I wrote this up for some friends and thought I'd share it. It gives
instructions on how to use Windows XP's Virtual Private Networking to play
War3 over the net using the LAN mode in the game. There is probably a way to
do with with Win98 as well, but I have never tried.

Hopefully someone will find it useful.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

-How to play Warcraft over the net-

One person (the host) must host the connection and the other (the guest)
must connect to the host. This should have no effect on who hosts the
Warcraft game. With only two players, either should be able to host it.
There are restrictions if there are more than two.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 1: Hosting


To host, Incoming Connections and VPN must both be enabled.

Go to control Panel, then to Network Connections. Incoming Connections
should be one of the listed network connections. If it is not, you must
enable it. To do so, keep reading. If it is already enabled, skip to
Section 2.


If you have the XP common tasks window enabled, one of the items listed on
the left side of the screen will be Create A New Connection. This is what you
want. Click it to open the New Connection Wizard.

If you have disabled common tasks window, the New Connection Wizard will
be listed with the other connections in the main part of the window.
Double click it to open it.

You can also find it in the FILE menu.

Do not use the *Network* Setup Wizard. This is not what you need.


Once you're in the new Connection Wizard, click Next to get past the intro
screen, and you will see the Connection Type screen. Choose "Set up an
advanced connection."

The next screen asks what type of advanced connection you need. Select
"Accept Incoming Connections."

The next screen allows you to select which devices you want to allow to
accept incoming connections. If you have a dialup modem, it may be checked by
default. Uncheck it unless you plan to have people connecting to you over the
phone line, because having the modem checked in this screen will make it
answer the phone whenever it rings. Your friends and relatives will go deaf.

You don't have to check anything on this screen, and unless you plan to
use these connections, you shouldn't. Just uncheck the modem and click
Next.

The next screen asks if you want to accept incoming VPN connections.
That's the whole purpose of what we're trying to do here, so pick "Allow
Virtual Private Networking connections."

The next screen is the user permissions screen. It controls who can
connect to your computer.

The host must create an account for the other person (the guest). Make a
name and password for the other person, and put a check by their name
under Users Allowed To Connect.

You can modify the users list later if necessary.

The next screen is the Networking Software screen. You don't need to mess
with this if you don't want to. I will point out that File and Printer
sharing is enabled by default if you have it installed, and it can't be
disabled on a per-user basis. Disabling it requires stopping the service
completely, which means that File and Printer Sharing won't work at all on
your machine. If you do need it, make sure that your shared drives and
folders are secured if you are playing with/connecting to anyone you don't
know or don't trust.

Click Next and you are done setting up Incoming Connections.

Go to Section 3


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 2: Setup when Incoming Connections already exists


Right click Incoming Connecions and select Properties.

There is a box titled Virtual Private Network, and the description talks
about allowing people to connect to your computer over the internet. Put a
check in the box if there isn't one already.

The host must create an account for the other person (the guest). You can
do this on the Users tab of the Incoming Connections Properties screen.
Make a name and password for the other person, and put a check by their
name under Users Allowed To Connect.

If the guest already has a username and password on the host's system then
you can just use that. You don't need a seperate one for Warcraft VPN.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 3: Host IP Address


Once everything is setup and enabled, the host will need to find his IP
address and give it to the guest. This is on the status screen for your
internet connection. Click the little flashing icon by the clock to bring
up the connection properties. Click the Details tab. Your IP address is
the CLIENT IP address. You must be online to do this.

If you have a cable modem or get your internet access through a network,
you may not have a flashing computer icon in the corner of your screen. In
this case, you will have to use IPCONFIG to get your IP address.

Click the start menu, and then click RUN. Type CMD.EXE and click OK.
This will bring up a command prompt.

Type IPCONFIG /ALL and look for lines that say "IP Address." There may be
more than one if you have more than one network connection. Local Area
Network connections often start with 192.168, so any IP address that
begins with those numbers is probably not the one you need.

The description may say something about it being a PPP/SLIP interface. If
you can't tell from the names which is the one you need, try them all.
Once you figure it out, just remember for future use which one it is.

You must be online to check your IP address. You don't have one if you
aren't.


Your IP address changes every time you connect to the internet, so don't
disconnect between the time you give the guest your IP address, and the
time you finish playing.

