GPL Linux IP Masquerade

I remember the first few weeks of GPL's release there was some discussion here on r.a.s. about the problems GPL online networking had with going through a linux box used as a getway out to the Internet with IP Masquerading. I saved some posts from some of newsgroup readers explaining how to allow GPL to host online races through an IP masquerading linux box, but I didn't see anyone mention that they could also *join* a race as well as hosting a race. If anyone out there is using this setup could you please summarize how well you got GPL to work with this setup (both hosting and joining). I am currently running both a linux box and a win98 box with individual DHCP dynamic IP's, but may be forced in the near future to only use one IP so I am considering going the IP masquerade route, but not if it will no longer allow me to host or join GPL races online through my ADSL connection. Thanks in advance for any info. Seeyas on the track. --John (Joao) Silva

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> I remember the first few weeks of GPL's release there was some > discussion here on r.a.s. about the problems GPL online networking > had with going through a linux box used as a getway out to the > Internet with IP Masquerading. > I saved some posts from some of newsgroup readers explaining how to > allow GPL to host online races through an IP masquerading linux box, > but I didn't see anyone mention that they could also *join* a race > as well as hosting a race.

Correct. As far as I know, the ability to connect through an IP masquerading linux box has not been achieved. The way the GPL server assigns a GPL client a port number is in conflict with the way IP masquerading works. I've done investigating and have offered my thoughts to Joel B. at Papyrus (who was nice enough to be interested in our problems). I believe they are figuring out how best to support this in GPL and maybe release a patch.... Don't know the status though - the tone of things seemed to indicate "soon", but I haven't heard anything for a month now. Hosting, no problem: Use a port auto-forwarding program on your linux box (like ipautofw) and auto-forward ports 32766 and 6971 to the private IP address of your PC behind the linux box. Example (assuming internal network is 192.168.0.x, and internal PC is 192.168.0.2): ./ipautofw -A -r udp 6971 6971 -h 192.168.0.2 -v -u ./ipautofw -A -r udp 32766 32766 -h 192.168.0.2 -v -u As a client... well, as I've said above, no luck yet. If there was a way to get IP masquerading to relax its restrictions a bit on matching return packets from the GPL server, we could get it to work. Or, papy could modify GPL to send back certain bits of data on a client's original connection to port 32766 on a server. Best of luck, and let me know if you find anything interesting... ...Andrew

Papy is working on it, but I haven't heard from them in a couple of weeks. There is no way to join a race through a Linux gateway, but you *can* host a race, even on VROC. Baby steps... I'm getting a little annoyed that it's taking so long to resolve the issues, but conversly, I'm a programmer myself and understand the difficulties with patching a glob of code as large as GPL must most certainly be. -- ========================================================= John Simmons - Redneck Techno-Biker (Zerex12) http://www.members.home.net/jms1/index.html John Simmons - Barbarian Diecast Collector http://members.home.net/jsimm/diecast_index.html If you want to send me email, go to either of the URL's shown above & click "Send Me Mail" in the contents frame. =========================================================

Thanks Andrew, I guess if I can't connect to servers through IP Masquerading I will wait and not switch to IP Masquerading until absolutely necessary, I am highly ***ed to GPL online racing, both VROC and in leagues and am not willing to forego online play just yet. I hope Papyrus is indeed working on a patch or workaround for this problem. Thanks for your help and if you find a way around it please post, I will do the same if I hear of a way. Thanks again. Seeyas on the track. --John (Joao) Silva

>Thanks Andrew, I guess if I can't connect to servers through IP Masquerading >I will wait and not switch to IP Masquerading until absolutely necessary, >I am highly ***ed to GPL online racing, both VROC and in leagues and >am not willing to forego online play just yet. FWIW my connection works fine through an ISDN router using NAT. Fine as both client and server. Cheers! John

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> >Thanks Andrew, I guess if I can't connect to servers through IP Masquerading > >I will wait and not switch to IP Masquerading until absolutely necessary, > >I am highly ***ed to GPL online racing, both VROC and in leagues and > >am not willing to forego online play just yet. > FWIW my connection works fine through an ISDN router using NAT. Fine > as both client and server.

Interesting... Please explain. Are you using a private IP address behind the router, or a public one? What is the exact nature of your particular NAT scheme? ...Andrew

Thanks John, I hope they can come out with a patch or workaround soon, GPL online play is too good to go without for very long. Seeyas on the track. --John (Joao) Silva

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>Papy is working on it, but I haven't heard from them in a couple of >weeks. There is no way to join a race through a Linux gateway, but you >*can* host a race, even on VROC. >Baby steps... >I'm getting a little annoyed that it's taking so long to resolve the >issues, but conversly, I'm a programmer myself and understand the >difficulties with patching a glob of code as large as GPL must most >certainly be.

On Thu, 19 Nov 1998 11:41:39 -0500, "Lavigne, Andrew >Please explain. Are you using a private IP address behind the router, or >a public one? What is the exact nature of your particular NAT scheme? Hmmm, not we're getting into areas that I don't understand :-) The router is a Bay Networks RT-328 if that helps you understand the NAT scheme. Basically my home network runs on Win95/Win98 using TCP/IP and "public" IP addresses (192.168....). The router uses my static IP address assigned by my ISP to speak to the outside world, and rewrites the packets as they go in and out, changing my static IP address to my internal one. That's the theory. For GPL I had to default all "incoming" packets (not those originated from my system by a mail, WWW or news call) to the internal IP address of my *** PC which runs GPL, and that works perfectly. Now that will probably not work on a large network with firewall since your network administrator will probably not want to route all incoming packets to your PC. Cheers! John

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>On Thu, 19 Nov 1998 11:41:39 -0500, "Lavigne, Andrew >>Please explain. Are you using a private IP address behind >>the router, or a public one? What is the exact nature of >>your particular NAT scheme? >Hmmm, not we're getting into areas that I don't understand :-) >The router is a Bay Networks RT-328 if that helps you understand the >NAT scheme. >snip... >Now that will probably not work on a >large network with firewall since your network administrator will >probably not want to route all incoming packets to your PC.

We don't have to worry about pesky sys admins, because we are them (or are we they?). Anyway, both Adam and I are running win95 LANS with access to the internet through a linux gateway machine. An alternative is to use a hardware router (like yours), but that's a fairly expensive proposition ($600 to $3000). I'll wait for Papy to come with a software fix. :-) -- ========================================================= John Simmons - Redneck Techno-Biker (Zerex12) http://www.members.home.net/jms1/index.html John Simmons - Barbarian Diecast Collector http://members.home.net/jsimm/diecast_index.html If you want to send me email, go to either of the URL's shown above & click "Send Me Mail" in the contents frame. =========================================================

>We don't have to worry about pesky sys admins, because we are them (or >are we they?). Anyway, both Adam and I are running win95 LANS with >access to the internet through a linux gateway machine. An alternative is >to use a hardware router (like yours), but that's a fairly expensive >proposition ($600 to $3000). Hi John, My ISDN router was free, but normally retails for around $250 or so if you shop around. Still, I have the impression that you need something capable of handling more than ISDN, so it will likely be more expensive for you. Hoopefully a fix will be fothcoming soon... Cheers! John