P2P tutorial?

[Jazz]

Does anybody know of or willing to put together a basic tutorial about setting up a P2P gaming session on VASL?

 

[zgrose]

The VASL part is relatively easy to do. The issue is configuring potential firewalls on either end. If you aren’t worried about the latter, I can help you with the former.

 

[zgrose]

pg 8 has the basics:
http://www.vassalengine.org/mediawiki/images/8/8c/Userguide.pdf

 

[Jazz]

Lemme see if my usual VASL oppoenent is willing to give it a go.

Looking at those instructions, it still assumes going through an internet connection.

Is it possible to make a hard wire connection between two machines using a LAN cable?

 

[zgrose]

VASSAL runs over TCP/IP so you need at least local address like 10.0.0.1, etc. Most home networks have such identities on their WiFi, too.

 

[jrv]

One has to ask: if you have a cable between the two machines, why aren't you playing face-to-face?

JR

 

[Jazz]

One has to ask: if you have a cable between the two machines, why aren't you playing face-to-face?

JR

So one does not have to pick up and sort counters and one can stop half way through a large CG without the need to keep table space and counters occupied and/or record unit locations.

Not everybody is addicted to the feel of pushing cardboard around.

 

[Sully]

Here's the best documentation I could find, and it's dated. If it's useful and/or updated we will see about getting this posted somewhere.

 

[Sully]

So one does not have to pick up and sort counters and one can stop half way through a large CG without the need to keep table space and counters occupied and/or record unit locations. Not everybody is addicted to the feel of pushing cardboard around.

Word. VASL makes ASL easier and more fun to play IMHO. But I'm biased.

 

[Sully]

Lemme see if my usual VASL oppoenent is willing to give it a go.

Looking at those instructions, it still assumes going through an internet connection.

Is it possible to make a hard wire connection between two machines using a LAN cable?

If you're on the same LAN you can skip the router insanity. To see your IP right-click on your VASL name and "show profile":


Your opponent can then direct connect to you or vice versa.

 

[zgrose]

If they are on a LAN, the IP address that they is *probably* going to be their external address so would show the same value for both players. What you will probably need is your internal IP address which you can query via `ipconfig` on Windows (and probably other ways) or your `Network` control panel in OS X.

 

[Sully]

I don't know if it's universal but the method I described above works for me behind my router. I use peer-to-peer occasionally for testing. -Sully

 

[zgrose]

I don't know if it's universal but the method I described above works for me behind my router. I use peer-to-peer occasionally for testing. -Sully

Is the other peer behind your router with you as well? If so, I believe you will see the same IP address on both machines.

 

[jrv]

Is the other peer behind your router with you as well? If so, I believe you will see the same IP address on both machines.

You shouldn't. Otherwise how would the router know where to send a packet, and how would an individual machine know which packets are meant for it and not some other machine?

Typically if you have a router hooked up to the internet with an non-routable network locally (e.g. 10.0.*.*, 192.168.0.*), the router will get a routable IP address from your internet provider. Local machines will send requests to the internet, and the router will replace the "from" ip address with the address it got from your internet provider. When the response comes back, the router changes the "to" address (which is the "from" address of the request) on the packet back to the non-routable address that the machine is really using. From outside the router the IP addresses will be the same for requests from different machines, but inside the local network they will be different. If the request is to a local machine, the router is not involved (unless you have a more complex topology).

JR

 

[zgrose]

You shouldn't. Otherwise how would the router know where to send a packet, and how would an individual machine know which packets are meant for it and not some other machine?

Because your packets are tagged outbound and inbound with your machine address as relative to the router. Give it a whirl. All your computers/devices behind your cable modem/router/etc will report the same IP address if you ask an external service (like asking the VASSAL server) to identify what your IP address is.

If you ask your OS what your IP address is, it should give you 1 or more addresses depending on the network in question.

Your description is mostly accurate otherwise.

 

[jrv]

Because your packets are tagged outbound and inbound with your machine address as relative to the router. Give it a whirl. All your computers/devices behind your cable modem/router/etc will report the same IP address if you ask an external service (like asking the VASSAL server) to identify what your IP address is.

If you ask your OS what your IP address is, it should give you 1 or more addresses depending on the network in question.

Your description is mostly accurate otherwise.

The IP addresses of the machines is their local, non-routable address. If you ask the machine what it's address is, it will report the non-routable address, and unless you want to have a lot of trouble on your network, that address will be unique. Only the router will be aware of the address given by the internet provider. The machines other than the router will be blissfully unaware.

Ah, I understand. You are taking the address that the vasl server (on the internet) reports. That will look like the IP address the router has. None of the machines behind the router will be aware of that address. If you try to connect two local machines using the apparent ip address used by the router, you will fail.

All this assuming that the router is set up to perform Network Address Translation (NAT). If you have private, routable ip addresses, then God bless you.

JR