Home Network Problem

[Eagle_Eye]

Hi, We have a small group who get together on weekends for some lan gaming. The problem is this, (DFLW or DFTFD) If I serve a game to the network, everyone can get in, if someone else serves, I start to join, but never get into the game. If we play DFBHD demo there are no problems, if we plat MOHAA,. there are no problems. It just seems t be with LW & Dagger. Any one got any ideas, We never had this problem before upgrading to Windows XP. My system is new high spec, should not be an issue, drivers all up to date, including correct network card drivers.

Thanx
Eagle Eye

[Stinger xXx]

You need to install IPX. Go to My Network Places. Then left click on View Network Connections(on left side of screen). Right click on Local Area Connections. Left click on Properties.
In general you will see a install button, left click on it. Highligh Protocol then left click on add. You should see IPX there. I don't remember what it says after that. But you want to install IPX.

[Eagle_Eye]

Thanx Stinger, I've already got it installed, would it help if I unistalled it then reinstalled it?

Thanx again
Eagle Eye

[Steve]

i heard a few things about it and have experienced it also.

1st problem was win98 to win98 would only host one way :/
it would hand on 'loading'. so we just had to have one guy hosting.


recently we got a 4 way lan in my house (24/7 now :P)
XP home - XP home - XP home - XP home

ok we can play but it's not all smooth going. for some weird reason it can take a few minutes for the map to load from the server even on a 100MB LAN! we noticed something:

4 comps:

2GHz AMD
1.7 GHz Pentium Laptop
1.4 GHz AMD (me )
600 MHz P3


host is 2GHz AMD, starts server
everyone joins as soon as it is up
1.7 GHz is in the game after 20 secs later
1.4 Ghz is in the game after 3 or 4 mins later
600 MHz is in the game 5 or 6 mins later

this happens every singe time. i fail to believe that system spec makes that much difference but there is no other explination.

the 600 MHz upgraded to 2.1GHz and then repeatedley joined the game first.

then one day i joined a game mid way through and guess what? got in within a few seconds, extremley fast loading etc. so i quit and tried again and the same thing happened!

i cant explain this but all i know is that at the start if everyone tries to load things go hella slow.


ok i've not helped u out at all here :/
here is my check list for LAN gaming


+ same subnet
+ diff ip
+ file sharing enabled
+ ipx installed
+ same work group - somehting we forgot every time we set up hehehe
+ firewall settings to give full access to ur LAN ip's

u know what ur doing but hey it never hurts to check, i know lol!

it's unlikely that Nova can offer any useful info on this although i have heard positive things about thieir support recentley. if u could find more instances of this same problem, copy the info and send em an email. the more probs the better.


TFD and LW funnily enough are the least problomatic games we have played on LAN. i have the most probs cause i have 2 NICs, i think some games try to use the iNet IP instead of my LAN one. Ghost recon lets u choose ur card which is a great feature. i have failed to get Sturmovik and Battlefield to work, all the other comps can play but not me

[Eagle_Eye]

Thank Stevie, All the PC's we use are new athlon, 1700, or higher, mine is Athlon 2000+.

+ same subnet 255.255.0.0
+ diff ip yes
+ file sharing enabled yes
+ ipx installed yes
+ same work group - HOME
+ firewall settings no firewall

these are my settings, funny thing though, at home, wifes pc a P3 733, has no trouble serving 2 me and vice versa, it's only via the lan at mates house we have trouble. So the only thing is, I have to serve all the games, not a problem, except one of the guys has the same problem as me, he can't get in when I serve, but I can get into his when he serves, so only 3 out of the 4 of us can olay at one time, what a hassle. The only difference is, at home I use crossover cable, at mates we use 5 port hub. we have tried differnt hubs and cables, can't seen to solve the problem.
All said and done, I thik it is a driver problem , if you don't have the exact drivers for your card, your up the creek. Windows xp is a great platform, but xp drivers a bit of a problem. I can always get updates because I have a surecom card, they have good support site., Some cards the guys have got where second hand, they just come up as whatever the chipset is, and windows xp just loads a native driver. What do you think?

Eagle Eye

P.S.
love your maps and website