VPN Software

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metallicafan

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - May 2010
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A couple friends and I like to play Age of Empires 3 every once in a while and recently one of my friends had me download some VPN software called Hamachi so we could play over the internet instead of always taking our computers to a central location. Has anyone ever used this software?

I am new to VPN. IS there a better software to use? Are there any security risks that I should be aware of? I need to do some research to find out how these work I guess. Anyone ever used OpenVPN?

Thanks.
 
It's fine, easy, etc. For the purpose of gaming together with peeps..your easiest alternative.
 
i'm not familiar with AOE3, so bear with me ...

if you both are able to hit the internet, then why add the extra traffic overhead and slower speed of going over vpn? does AOE3 only support LAN gaming and not public/online games, or are you using hamachi just as an alternative to doing port forwarding in your router?

btw, more info on hamachi can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamachi

slightly off-topic ... after reading through the not-so P2P nature of hamachi, i don't think i'll be using that app.
 
PTNL said:
slightly off-topic ... after reading through the not-so P2P nature of hamachi, i don't think i'll be using that app.
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Yeah, generally speaking when something claims it can work between two NATed systems it's because it's having both systems contact (for the inital setup at least) a 3rd client outside a NAT'ed enviroment.

Much like Skype
How Skype & Co. get round firewalls
http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/82481
 
metallicafan said:
are you refering to Hamchi or VPN software in general.
Click to expand...

Yes I'm talking about Hamachi...you asked about it in the first post. It's an "easy" VPN solution. Setting up more business grade VPN solutions can be daunting (and expensive) for traditional home users.
 
Has anyone used OpenVPN? Would this be a better solution, even if its not as "easy" as Hamachi for gaming purposes? We do get a fair amount of lag at some points in the game.
 
metallicafan said:
Has anyone used OpenVPN? Would this be a better solution, even if its not as "easy" as Hamachi for gaming purposes? We do get a fair amount of lag at some points in the game.
Click to expand...
openvpn is awsome, but it's not for the novice. It's setup can be...painful sometimes.

I've used it to connect multiple vpn end points, and it works flawlessly ( and with virtually no overhead ). It can do point to point as well, but one of you will need to have access in from your router. Overall though, once you get it setup and working, you won't have to touch it from that point forward.
 
XOR != OR said:
openvpn is awsome, but it's not for the novice. It's setup can be...painful sometimes.

I've used it to connect multiple vpn end points, and it works flawlessly ( and with virtually no overhead ). It can do point to point as well, but one of you will need to have access in from your router. Overall though, once you get it setup and working, you won't have to touch it from that point forward.
Click to expand...

I have a fair amount of networking/security knowledge, I have just never set up any sort of VPN. Never had the need until now. I think that I will try to set up Open VPN, if nothing else it is a good way to learn I guess.

What exactly do you mean by: "... but one of you will need to have access in from your router."?
 
You could just all purchase a valid copy of the game. That way you can create an online account and you all can play over the internet and not worry about VPN
 
metallicafan said:
What exactly do you mean by: "... but one of you will need to have access in from your router."?
Click to expand...

If you aren't using a service that relies on a 3rd party to punch holes in the NAT systems, you need at least one of the firewalls to already have a port forwarding rule setup so that one of the systems appears to be sitting on the public internet.
 
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