Why has the LAN option been removed?

[S D]

Hi, i'm a long supporter of this series and LOCKON before it. I have accepted many bugs and problems over the years, because lets face it. You really cant beat the DCS "feel" as a flight sim fan. Part of this feeling came from playing online with friends doing coop flights. Now again i have always overlooked past problems when it came to connection, because i always had the option of using Hamachi or in the more recent years Tunngle.

 

So why has the option to select a LAN interface been removed? Is has all but destroyed my enjoyment of DCS. Before people start talking of opening ports and doing this and that. Stop... I just want to know why i can no longer select the LAN interface. All i want is a game with a friend after we both have invested heavily both time and money into this series, to be denied the only way we have of playing together.

[ENO]

uncheck public. Password protect it- not sure the issue.

[S D]

Sorry? what kind of reply is that...

 

I'm not going into how can i possibly get my game which ive poured alot of money into to even work. I'm asking a simple question, why can i no longer choose my interface?

 

The fact is, no matter what fixes i try i cannot host a server using the normal interface. Hence the reason i have used Tunngle or similar for years with no issues. Now this option has been removed. Leaving me unable to play the game.

 

I shouldn't have to move heaven and earth just to get my game working online, i accepted the fact it didnt work, because again i could use the LAN option to do what i wanted out of the game which was a small coop with 1 or 2 friends.

[Snoopy]

The kind of reply explaining how to keep your server private and only allowing your friends to connect.

[S D]

I'm not interested in keeping my server private, i'm interested in being able to have a friend connect to me or i to them. Private or none private, the LAN option was the only way of actually connecting and getting a game. Again this was not what i asked. All i asked was why has the option been removed?

[159th_Falcon]

I'm not interested in keeping my server private, i'm interested in being able to have a friend connect to me or i to them. Private or none private, the LAN option was the only way of actually connecting and getting a game. Again this was not what i asked. All i asked was why has the option been removed?

 

Cause they could, and it also helps preventing people downloading and playing the game for free.

 

Not sure how that exactly works, but i think that's the reason.

[S D]

Ok thankyou for some form of answer. That pretty much ends my days of playing or paying for another DCS product then.

[Hellfire257]

So in other words, the legitimate customer gets screwed over once again thanks to the threat of piracy.

[S D]

Funny that isnt it, but dont worry its ok for those who can afford dedicated servers. Or time to join big groups to get access to one....

 

Only the little guys who have bought every game since the original LOCKON getting screwed over. Honestly i didnt even mind paying to upgrade modules/games i already owned just so i could play them online. HAH!

 

BI & Eagle were the two hopes i had for PC gaming.

Edited November 12, 2013 by Shadow.D.

[ENO]

Funny that isnt it, but dont worry its ok for those who can afford dedicated servers. Or time to join big groups to get access to one....

 

Only the little guys who have bought every game since the original LOCKON getting screwed over. Honestly i didnt even mind paying to upgrade modules/games i already owned just so i could play them online. HAH!

 

BI & Eagle were the two hopes i had for PC gaming.

 

Still no idea what you're talking about. Start your server as usual. Make it public or not. Password protect it.

 

Assuming you were serving on the same machine you were playing on... pick a spot. Fly.

 

Tell your friend the password. He clicks on your server, enters your password and picks a spot. He also flies.

 

If you don't want it on the public server list- uncheck "public" and give him your IP address. He clicks "connect by IP" and types in the address. He then picks a spot and flies.

 

Friend 2 does the same.

 

Big group(s) need not be involved at any level.

 

I seriously don't understand why this turned into a "little man gets killed by the machine" rant. It's obviously not because you're trying to have two licenses playing on the same server since you spent "UNGODLY MASSIVE $$$$" on equipment to play the sim so that fact aside... what gives?

[MTrenda]

Shadow,

 

Not sure here but I think the change is pretty simple here.

Previous you had a pull down and select lan or Public

Now you have check box checked is Public unchecked is LAN

 

the function is still the same just a different selection.

 

Hope this is what you are looking for. I don't believe any functionality has changed.

 

thanks

 

76th Falcon

[S D]

ENO you dont seem to grasp the concept i'm getting at. Giving my friend the IP listed in the interface DOES NOT WORK, nor has it ever worked properly or consistently. That is why we used virtual LAN programs to almost force a connection through. This has worked fine (mostly fine) for years, hence i have never had a problem before.

 

I'm well aware of how to go about setting up a server and picking a spot to "fly" thankyou for your step by step instruction to the question i didnt ask.

 

I seriously don't understand why this turned into a "little man gets killed by the machine" rant. It's obviously not because you're trying to have two licenses playing on the same server since you spent "UNGODLY MASSIVE $$$$" on equipment to play the sim so that fact aside... what gives?

.... Tell you what, stop looking and replying to thread, i'll stop responding to you, everyone's happy.

 

 

MTrenda, thankyou for that explanation. So let me just clarify if i uncheck public it will force the game to use the LAN interface?

Edited November 13, 2013 by Shadow.D.

[RagnarDa]

Please understand that for you it might be obvious why you can't use the standard - "works for everyone" solution that was posted as the very first reply in this thread. To everyone else its very unclear. If you could for starters take a deep breath and explain why you think you need a virtual LAN-interface in the first place?

