Rfactor : Hosting your own server

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Section 1: Hosting a race versus joining a race

To join a race you do not need to change anything to your existing Internet

connection. To host a race you will need to all other drivers to connect to your computer. By hosting the race you can specify the rules, track and allowable cars. In order to have other drivers join your race you will have to open ports in any existing firewall.

Section 2: Port Information

To host games or a dedicator server you will need to open some ports so that other drivers can connect to your game. There are three types of games you can host. You can host a LAN only game, an Internet only game, or a LAN and Internet game. For any game you want to host on a LAN you will need to open up the ports in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 Ports required for successfully hosting LAN races

If want to host the game only over the Internet you only need to open up the ports in Table 2.2.

Table 2.2 Ports required for successfully hosting Internet only races

Section 3: Port Forwarding and Firewall Exceptions

3.1 Section Overview

In general, some type of firewall protects computers on the Internet. If you are not behind any type of firewall you can ignore this section. Also if you never intend on hosting any races you can skip this section.

3.2 Description of a firewall

A firewall is either a piece of software that runs on your computer or a hardware device that sits between your modem and your computer. A router that performs network address translation is considered to be a firewall. Common software firewalls are Zone Alarm, Black ICE, Norton Internet Security, McAfee Firewall and Windows XP Service Pack 2 firewall. LinkSys, Net gear, Dlink, Belkin and Cisco manufacture common hardware firewalls.

Driver Join Sequence

When a driver attempts to join your race, that driver will get the address of your race from either a matchmaker service or by direct IP. Regardless of which way the driver gets this information, the driver will attempt to connect and be confronted by your firewall. If your firewall does not let him in, he cannot join your race. You firewall must be setup so that when the driver attempts to connect to your race it forwards his connection request to computer hosting the race instead of blocking the request. Once your firewall is setup correctly the driver will be able to join your race.

3.4 Allowing access

In order to host a race you will need to configure your software and/or hardware firewall to allow other drivers to connect to your computer. To do this you will need to enable port forwarding or add exceptions to your firewalls rules. It is beyond the scope of this document to give detailed instructions on how to enable port forwarding or exceptions for every possible software and hardware firewall. Section 4 attempts to give instructions for the most popular firewall solutions. Please consult documentation that came with your firewall product.

Once you have discovered how to setup port forward and/or setup firewall exceptions you will need to make sure those changes reflect the ports listing in

Table 2.1 and 2.2.

Section 4. Setting up port forwarding and firewall exceptions

ref = http://files.imagespaceinc.com/1255c/Support/rFactorManual.pdf

Important

For your friend to see your game you have to have "Announce On Matchmaker" enabled in the settings page. This is enabled by doing the hosting test which in-turn enables Announce Allowed and Announce Host in your player file. If you ran the test and it failed, these will be disabled.

You will need to allow rfactor the access it requires (see the firewall Guide documentation in your rfactor/support folder).

After setting up your router/firewall with the required port access, run the hosting test on the settings page. If it fails, follow the instructions below:

Note that the network test cannot detect every possible network setup and thus may report that it cannot determine the status of your connection. In this case, do not use the network test and follow the instructions below:

- Open your multiplayer.ini file located in your rfactor/UserData/<playername> folder with a plain text editor such notepad (not a word processor).

- Find the following lines and set the values as shown below

Announce Allowed="1" // servers should pass the firewall test before being allowed to list on the matchmaker

Announce Host="1" // whether servers will attempt to register with the matchmaking service

- DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RUN THE NETWORK TEST AFTER SETTING THESE VALUES OR YOU WILL RESET THEM.

...Host your game

Also make sure your friends have "Concurrent Server Updates="1000"" (or higher) in their multiplayer.ini file in order to see more servers.