Hosting question

[miner2049er]

If I wanted to host a practise session / race one evening from home, it would be as easy as opening and forwarding a  port on my router right?

For example, I could post here that it is open and people could connect and join.

My home is externally accessible via a DNS Domain so as long as people knew that and the port was open it would work?

Which port would it be?

I was just curious as I'm practising East London and thought it would be more fun with other people there.

As a novice it is also good practise to drive with other cars around.

[Phil Thornton]

It should be, although I've never managed to configure my Orange Livebox to do it.  I've hosted races in the past but not since I got this Livebox.  I'll have another go and see what I can do.

The actual ports you need to configure depends on whether you are using VROC or IGOR.  There is a lot of info on the other forums and web sites.  This is a good starting point.   

[miner2049er]

Thanks for the link Phil.

That's a lot of ports. Might be easier to drop it into a DMZ. 

Maybe if I put GPL on another PC rather than my main one.

[Clive Loynes]

Maybe if I put GPL on another PC rather than my main one.

That's what I have done.

The server doesn't need to be that high a spec machine either.  Gladys is running on a 1.3 Ghz Duron with the naffist gfx card you ever saw and no sound card.

It then means that you join your own server via your LAN.

I seem to recall that it is necessary to fix the LAN address of the server but cannot remember why.

[miner2049er]

That's what I have done.

The server doesn't need to be that high a spec machine either.  Gladys is running on a 1.3 Ghz Duron with the naffist gfx card you ever saw and no sound card.

It then means that you join your own server via your LAN.

Aah, I didn't think of that. I was going to host the game from my main GPL machine, but of course I could host on another box and join it over my LAN.

Hmmm, I suppose this Gladys is easily available?

I seem to recall that it is necessary to fix the LAN address of the server but cannot remember why.

Well if you are forwarding ports to it from your router, it would have to be static.

[Phil Thornton]

Yes there are a lot of ports!  I set up my spare PC in a DMZ tonight and hosted a 65 race on IGOR with no apparent problems.  I don't really want to do it this way, I'd prefer to configure the Firewall properly.  Trouble is the Livebox is awful to configure.  Each port has to be manually configured through a painfully awkward interface.  I'm going to connect up my old Netgear DG834 Router and try that.  I'm pretty sure the setup software is much easier to use.

I need to sort something out as a contingency,  Clive has been a massive help this season with Gladys (thanks Clive) but I need a few more options on the server front.  1.UKGPL is showing its age and we are very dependent on Chris Bull's server at the moment.  I've always assumed that we needed a dedicated server for league races but maybe with lots of people getting 8Meg broadband connections maybe it would be feasible to use a few more "home based" servers.

Clive we don't seem to have had any problems with Gladys.  What sort of broadband connection do you have?

[miner2049er]

Well, I do have a spare PC, a home LAN and a DNS Domain pointed at my house, so I will look into this.

Would it be something that people would find useful, just a kind of unofficial practise server for the 65s initially?

I pay for 8Meg but because of my location I will only ever achieve 4.1.

In actual fact it usually sits at around 3.2 for most of the time. I get 512Mb up like most people.

I assume it is just a case of installign GPL with the 65 mod etc on the box and hosting a game.

How do I get it to appear on iGOR?

[Burtoner]

Yes there are a lot of ports!  I set up my spare PC in a DMZ tonight and hosted a 65 race on IGOR with no apparent problems.  I don't really want to do it this way, I'd prefer to configure the Firewall properly.  Trouble is the Livebox is awful to configure.  Each port has to be manually configured through a painfully awkward interface.  I'm going to connect up my old Netgear DG834 Router and try that.  I'm pretty sure the setup software is much easier to use.

I need to sort something out as a contingency,  Clive has been a massive help this season with Gladys (thanks Clive) but I need a few more options on the server front.  1.UKGPL is showing its age and we are very dependent on Chris Bull's server at the moment.  I've always assumed that we needed a dedicated server for league races but maybe with lots of people getting 8Meg broadband connections maybe it would be feasible to use a few more "home based" servers.

Clive we don't seem to have had any problems with Gladys.  What sort of broadband connection do you have?

I know what you mean DMZ isnt too bad just its more likely to get attacked leaving it open, but can always use software firewall/antivirus to protect you. I have done this in past, but only in as a very last resort.

[Phil Thornton]

How do I get it to appear on iGOR?

First of all make sure you are running GPL in a window (on your "server" PC NOT your "race" PC) by editing the appropriate line in the core.ini file as follows:

[ Rasterizer ]
fullScreen = 0 

Then open IGOR and just click on the "Host" Button and then the "Host a race Locally" button.  After that follow the UKGPL guidelines for setting up a server remotely (obviously from paragraph 4 only because you are not logging into your server remotely).

You should then get GPL running in a window and you should be able to join the race from your "race" PC via IGOR (your "server" PC should appear in the IGOR race list).

[Phil Thornton]

I know what you mean DMZ isnt too bad just its more likely to get attacked leaving it open, but can always use software firewall/antivirus to protect you. I have done this in past, but only in as a very last resort.

Good point Burt.  I hadn't thought about using the windows firewall.  I'd still rather do it properly through the router firewall.

[Clive Loynes]

Clive we don't seem to have had any problems with Gladys.  What sort of broadband connection do you have?

Just looked.  It claims to be running at 4352Kbps downstream and 448Kbps upstream.

I do make sure that I am the only user whenever I am hosting.  I make sure the wireless network is disabled.

Bandwidth on iGOR is usually set to 3/84, 3/132

[miner2049er]

First of all ......

Thanks Phil.

I hope to get this up and running over the weekend so I'll give it a try.

[Jack O'Ferrall]

Thanks Clive, I hadn't noticed this when I posted before.  What about latency?

The practice server 3ukgpl has the usual UKGPL race settings, for testing purposes.

[miner2049er]

Anyone test this externally for me?

http://www.myjamesonline.net

[Phil Thornton]

Anyone test this externally for me?

http://www.myjamesonline.net

Tried it but couldn't reach anything.  Get the usual message an unreachable site i.e. "Error 623:  The system could not find the phone book entry for this connection."