Once the guest connects, you will see a flashing computer icon for their
connection, unless you have disabled this feature in the Incoming
Connections setup. It looks just like the one you normally see for your
own internet connection. When you see it, the guest is connected and you
can enter Warcraft.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 4: Connecting to a host


You will need to create a new network connection, if you don't already
have one for this host. If you have a dialup connection to them, you will
still need to create a new connection to use for VPN, although you can use
the same name and password as the dialup connection.

Go to control Panel, then to Network Connections.

If you have the XP common tasks window enabled, one of the items listed on
the left side of the screen will be Create A New Connection. This is what
you want. Click it to open the New Connection Wizard.

If you have disabled common tasks window, the New Connection Wizard will
be listed with the other connections in the main part of the window.
Double click it to open it.

You can also find it in the FILE menu.

Do not use the *Network* Setup Wizard. This is not what you need.


Once you're in the New Connection Wizard, click Next to get past the intro
screen, and you will see the Connection Type screen. Choose "Connect to
the network at my workplace."

The next screen asks whether to create a Dial-Up or VPN Connection. Choose
VPN.

The next screen asks for the company name. This is just the name Windows
prints beside the icon for this connection. It has no effect on the
connection, so call it whatever you want.

The next screen asks whether or not to automatically connect to the
internet before attempting to establish this connection. It's up to you.
If you select no, you will have to manually connect to the net before
using this connection. It's your choice. The dropdown box selects which
connection the computer will automatically dial to connect to the
internet, if you have told it to do so.

The next screen asks for the host name or IP address. Put in the IP
address that the host gave you.

The next screen asks if you want Windows to make a shortcut to this
connection on your desktop. Your choice, though it is not terribly useful
since you have to go back to the orignal icon in the Network Connection menu
in order the change the IP address the next time you play.

You are done with the setup. The next screen will ask for your name and
password on the host machine. The host should have told you what these
are, or perhaps you told him what name and password to use when he
set up your user account.

Put in the name and password and click Connect to establish a connection.
Make sure that you are already connected to the internet first if you
didn't set it up to automatically connect.


Since the host's IP address changes every time he connects to the
internet, you will have to get it from him and update your connection
every time you play. You don't need to go through the whole setup process
every single time.

The next time you play, just open the Network Connections window, right
click the VPN connection for the host you want to connect to, and select
Properties. This will bring you to the IP address screen, where you can
enter the host's current IP address.


If you have bound different protocals to this connection than the host has
enabled for his incoming connections, Windows will give you an error
screen when you connect. It will show you which protocals successfully
connected and which ones did not. As long as TCP/IP connected
successfully, you can ignore the rest. If you don't want to see this
screen again, check the box that tells it not to notify you about this
next time.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 5: Playing with more than two players


You can do this, but there are restrictions on how to go about it. Windows
XP can only host a single incoming VPN connection, so you can't just
designate one person as the host for everybody else.

For three players, Player 3 will host Player 2, and Player 2 will host
Player 1. Player 2 MUST host the Warcraft game, since players 1 and 3 are
not directly connected to each other. If either of them hosted it, the
other would not be able to see the game in Warcraft. Player 2 could still
see it because he is directly connected to both others.

Note that Player 1 must connect to Player 2 before Player 2 can connect to
Player 3. If you have an outgoing VPN connection active, XP will not
accept an incoming connection. The person trying to connect to you will
get an error, or will be told that no VPN server could be found at your
address.


I do not know if Windows XP allows more than one *outgoing* VPN connection
simultaniously. If it does, you should theoretically be able to have as
many players as you want. You would just have all of the other players
turn on their VPN hosts and set up accounts for the designated game host,
and he would then create outgoing VPN connections to each of them. I have
never tried this, but it makes sense that it would work.

If it does, you could do three players the same way. Player 2 is guest to
both Player 1 and Player 3, and Player 2 still hosts the game.

The Warcraft host must always be in the center of all of the other
players, because they are not directly connected to each other, but only
through the Warcraft host.


Note that if you happen to be playing with a friend in your (geographical)
local area, you can play over a dialup connection. The significance of
this (aside from no internet access needed) is that XP WILL accept
incoming VPN and dialup connections *at the same time*. Only one each, but
it does work. I have played four player games with way, using the first
three player technique described above.

