Server hosting.

[xSHANEx]

Hey everyone, what I am trying to do is host the game for others to play. How would I go about this? I read a few posts and they all said to change the <host? in the config.xml file to your IP and I plan to use google servers to actually do this. So once I am looking into the .xml file and there is not <host> tags to put the IP into. Should I make one? I do see <serverport> but there is no <host>

[jcsnider]

There are multiple parts. Consider this analogy.. it's not perfect but may help with the understanding:

 

Your computer is like a post office. The post office exists somewhere in the world (example: 543 Main Street). Inside the post office there are dozens of mailboxes where mail can be delivered (such as PO Box #4000).  If you wanted to mail a letter to that mailbox then that letter would need the address of the post office (543 Mail Street) and the number of the mailbox (4000) on that letter.

 

So let me translate this back into computer terms. Your computer that runs the server is like the post office. It has an address (your ip address such as 24.36.20.2). The server application is like the mailbox inside the post office. It has a port number like the mailbox would have a number. That is 4500 by default?

 

The server config doesn't need an ip address... it doesn't care where in the world it exists.. it only needs to know what mailbox it is. Assume 4500.

 

The client and editor, however, are like the letters you are trying to send. They need to know the address of your computer and the port of the server application. So if you open your client and editor config.xml then you will find the host and port tags that need to lead to your server.

 

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Now even if you got all of that correct there can still be problems. Most modems and routers act as firewalls. Every install of windows and linux also has an internal firewall. Each of these firewalls are configured to block applications like the client and editor from reaching your server because firewalls assume everything connecting to your computer/network is malicious. If it doesn't work you will have to research your equipment for port forwarding instructions. You will also have to google how to open ports in windows firewall.  In some cases this is easy.. in other cases this can be the most challenging thing in the world. If you succeed in getting all of this done you will have much better performance than using something like Hamachi.

 

Goodluck!