and away, around the circuit, down again and safely to the parking. :pilotfly:

 

The only hitch came when I couldn't get a reply from ATC on takeoff permission, but I quickly realised that just because I was sitting right next to ATC, didn't mean I was actually tuned into its frequency and with that addressed I was soon legitimately on the move. :) (Although I've just realised that technically I landed from the wrong end of the runway. But they don't care about little stuff like that right?)

 

Next target then... Proper ILS landings instead of all this (albeit with proper permission) seat of my pants stuff and then the actual navigation tutorial. Which I've only looked at once before running away screaming!

 

With all that done, it'll be watch out enemies of liberty! Because I'll know where you are, be able to fly to you, wave and...erm... fly back! Yeah..that'll learn em! :lol:

 

Thanks again all

 

Badger

Edited April 26, 2013 by GreyBadger

[ENO]

Keep plugging away at the server stuff Grey.. I'm anxious to get you working with the true beauty of this sim in multiplayer!