------------------
Written by Dalamar

07/26/03

Thus spoke Dalamar:
> I wrote this up for some friends and thought I'd share it. It gives
> instructions on how to use Windows XP's Virtual Private Networking to
> play War3 over the net using the LAN mode in the game. There is
> probably a way to do with with Win98 as well, but I have never tried.
>
> Hopefully someone will find it useful.

How about just getting Lancraft? Seems much easier.

--
-Q!

Thus spoke Dalamar:
> I wrote this up for some friends and thought I'd share it. It gives
> instructions on how to use Windows XP's Virtual Private Networking to
> play War3 over the net using the LAN mode in the game. There is
> probably a way to do with with Win98 as well, but I have never tried.
>
> Hopefully someone will find it useful.

How about just getting Lancraft? Seems much easier.

--
-Q!

Thus spoke Dalamar:
> I wrote this up for some friends and thought I'd share it. It gives
> instructions on how to use Windows XP's Virtual Private Networking to
> play War3 over the net using the LAN mode in the game. There is
> probably a way to do with with Win98 as well, but I have never tried.
>
> Hopefully someone will find it useful.

How about just getting Lancraft? Seems much easier.

--
-Q!

"Q!" <q1410@localhost.localdomain> wrote in news:bg1cof$vmc$1
@topaz.icpnet.pl:

> Thus spoke Dalamar:
>> I wrote this up for some friends and thought I'd share it. It gives
>> instructions on how to use Windows XP's Virtual Private Networking to
>> play War3 over the net using the LAN mode in the game. There is
>> probably a way to do with with Win98 as well, but I have never tried.
>>
>> Hopefully someone will find it useful.
>
> How about just getting Lancraft? Seems much easier.

Lancraft is buggy. It worked only once for one of my friends, and not at all
for another. There is also the potential that it may stop working if Blizzard
adds new security features in some later version of the game.

But it is easier if it happens to work for you.

"Q!" <q1410@localhost.localdomain> wrote in news:bg1cof$vmc$1
@topaz.icpnet.pl:

> Thus spoke Dalamar:
>> I wrote this up for some friends and thought I'd share it. It gives
>> instructions on how to use Windows XP's Virtual Private Networking to
>> play War3 over the net using the LAN mode in the game. There is
>> probably a way to do with with Win98 as well, but I have never tried.
>>
>> Hopefully someone will find it useful.
>
> How about just getting Lancraft? Seems much easier.

Lancraft is buggy. It worked only once for one of my friends, and not at all
for another. There is also the potential that it may stop working if Blizzard
adds new security features in some later version of the game.

But it is easier if it happens to work for you.

"Q!" <q1410@localhost.localdomain> wrote in news:bg1cof$vmc$1
@topaz.icpnet.pl:

> Thus spoke Dalamar:
>> I wrote this up for some friends and thought I'd share it. It gives
>> instructions on how to use Windows XP's Virtual Private Networking to
>> play War3 over the net using the LAN mode in the game. There is
>> probably a way to do with with Win98 as well, but I have never tried.
>>
>> Hopefully someone will find it useful.
>
> How about just getting Lancraft? Seems much easier.

Lancraft is buggy. It worked only once for one of my friends, and not at all
for another. There is also the potential that it may stop working if Blizzard
adds new security features in some later version of the game.

But it is easier if it happens to work for you.

"Dalamar" <no@no.net> wrote in message
news:uZUUa.653$nH1.598@newssvr23.news.prodigy.com. ..
> I wrote this up for some friends and thought I'd share it. It gives
> instructions on how to use Windows XP's Virtual Private Networking to play
> War3 over the net using the LAN mode in the game. There is probably a way
to
> do with with Win98 as well, but I have never tried.
>

> Hopefully someone will find it useful.

It could be useful to me, if it works under Win2000 Pro ?
Also does this work with other games ?
(I need that for C&C Red Alert 2 - Yuri's Revenge)

"Dalamar" <no@no.net> wrote in message
news:uZUUa.653$nH1.598@newssvr23.news.prodigy.com. ..
> I wrote this up for some friends and thought I'd share it. It gives
> instructions on how to use Windows XP's Virtual Private Networking to play
> War3 over the net using the LAN mode in the game. There is probably a way
to
> do with with Win98 as well, but I have never tried.
>

> Hopefully someone will find it useful.

