Creating Quake 3 Servers for specific mates

[alexachucarro]

Hello all

I want to play my best friend on Quake 3 Arena over the internet. We both have broadband, and both have Macs. How can I create a server that my mate can find (among the plethora of servers) and for just us.

Ideally I'd like to create a server with a specific IP and port part so he can choose my as a Specific Server.

Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Canis]

You can start up a network game and have him connect to your computer. Are you behind a router or is your computer the only one connected to your DSL modem?

[alexachucarro]

we're both using routers

I'm using a Linsys and he's using a noname. I have 2pcs and my Mac on this Wireless network. Does that help you?

[Canis]

Ok. You'll need to set the router to pass incoming information on port 27960 to your specific computer. In the router setup, there might be a page that has to do with Gaming or port forwarding of some sort. Look up how to configure this in your router's manual, but esssentially it will be a list of port numbers and the corresponding local-network IP address that the incoming traffic for that port will go to. In this list you need to add the port 27960 and have it point to the IP address that your computer is being given by the router (something like 192.168.0.2, or 192.168.0.3 -- you can look this up in your control panels under the network preference pane). Then, look in the router for the WAN IP address, which is the IP address given to you by your ISP. Give this number to your friend, as he will need it to connect to your computer. Then start up Q3 and create a multiplayer game, select a map and add bots if you want, etc. When you've got the game up and running, have your friend start up Q3 and have him bring down the console with the (~) key. Then have him type "\connect IP ADDRESS" where the IP ADDRESS is the WAN IP address you wrote down earlier.

NOTE the ip addresses can change if your connection gets cut off (depending on the account type you have with your ISP), and your local network ip address can change if the router is reset or your computer gets restarted, so you may have to re-check these numbers if things stop working in the future. There are ways to make some of the numbers static so they dont change, but for the time being lets see if you can get it working.

[Canis]

What I described above is a method where you have the server running locally on your computer. Your friend will only be able to connect to the server if you have Q3 open and are running a multiplayer game on your system. Most servers out there are dedicated Q3 servers that run in the background. You can do this and use one of your windows computers as the server, but it takes installing the server and setting it up, etc. Its also rather pointless if you're just setting up Q3 for a few folks.

You also may need to set up some network parameters, but that depends on whether or not the game runs smoothly when you get both folks connected.

[alexachucarro]

Thanks for this Canis

if someone's on AOL please can they IM me to try this as I'd really appreciate a test.

The only thing though is I don't know which one is the WAN address, I've taken a screen grab but I don't know how to post the picture.

Also when I created the port thing, it was default on TCP but I can change it to UDP, which one do i choose? I;ve photoed that one too.

Thanks again

[alexachucarro]

What was that red arrow pointing to the red document icon mean? In the postings list?