Port Question

[Björnke von Gierke]

On Samstag, Feb 7, 2004, at 00:38 Europe/Zurich, Scott Rossi wrote:

> ...
> I'm still trying to understand how to address the messages from one
> IP address to another when both players are behind firewalls.
>
> Player 1               Player 2
> Pub 209.123.40.50      Pub 265.321.50.90
> Prv 192.198.0.5        Prv 192.168.0.19
>
> Do I even need to worry about the private addresses?

No, you can't use the internal address for anything.

> Should the game clients simply target the public IP address of the 
> opposing player?

Yes, you need to forward the port you are using in the firewall/router. 
Unfortunately this is often not possible (eg. university or large 
company).

> Do I need to instruct players that their routers should direct all 
> port 80 messages to their "game" system or will the router 
> automatically broadcast port 80 messages to all machines on the local 
> network?

I do not think that automatic broadcast is an existing feature.

You could of course make a public server to which both your clients 
then open up a connection, thus circumventing the firewall/router 
problem.