It could be useful to me, if it works under Win2000 Pro ?
Also does this work with other games ?
(I need that for C&C Red Alert 2 - Yuri's Revenge)

"Dalamar" <no@no.net> wrote in message
news:uZUUa.653$nH1.598@newssvr23.news.prodigy.com. ..
> I wrote this up for some friends and thought I'd share it. It gives
> instructions on how to use Windows XP's Virtual Private Networking to play
> War3 over the net using the LAN mode in the game. There is probably a way
to
> do with with Win98 as well, but I have never tried.
>

> Hopefully someone will find it useful.

It could be useful to me, if it works under Win2000 Pro ?
Also does this work with other games ?
(I need that for C&C Red Alert 2 - Yuri's Revenge)

"BOOGIEMAN" <boogiemanpn@yahoo.com> wrote in news:bg40dt$ki0ts$4@ID-
193549.news.uni-berlin.de:

>
> "Dalamar" <no@no.net> wrote in message
> news:uZUUa.653$nH1.598@newssvr23.news.prodigy.com. ..
>> I wrote this up for some friends and thought I'd share it. It gives
>> instructions on how to use Windows XP's Virtual Private Networking to play
>> War3 over the net using the LAN mode in the game. There is probably a way
>> to do with with Win98 as well, but I have never tried.
>>
>
>> Hopefully someone will find it useful.
>
> It could be useful to me, if it works under Win2000 Pro ?
> Also does this work with other games ?
> (I need that for C&C Red Alert 2 - Yuri's Revenge)

I've never tried it on 2000, but according to Microsoft it does work.
See here for more info on VPN in 2K:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=257333


As for other games, it should work with any game that can be played over a
network, as long as you both have the propper protocols enabled. Older games
use IPX, and most newer ones (such as Warcraft 3) use TCP/IP. You may need to
enable IPX if it isn't by default, and if your game requires it. (Mine is
disabled, but I don't remember if I did that or if it's the default)

(Following refers to XP. 2K may be different, but probably not a whole lot)

For the host, this is done on the Networking tab of the Incoming Connections
Properties window. TCP/IP is enabled by default, but if C&C needs IPX, you
will need to put a check beside the "NWLink IPX/SPX/Netbios compatible
transport protocol."

IPX is enabled by default for new outgoing connections, so the person
connecting to you shouldn't have to change anything. If you want to check it,
right click the icon for the connection and pick Properties, and then click
the Networking tab.

"BOOGIEMAN" <boogiemanpn@yahoo.com> wrote in news:bg40dt$ki0ts$4@ID-
193549.news.uni-berlin.de:

>
> "Dalamar" <no@no.net> wrote in message
> news:uZUUa.653$nH1.598@newssvr23.news.prodigy.com. ..
>> I wrote this up for some friends and thought I'd share it. It gives
>> instructions on how to use Windows XP's Virtual Private Networking to play
>> War3 over the net using the LAN mode in the game. There is probably a way
>> to do with with Win98 as well, but I have never tried.
>>
>
>> Hopefully someone will find it useful.
>
> It could be useful to me, if it works under Win2000 Pro ?
> Also does this work with other games ?
> (I need that for C&C Red Alert 2 - Yuri's Revenge)

I've never tried it on 2000, but according to Microsoft it does work.
See here for more info on VPN in 2K:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=257333


As for other games, it should work with any game that can be played over a
network, as long as you both have the propper protocols enabled. Older games
use IPX, and most newer ones (such as Warcraft 3) use TCP/IP. You may need to
enable IPX if it isn't by default, and if your game requires it. (Mine is
disabled, but I don't remember if I did that or if it's the default)

(Following refers to XP. 2K may be different, but probably not a whole lot)

For the host, this is done on the Networking tab of the Incoming Connections
Properties window. TCP/IP is enabled by default, but if C&C needs IPX, you
will need to put a check beside the "NWLink IPX/SPX/Netbios compatible
transport protocol."

IPX is enabled by default for new outgoing connections, so the person
connecting to you shouldn't have to change anything. If you want to check it,
right click the icon for the connection and pick Properties, and then click
the Networking tab.