rec.autos.simulators

   My friends and I have been running NFS/PU online regularly,
and last year I learned about DTM.  I got NASCAR Heat and the
carset, and enjoyed some off-line racing.  I couldn't make the
8:00 PM Friday, U.S. West coast, time for the races.  

  My problem is that Friday night, U.S. West coast, has become
a traditional time for my non-computer owning friends to come
over and take turns with NFS/PU online.  I'm not sure they are
going to find watching me, driving DTM for an hour, very
entertaining.  

   Almost a year has passed, I saw a DTM race on SpeedVision
this week, and remember how much fun the sim was.  I went back
to the TPTCC site.  The schedule shows the last race happened
late this spring, the chatroom seems to be protected from the
user name and password that once worked, so, here are a couple
of questions.  

   I don't see any schedule for races after late this spring.  
Are there other races?  

   Can anybody host a DTM race?  What bandwidth and compute
hardware/software are required?  I have a cable modem, with
limited upload, 256K I think, what capabilities.  Is the host
just a Windows PC running the sim?  Or is there server software?  

   I've done some Unix Network stuff, as a programmer, so I have
an idea of the concepts, but I've never tried to host a race
through my firewall.  I believe it can be done.  

   Anyway, I'm not eager to host, I just want to do some online
racing.  

                                                      Thanks
                                                      Larry

Cheers!

?? Jan Kohl ??
::: computer security consultant :::
the pits - http://www.theuspits.com
castle graphics - http://www.castlegraphics.com

are interested in joining up!  We'll be glad to have

        You might have mentioned the totally different website!!
DTM with v2.3 of the dtm heat mod is at::
http://tptcc.com/

dh

   I'll get the new files.  Do I remove NASCAR Heat and do
a new install?  I have nothing, not even a paint job, that
I want to keep.  

   The schedule shows Friday races.  What time are they?  

   Because if the races are between 7:30 PM and into the wee
hours, U.S. West coast time, I'm in exactly the same situation
I was in a year ago.  I'm not trying to be a pain in the ass,
I just want to race.  These hours on Friday and Saturday don't
work for me.  

   Which gets me back to the questions in my original post,
about hosting a DTM race.  

                                                        Thanks
                                                        Larry

It looks like you have the same problem as last year - the current TPTCC
race day race program has 2 groups of competitors running two events each -
a shorter 7-10 lap sprint race, and then a longer 12-20 lap event with a
mandatory pit stop.  The first race group logs on to the server at 7 PM PST
and the second race group logs on at 7 PM PST or when the first race group
finishes their second race, whichever comes first.

I guess I'd have to tell my "non-computer owning friends" to get their own
'puters, get the software loaded, get online and start trading paint with
you online, be it NFS or DTM/TPTCC, or another sim of choice...  :-)

Anyone can host a DTM modded NHeat race online with the correct software
installed.  It's just like hosting a regular NHeat race, its just that you
are hosting with your DTM version of NHeat. With your cable modem, your
biggest limitation is going to be your upload speed, which limits how fast
your machine can "talk" to those logged into your hosted race.  You also
have to move your computer from behind your firewall to host a race - I run
my machine behind a router and firewall software and have to put my machine
in the DMZ to be able to host a race.  I also have a cable modem and if I
can host a race cleanly with 6 cars in it, you are doing really good.

Hope this helps!

KWS

   Sounds great.  I wanna play.  So everyone does 2 races?  

   7:00 PM to 8:00 PM might work.  I thought the races started
at 11:00 EST.  Do you mean 7:00 and 8:00 starting times?  If
not I don't understand.  

   Haha.  One of my friends, when he buys a product, expects it
to work as advertised.  Hahaha.  He's seen me battle enough
problems to know he shouldn't own a computer.  

   Yikes!  Uh, I work on that PC.  Usually on the Solaris
partition, but currently on a WIN 2K partition with my
source code on my WIN98 partition.  

   I run WIN98 for entertainment.  I'm really not comfortable
dangling my source out in the breeze like that.  

   Poking a hole for a particular port in my SMC Barricade
firewall isn't going to cut it?  

   Like I said, I'm not that hot to host, I just want to
race.  

                                                      Thanks
                                                      Larry