Lan problem

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herb1962
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Lan problem

Post by herb1962 »

Spent all day Sunday trying to get a LAN game going with Hot Pursuit 2 between myself and my son's computer. I am hardwired to a WRT54G, he is wireless.
I can see the game on either computer, which is encouraging, but when I try to join, a message says that it wasn't able to connect. I looked through this whole forum, but couldn't find anything that solved this.
Firewall is off. We both have SP2, and the same game version. Any help would be appreciated.
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vellu
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Post by vellu »

How is your network setup?

Manual IP's or router assigned (dhcp)? Not bridged, I hope...(?)
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herb1962
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Post by herb1962 »

Thanks for your reply.

Mine (wired) has a static IP, while the other one (wireless) doesn't. Should I setup a static on that one as well?
And what is a bridged connection? Thanks again.
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Post by vellu »

Doesn't matter if one is static and the other not, as long as they are in the same sub network (that is, the three first ip-digits are the same). For example one common ip-range for private (home) networks is 192.168.0.xxx.

Typically that would mean valid ip addresses for hosts between 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.254. Gateway address (same as router address) is usually the first (0.1) or the last one (0.254).

Bridged connection means no routing at all. That is all your hosts would be given direct/public internet ip-addresses from your isp. It is possible but not recommended for security reasons, and also means you can't have your own private lan (as all hosts have direct wan-addresses instead of private lan addresses)

EDIT: If you only have one host it doesn't matter if your connection is bridged or routed, since all traffic comes to that host anyway. Typically non-router broadband modems (cable or dsl) are hardcoded to bridged anyway.
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herb1962
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Post by herb1962 »

Thanks for the reply, and sorry for the delayed response. Since the wireless computer doesn't have a fixed IP, where do I specify the IP address to be in the range you describe? I feel a bit out of my league. Appreciate the help.
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Post by vellu »

If the machine using wireless is set to "automatically get IP/DNS server address" then it should already be in the range your router is set to provide (via DHCP). See what IP is assigned to that machine (network connections - <your> - status) and set the fixed ip to match that address range. There are a couple of different ways you can do that, some of which depends on your wireless router.

For example, my network is built the following way:
Telewell EA2000 ADSL2+ modem/firewall/router/wireless
Router (and gateway) address: 192.168.0.254
DHCP pool: 192.168.0.100-192.168.0.253 (meaning the machines connecting to the router that have "automatically get ip" enabled, will automatically be assigned the next free ip within this range)
Two static IPs defined using MAC addresses: 192.168.0.50 and 192.168.0.60 (meaning a machine that connects to the router that has that particular MAC address will ALWAYS get the ip 192.168.0.50 or 0.60. NOTES: static IPs must be outside of the DHCP pool range; some routers do not have the ability to assign fixed ips to specific MAC addresses, in this case you need to manually enter ip information to those machines tcp/ip settings.)

EDIT: As you can see, these are all in the same sub-network of 192.168.0.* which is the key factor to get the machines to see each other (not counting firewall software, which also can be set to block local network traffic). Doesn't matter if some are fixed and some are assigned.
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herb1962
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Post by herb1962 »

Thanks a lot! I'll give this a try.
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Post by herb1962 »

One more thing: Any idea why I can see the game on either computer, doesn't that mean they already communicate with each other? But when I try to connect/join, that is where the problem starts.
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Post by vellu »

One would assume so. Slightly harder to troubleshoot. Since the game is visible, but not joinable I'd look for a software based problem next. The most obvious culprit would be firewall applications (3rd party or the windows built in one), other thing could be some other program already using the ports required by the game (instant messaging programs for instance, basically anything that accesses internet). I don't own HP2 myself so I am unable to check what kind of traffic it generates (visible in firewall traffic logs usually; ports and protocols used being the information one needs to troubleshoot).
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