[blkspade]

From what I can tell your are trying to host what would be a 'LAN' game over the internet. Unless of course you and your friend are actually in the same physical location without internet access you are trying to do this in the most complicated fashion possible. I can tell that you have a limited understanding of networking and the difference between a public an private IP address. Your immediate problem if you are trying to do this over the internet is that you're giving him the wrong address (assuming you have some sort of NAT routing device between you and the internet), that is your local private address. What you need is to provide him your public IP address provided by your ISP. There is a local means of figuring it out but going to http://www.whatismyip.com/ is quick and probably less confusing. The proper way to allow access without all the extra VPN stuff you have been using would be to open the UDP port in your firewall and/or router.

[sobek]

...

 

He's trying to use a VPN.

[RagnarDa]

If you're using VPN, doesn't one of you need to open a port for it in the router anyway?

[Fjordmonkey]

If you're using VPN, doesn't one of you need to open a port for it in the router anyway?

 

Depends on the service used and the firewall in question. Some services use uPnP, which will open the neccesary ports for you if A: your firewall supports it and B: it's active in the firewall setup.

 

Apart from that, I'm fairly confident in saying that this is either a case of PEBCAK or a firewall-issue.

 

Shadow: Which IP does it list in the games' interface? Your internal or external IP?

[blkspade]

Depends on the service used and the firewall in question. Some services use uPnP, which will open the neccesary ports for you if A: your firewall supports it and B: it's active in the firewall setup.

 

Apart from that, I'm fairly confident in saying that this is either a case of PEBCAK or a firewall-issue.

 

Shadow: Which IP does it list in the games' interface? Your internal or external IP?

 

Seeing as the game always shows local IP of the computer, unless his gateway device lacks NAT functionality (bad for so many reasons), its gonna be an internal IP.

[Fjordmonkey]

Well, if his buddy tries to connect to his internal addresses, no wonder things doesn't work...

[MasterZelgadis]

Dont get why one should use a VPN for playing games. VPN is a bottleneck anyway, performance killer. Just forward the Port(s) to your PC, start a server (optional: give friends your external IP, otherwise make it public but password protected, so they see the server in the list) and play. No need for big groups and paid dedicated serves, I'm running my own games this way without a rented server.

 

Dont blame DCS for you not being able to configure your network. If you use hardware that is required for runing a private network of PCs at home (router) you should be able to configure it, instead of blaming the software not supporting any workarounds

 

http://www.portforward.com

[Bikser]

This sound like a problem I was having a wile back. The only thing I did was changing auto DNS to googles 8.8.8.8 DNS. That fixed everything for me.

I had to constantly click "New search" for several minutes to even find half of all the running servers in the list. And most of the time the server I was looking for wasn't showing at all. Might be worth a try.

 

edit: Oh and I only changed it in the Network connection on the computer and not in the router/modem.

Edited November 13, 2013 by Bikser

[S D]

Let me just clarify a couple of things... As i posted in the first post, this wasnt a question of port forwarding or asking for help on that subject. I am well aware of how to forward ports etc. It was just a question into the LAN interface removal (or change to the system as it apperas to be, thankyou MTrenda)

 

As i said i've been playing this series for many years and have, in the past tried all manner of fixes that have been posted on these forums. Some which have worked some not, the same with forwarding the ports. It seemed a bit hit and miss as to it working. Over this time the one way i have found of assuring a connection between myself and others, has been to use a virtual LAN. It maybe not the best way to connect i dont know. But i do know that over the many iterations of this sim, its the one way i can play a small coop, quickly and easily without having to either port forward myself or explain to other friends how to do it.

 

As for suggestions of me blaming DCS because of my incompetence on network matters or outdated hardware, then this is simply not true. I asked a question relating to a function of the sim which was in my mind removed for no reason, stopping me from playing the way i wanted to.

 

I appreciate the help and responses and i do not just post on this forum for the hell of it. I have searched and tried many fixes as mentioned previously, all i was looking for was an answer to that initial question.

 

Mods please close this thread.

Edited November 13, 2013 by Shadow.D.

[drsgfire]

So... I'm going to test this at my house. The only way this would be functional is if the two machines are at the same location. I see that in the interface drop down the local ip has been removed. But I'm almost positive that if you still try and connect to the local ip on the same local network, it will connect. I'm installing DCS on my second machine now and it will have to update first but I'll let you know what I find.

[Frostie]

So the answer to your problem was the first one given in this thread by the ever so helpful Eno, who you treated with such disdain with the 'i've told you all you need to know so stfu' response. If you don't make yourself clear what the whole conundrum is about from the outset how can you expect anyone to understand what you're actually trying to achieve so they can give clear answers. The simple answer to your simple question of they've removed the LAN option to stop something or other had you running for the hills crying foul and curse DCS. Thanks to the patience of the community we eventually got back around to the answer you were really looking for.

[ZaltysZ]

I will try to explain what he probably means.

 

He has multihomed network (computer connected to multiple networks) and wants to use specific network interface for hosting DCS game. The problem is that DCS picks only the interface which is used to connect to DCS main server and listens for connections only on it. This basically prevents hosting DCS games via Hamachi or similarly working VPN solutions, which use virtual network interfaces.

 

It is legit to ask for an option to specify network interface. Imagine a situation in which a person lives in university campus and wants to host a game for friends from outside. No one will forward ports and no one will allow UPnP. VPN working behind a NAT is usually the only solution in such cases.

Edited November 13, 2013 by ZaltysZ