Two clients behind a firewall

[Alcamtar]

My son and I wanted to log on to a server and play together. We have two computers connected through a router gateway. We can start one client, but when we try to start the second client, the server says a client is already logged on from this address.

Is there any way we can do this? Thanks.

[Berendol]

As much as I would love to say "Welcome! Bring your family and have fun!" ... You two might have to play on a different server. It's nothing personal, nor does it have anything to do with your computers. The mangband.org server does not allow multiple logins from the same IP address... and routers operating in that mode mask all the computers using them such that they appear to be the same machine, using the router's IP address. Unfortunately you can't do anything about it unless you both (a) purchase an additional IP address from your ISP and (b) change the way your router is set up.

It is an option when running a server to allow multiple connections per IP, but due to extensive abuse of the system, that was turned off on the primary server.

Sorry! Try another server?

[Alcamtar]

Thank you, I was wondering if it was something like that.

[udosdottir]

A heartily welcome from me, too.

Berendol wrote

Unfortunately you can't do anything about it unless you both (a) purchase an additional IP address from your ISP and (b) change the way your router is set up.

Good news: this is not entirely true. There is something else you can do: silmultaneous login. Both of you type your name and password, one shouts : Now! Both hit enter - and you're both in.

I always thought of it rather than a feature than a bug - you cannot play like this if you are not really two persons and you can't perform this simultaneous login with only one computer.

Best regards!

[Berendol]

[quote author=udosdottir link=board=newbies;num=1178608565;start=0#3 date=05/09/07 at 03:03:42]Good news: this is not entirely true. There is something else you can do: silmultaneous login. Both of you type your name and password, one shouts : Now! Both hit enter - and you're both in.

I always thought of it rather than a feature than a bug - you cannot play like this if you are not really two persons and you can't perform this simultaneous login with only one computer.[/quote]

Well, that is actually a bug, not a feature. Looks like the server code doesn't check incomplete connections' addresses when accepting new connections, just fully-connected players. That possibility apparently wasn't considered when the restriction was implemented.

Ugh... It's good information but your report basically tells anyone who bothers to read the forums how to get around the restrictions in place... You do realize that violating the rules can get your characters nuked, right?

Instead of exploiting a bug, you would be far better served by petitioning Crimson to allow multiple connections per IP address in the future, or getting someone to work on better NAT support. I hear IRC is a good place to reach him.

[udosdottir]

mhm, i was not aware, i was "exploiting a bug". I noticed, that all of a sudden we could not both connect, though we did (unknowingly) before. Only found out later, why it sometimes seemed to work and sometimes not, and after some thought i figured it is a feature, not a bug (for reasons explained above). If this is a problem, maybe someone who can do this (aren't you administrator of at least some of the forums? So can you do it, Berendol?) remove my post from this forum.
Sorry for causing trouble, i only wanted to help

[Berendol]

Actually, I think I should probably leave the thread open with our conversation intact so coders can fix the issue  You found a good one there!

Don't worry about it too much. Please refrain from doing that, though, since you might get all your characters killed by the DM or an automatic "feature" of the server!

[Fink]

I wouldn't worry about it, udosdottir, unless the DM himself tells you he would prefer you avoided the practice.