Host my own server

[Neumannen]

hello, I've made a mission for me and my friend, how do I successfully host in on the internet? everytime I try my friend cant see the server no matter what we try.

[Tatsue]

Most likely, your router or firewall is blocking outside access to port 10308. In this case, ensure your firewall or router knows to forward port 10308 to your computer in both TCP and UDP protocols.

[Neumannen]

and how do a layman like me do that in the easiest way?

[Tatsue]

That depends a lot on how your system is set up.

Are you behind a router? If so, is your computer on a static local IP? If so, just forward ports 10308 to that IP in your router configuration page.

If the problem is firewall - be that a physical firewall or a software firewall running on your computer (like an antivirus programme) simply select to allow the port in your specific AV software's configuration.

[Tatsue]

A few more things:

In the "new server" dialog, ensure you have selected "Public Server".
Also, note the "Interface" number - that is your IP adress. If the IP is external (generally speaking: does NOT start with 192 or 127), you can simply give that number to your friend along with the port number, and your friend will be able to do a direct connection through selecting "Connect by IP".

[kazereal]

By the way, I am behind router/firewall as well (ADSL-modem) but on a short test hosting server it worked "out of the box" without any port forwarding. Server was listed with other servers and connections worked fine.
Biggest catch may be that you need to use correct external IP and port number when connecting but in case of public internet server that is mostly automatic. DCS did find and show the correct external IP automatically in my case anyway (1.2.8 beta) so it was about as simple as it can be to start a server.

Edit:
Note that if you have Windows firewall also in use that complicates things somewhat..

So steps for hosting in short are like this:
- main menu -> multiplayer, login to DCS master
- host "new server"
- check settings, set server name and select mission
* note IP-address and port number
* also check that "public" is selected and if there is password or not
- when mission is selected just select "start" and server should start

For the client (your friend):
- main menu -> multiplayer, login to DCS master
- refresh list a couple of times if it does not show up
- or use connect by IP with your IP-address and port number
* also password if needed
- connecting should work now..

[Chameleon_Silk]

I dunno if its been said yet but make sure you and your friend are both on 1.2.8 open beta or both are not on the beta, common mistake.. happened to me already with a few friends.

@kazareal: I'd get a new firewall or ensure your firewall is working correctly, sounds like your in some kinda DMZ which would circumvent the firewall altogether for any port, which basically means your firewall is off... the reason i say this is because if a packet came at 10308 and i didn't specifically want 10308 to allow packets through and it did, then what good is the firewall doing.

[kazereal]

Chameleon_Silk a écrit :

@kazareal: I'd get a new firewall or ensure your firewall is working correctly, sounds like your in some kinda DMZ which would circumvent the firewall altogether for any port, which basically means your firewall is off... the reason i say this is because if a packet came at 10308 and i didn't specifically want 10308 to allow packets through and it did, then what good is the firewall doing.

True, although there a couple of cases where this would not be a problem in firewall:

1) UPnP should open port forwards transparently, some multiplayer-games support this IMO, don't know about DCS

2) DCS makes connection to master-server anyway in each case, if it happens to work as router to pass all network traffic back to hosted server with that same connection then there is no need to open other ports. I don't know if it does this way but that's a possibility and would be actually smart when amount of connections is not huge (not in the scale of MMO servers). If the traffic is low enough there is no need for more complicated peer-to-peer networking in multiplayer but it does put more stress on the central servers..

I haven't run any penetration testing or similar on the firewall so it may be whatever but problem is that it is provided by the ISP so I would have to check their policy of using different hardware etc.

Edit:
Other firewalls might not be any better, there have been plenty of intentional backdoor discoveries on those lately, something they have included in the factory in the router firmware..
Aside from very old malware (which proper updating should prevent anyway) those don't give any more protection in any case..

Edit2:
So I checked firewall.. It does need portforwards in some cases but interestingly enough there is UPNP portmap for both TCP and UDP into 10308 (used by DCS). So DCS does support automatic portforward configuration via UPNP?

[Chameleon_Silk]

its hard to say about UPNP, i have mixed experience with it sometimes working and others not and seems to vary depending on the router and no so much the protocol (if its even considered that) I guess come right down to it UPNP should be off if you want super tight security, i should have mentioned it when i originally posted as its a valid point.

[kazereal]

Chameleon_Silk a écrit :

its hard to say about UPNP, i have mixed experience with it sometimes working and others not and seems to vary depending on the router and no so much the protocol (if its even considered that) I guess come right down to it UPNP should be off if you want super tight security, i should have mentioned it when i originally posted as its a valid point.

Yeah, there at least have been huge amounts of problems getting them working together. Especially routers have been bad at implementing it, often leaving it completely broken.

If there's need for super-tight security don't run multiplayer games on the computer ;)
Or better yet, don't connect it to any network..

In my setup all other than games are more securely on separate computer anyway..