Need help with my routing (I think??) :(

[over_kill]

Hey guys, I figured if anyone could help me out, it'd be someone here. I recently got into running a dedicated server (using SRCDS) on an older (but still up-to-par) PC of mine. I am a college student, so sometimes I bring the server to school, and sometimes it is home (when my Alienware gets back from support this will be at my home, where I almost have double the bandwidth... never buy an Alienware by the way.. my laptop was a $2400 paper weight! I hope they can fix her up).

The story goes: this last break (last week) I had a dedicated server running, accessible to anyone on the internet. Now I am back at school in my apartment, and can not, for the life of me, seem to figure out how to set it up here. I have all the same ports forwarded (I am behind a router at both locations), but I only get the server to show up in the LAN tab with the IP 194.168.1.104 (this is my internal) and not my external IP address. I have tried numerous things, including enabling DMZ, but nothing seems to work :\

I am confident it is not my port forwarding that is limiting my server, I have a feeling it is something to do with the network infrastructure at my apartment complex. If I go to http://www.whatismyip.com/ I get this IP address: 74.43.146.xx, but when I go thru my router settings, it states my IP is this: 10.0.43.xx!! I have tried connecting to my server using both, but with no luck. Anyone have any ideas on what my problem is? Or has anyone run into this before that can shed some light one me? I am so confused >< lol.

Thanks in advance,
-Over_Kill

[realchamp]

Do you use a static IP address?

Do you have a Zyxel modem/router?

[Beaverbeliever]

10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255 is a private IP range, so that should only be your internal. Can you tell us about your ISP? Is it shared with everyone else in the apartment complex?

Also, if you have your own connection, you might try calling your ISP to ask if you have a static IP address, and ask if they can open the ports from their end.

[over_kill]

I am using DHCP from my router, and I believe my coax port from my room to where-ever is static. From what I hear, everyone in this place (it's brand new, just got build last year) has the same external IP address? My ISP is Frontier Communications, and they use DSL. Any thoughts?

and thanks for the responses guys!

[realchamp]

Nobody has the same external IP address. (Impossible).

I also ment, in my first post, do you have a static LAN IP

[Beaverbeliever]

realchamp Wrote:Nobody has the same external IP address. (Impossible).

False. At my house, my ISP rents a single OC3 line of bandwidth from AT&T, and we all share 1 IP address. They pool all of us on a single switch under a router. So yes, it is possible.

It sounds like if you all share the DSL line, that you could all have the same IP address, which would make you unable to host a server.

[realchamp]

It's still not possible.

If I had: 156.64.56.45

Nobody has that. Only me. If I would, I could connect more of my OWN computers to that external IP. You couldn't.

Even if my ISP splitted a previous IP, to some others. That external there would still be mine.

[Beaverbeliever]

When I put in my external IP into my browser, it comes up with a password box for my ISP's router. They told me we all shared the IP 12.87.88.xx.

[over_kill]

Right, we had a problem when we first moved in with google.com prompting us with a captcha every time we went to search for anything. Apparently, because of the amount of traffic generated by my complex, google recognized us as something like a possible botnet? Also, the internet connection used to get EXTREMELY slow around the times that most of us (students) would be accessing the internet. They fixed that by installing a new pipe that could handle/use more bandwidth, but even then, I still get prompted by google with a captcha every once in a while (hell of a lot better than all the time though). Either way, here is how I think I am connected to the internet (pretty positive this is how it works)...

My PC (192.168.1.104, subnet is 255.255.255.0) -> My Router, or Default Gateway1 (192.168.1.1) -> The ethernet port in the wall of my room (10.0.47.142, subnet is 255.255.248.0) -> Secondary Router, or Default Gateway2 (10.0.40.1) -> the External IP (74.43.146.33) which is recognized by http://www.whatismyip.com as my IP address, which if looked up is linked to the complex's ISP, who is Frontier Communications. So that is my "Internet" IP.

This means that all of us who live in this complex, regardless of having a personal router or not, are funneled from our room ports with an IP of 10.0.4x.xxx (which I assume is statically assigned) to the complex's gateway, which is then funneled through the external IP of 74.43.146.33 to the internet.

I just had a friend of mine who lives on the complete other side of the complex visit http://www.whatismyip.com and low-and-behold, it is indeed 74.43.146.33.

I mean I guess from the apartment financial management point of view, this network set up has probably saved them some cash. So given that, I'd have to say it is possible to share the same external IP with multiple people (in this case hundreds of people).

I am thinking if I wanted to set up a server here, I'd have to have the network admin forward certain ports to my room from "Default Gateway2". That way, when the necessary packets come in from the internet on IP 74.43.146.33 to "Default Gateway2" (IP 10.0.40.1), the gateway would then forward those packets to my room IP which then goes to my router at which point would forward them to my server machine.

As you all prolly know, I am not going to be able to convince the net admin to do that hahaha.

SO... as for secondary thoughts, does anyone think/know if it is possible to connect my server so it is seen on the internet thru a VPN?? If not, I plan on just running it from my REAL house, and will just have to remote access into it to modify/run it the way i want without driving there.

Thanks again for the responses guys!

[afterhoursgaming]

Your setup is exactly the same as the previous poster. You all share a switch meaning you and your entire apartment complex are a big private lan. I bet if you were to ping the address from your "router settings 10.0w/e" to your buddies ont he other side of the complex you would get a rather low response time. This is done by alot of complex's specially student/college complex's they share large bandwidth pipes until they reach a switch the switch holds the external IP. All of you are routed through the one switch which reach the world wide web. This is a cheap way of not purchasing a whole lot of IP's it also limits the ability to run servers which the ISP prolly doesn't want you to do. However your not out of luck yet. Your router settings are most likely correct seeing as you can connect via the lan tab. I would try having someone outside your network using the external IP but do this!! when you start the server have the server use your routers external IP ex the -ip 10.0.0... number you mentioned earlier in the command line.

[over_kill]

Good thinking, I'll shoot him a text tomorrow asking him to try it out. You are right, he should be able to connect to my server because he is on the inside network.

In the mean time, anyone think it is possible to have the server be seen by the outside world if I connect via VPN??

[afterhoursgaming]

its possible to have the server be seen on the outside look at the bottom of my last post. When starting the server int he command line you would normally use your internal ip in this case you would use your networks internal ip the 10....w/e that ip is. so for example your command line would look like this: +map de_dust -ip 10.0.0.34 -port 27015 etc.... dont use the 192.168... Use that and you should be able to reach the outside by doing so. You may need to hook the server up directly to your modem or the connection coming in to your apartment.

[over_kill]

I tried that a couple times, but I get an error and the server does not start.

The error reads, "Engine Error: Couldn't allocate dedicated server UDP port"
and the SRCDS program closes.

I am guessing this is because ports 27000-27015 are not open on the outside router.

[realchamp]

What's your startup line?

[over_kill]

my executing line is as follows: -console -game cstrike -tickrate 33 -ip 10.0.47.142 -port 27015 -maxplayers 18 +map de_dust