How to make your LAN game accessible to the outside [i hope]
First, I'd like to say that I'm not really sure what I'm talking about, and that I'm not sure how setup-specific this thing is, or if any other router than what I have supports it.
Second, I'd like to say that to make your LAN game accessible to the internet, read your router manual. But, if you have no flipping clue what all that technical mumbo jumbo is, here's the sort of thing that you're looking for:
(Start: The sort of thing you're looking for: )
My router has a "Demilitarized zone" so I can specify a network IP that I want to be exposed to the internet. So I enter 192.168.1.103 in the little DMZ box and now 192.168.1.103 is accessible via my router's external/"regular" ip 65.32.53.96. Note that when you reboot, your network IP may change. To see which IP you have on the network, hit start -> run -> winipcfg, and hit the drop down box until you get something with a lot of numbers in it (you're looking at the IP address field, something that's 192.*) -- I know this works on win 98, anyway.
To clarify: All 192.* IPs are network IPs that aren't "on" the internet. However, the router that all your computers plug in to, IS on the internet. So if you read your router manual, you might find something like "expose a network IP to the internet".
(End: The sort of thing you're looking for.)
You can check out your external IP if your router has a status page on it or something, where it displays all of its current settings and stuff. (I can access my router by surfing to 192.168.1.1 and entering the name and pass that's set up for it.)
Lemme know if this was helpful. BTW, if you have a linksys router, surf to 192.168.1.1 and enter "admin" for the name and password, until you change it.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This, of course, nullifies any protection your router may have provided, as you will not be isolated with one way into your network any more. Try agnitum firewall (I think) if you start to feel uncomfortable. I'm not going to tell you how to use THAT, though. Too long.
http://www.agnitum.com/download/outpostfree.html
Final note: Your IP in the worldserver list still shows up as a network game. Is there a way to use HTTP or whatever to get the correct IP, Pat? Instead of having the client send out the local IP address, have something outside of the network hit it and see what its IP is. A temp fix would be to allow us to change the hostnames though