nat woes.

[valcree]

I've got several husband/wife teams of friends who'd like like to play on my eqemu server. The problem is that most of these players exist behind a nat router. I know that there is usually a way to get a public ip to computers that exist behind any sort of nat. Even if it is nat being maintained by the ISP. I would much rather have the eqemu server be able to handle clients coming from the same ip.

I realize that there's a huge issue with authentication, because login/zoning is currently only being done by ip address. I've put a bit of work into this problem, and I got around that. I have had the same ip address log into different/multiple accounts. I also handle zoning properly, so when a user zones on one account/character they remain on that same account/character after they zone. Those were pretty easy fixes... And it works rather well allowing one person to own multiple accounts..

When I tried to have two clients behind a nat(hence the same external ip) connect the second client experienced huge network lag. I would assume that this is due to packet conflicts between the two connected clients. I know two clients can connect to live even when they are behind nat. I haven't dug into the networking part of eqemu yet... Anyhow I was wondering if you guys could give me an idea of how much of a rewrite it would be to modify the networking to deal with two clients coming from the same ip.

Thanks,
'cree

[John Adams]

You didn't really say if you were running Minilogin or Public, but I assume you are Minilogin. Easiest solution is to VPN folks into your LAN, or simply run a locked Public server for just you and your friends.

Set your pals at status 100+, <locked> your server in eqemu_config.xml, and they should be able to bypass the lock. They will have GM abilities, unless you set the "commands" table to every GM command > 100.

I have had the same ip address log into different/multiple accounts. I also handle zoning properly, so when a user zones on one account/character they remain on that same account/character after they zone. Those were pretty easy fixes... And it works rather well allowing one person to own multiple accounts..

Any chance of getting you to share your "fixes" in the Custom Code section? I'm sure others could benefit from this ability as well... and sharing solutions is what makes this community better than most. Don't be shy.

[valcree]

Thanks for the input. Yeah that would work if my box was not coloed someplace. I don't want to setup a vpn for the people who want to connec through nat. I'm try digging into the networking side of the emu and see what I see. Sure I'll post my fixes, and was planning to, I just need to find the time to package them up and get them here. As it is I'm burried with bug fixes lol. I'll try to package them up and post them as well.

'cree