cable modem Internet sharing woes

[old.[MAD]Lexx]

Guys I have a problem!
Basically I need techy people to give me a few ideas:
At home I've got a Telewest Cable Modem installed, all's working fine, I also have a LAN with 3 pc's on it as well as a server unit running Windows 2000 Advanced Server. The cable modem is connected to the server and it shares the Internet throughout the house using Internet Connection Sharing.
The LAN is a 100MB one with a 100MB hub.
Everything works fine, I get downloads of up to 50k, and pings of around 20-40 in Q2 and CS, and 10-30 in Q3. The problem occurs when trying to have more than 1 person playing at the same time... Q3 and CS are fine - I can seem to have up to at least 5 people on without any noticable ping or packet loss difference. Admitted the ping goes up to like 50 or so, but after just coming off a modem this is still bliss!
Q2 is different, one person can play with a rate of 10,000 or so (8000 if it is capped) and a cl_maxfps of 120 (80 if capped) and have a ping of about 20-30. If a second person joins, using the same settings, both pings shoot straight up to 700 or so! I've experimented and it seems the only way I can get 2 people on is to both have a rate of 6000 and a cl_maxfps of about 40-50. This way the pings sit at about 30. Adding a 3rd person is practically impossible, I have to have all the framerates capped to 20-30 and then we all sit with a ping of about 40. A 4th person can basically not join!
Does anyone else with a cable modem suffer from this or is it some kind of setting problem I'm using? I'm guessing that seeing Q2 came out a fair time ago chances are it may be something to do with the networking code being a lot older than Q3 and CS's.
If Q3 and CS suffered from the same problem I wouldn't be asking this question but seeing they are both fine this makes it somewhat confusing. (Apart from the age thing)
Any help would be appreciated...

 

[*Exor*]

Had the same problem myself with Q2. Unfortunately there's only one thing you can do. Put the rate and FPS down on each machine using Q2. FPS 60 or below, and rate at about 4000 worked for me. 3 or 4 people will be impossible (as you've discovered).

Quake2 just doesn't like connection sharing, it's old code and I'm afraid (as far as I know) you're not going to get round this problem.

 

[old.[MAD]Lexx]

Hmm, thats what I guessed you would but hoped you wouldn't say!
I'm guessing that if they provided more than 1 ip per cable modem it would be a different story...
Fuck it, 2 cable modem's it is then!

 

[Mr B]

You can get slightly better performance by using something like WinProxy instead of Micro$ofts ICS.

http://www.winproxy.com

 

[old.[MAD]Lexx]

Nice, cheers - I'll have a lookie...
Anything that avoids using M$ products is a good thing although... hold on!
/me looks at his start menu
Pretty much everything is M$... Doh!

 

[old.[MOD]Psycho]

works fine for me over my ntl cable modem at home, only tried 4 ppl but that runs fine with pings around 50 ish all over.

Using wingate proxy mind though, won't let me touch half life multiplayer however or poor old starcraft.

 

[old.[MAD]Lexx]

Really?
Ah, cool - I'll have a look at getting that then... it looks like they do a 30 day trial offer - cheers.

 

[old.[MAD]Lexx]

Psycho - how does wingate proxy work? Does it sit as an application on the server and the other pc's just see the internet like they do with normal Internet Connection Sharing? Or do the client machines need software aswell?

 

[old.=DI=Penry]

Originally posted by [MAD]Lexx
snip ...
... a server unit running Windows 2000 Advanced Server.

Think i can see where your problem is !!!

Works fine @ a mates place - using a linux box as a firewall/router/gateway/dhcp etc.

(strangely enough once he put this box in - his pings went down from 30-50 too 20-30 for most games - and Counterstrike reports a ping of 5-10 where it used to be 30+) but thats Linux's kernel based NIC drivers for ya !

 

[old.[MAD]Lexx]

Bah! Does this mean I'm gonna have to put on a pair of sandles and a straw hat, and pick up one of those 20 volume editions of 'Learn Linux in 24 hours' Books?!
I think I'll try some Win proxy software first

 

[stu]

Yup me and Paul had this exact same problem. Interestingly enough there was a definite FPS/Rate "cap" at which point everything went seriously haywire. If we set our FPS to 60 each (iirc) and rate to 400 it was fine, as soon as we went to 61fps ping rocketed to 800+.

But as Q2 is boring as bollocks I dont suppose it really matters.

 

[stu]

Originally posted by [MAD]Lexx
Bah! Does this mean I'm gonna have to put on a pair of sandles and a straw hat, and pick up one of those 20 volume editions of 'Learn Linux in 24 hours' Books?!
I think I'll try some Win proxy software first

You'll get exactly the same problems. We thought the same, disabled ICS and used Winroute - got the same results. It's the Q2 code more than anything.

 

[old.[MAD]Lexx]

Originally posted by Stu-


You'll get exactly the same problems. We thought the same, disabled ICS and used Winroute - got the same results. It's the Q2 code more than anything.

hmm, yeah I guess thats the problem with playing games that have been around for ages - no more point releases... I might give the linux angle a go then.
/me dons the sandles...

 

[old.[MAD]Lexx]

Unfortunatly the server in question seems to be allergic to WinGate, it's havin none of it.

Anyone out there who knows of another Quake 2 friendly proxy

It would be appreciated

 

[Mr B]

See my post above

WinProxy

http://www.winproxy.com

 

[old.[MAD]Lexx]

downloading trial period version now...

Why isn't there something that just works damn it!!!

 

[*Exor*]

Because routing software isn't meant for newbies.

 

[old.[MAD]Lexx]

Originally posted by *Exor*
Because routing software isn't meant for newbies.

lol, I'm far from a newbie - been playing Quake for over 2 years now and finished a Software Engineering degree a year back aswell...
Thing is it is the server that won't accept it - the damn thing crashes when I've tried putting any of that kind of software on it, and the only way to boot the machine up after that is to do it in software mode and uninstall the software... Such an arse.
I'm now in the process of getting a copy of red hat, I'm guessing that might prove better. As well as being an arse to set up.

 

[old.schford]

wingate

IF you dont want to go with a Microsoft Implementaiton of NAT then I reckon best one about is www.wingate.com download the pro version and the add on networky bits.

BEst discussion forums for this are over at

forums.overclockers.co.uk

In the Internet Connection forums

 

[old.lynxus]

cable modem

right ive manged to do it
allu need to do is install 2 network cards in the main internet pc
1 card for thr modem and 1 card for the network

THEN download a software router that will then make all the other pcs think they are connectd direct to the net all pc will then beable to play any agme online with no probs!

BUT ping can be hard to sort out
as with 3 pcs on q2 they will all have a ping of about 170
insted of 20

 

[*Exor*]

Um, with 3 players they have a ping of 170......so what you're saying is, you haven't actually sorted it at all?

What happens when you add 4 people? The ping goes down does it?

 

[old.[MAD]Lexx]

yeah, that was my point all along. I can get it to work with stupid pings, but with other games like CS I'm managing to get like up to at least 5 people with pings under 50 (Not tried any more than that.)
I'm thinking it might just be Quake2 networking code... although saying that I'm in the process of building a linux box atm, I'll tell you what happens when I've got it up running...

 

[old.[MAD]Lexx]

This is an oldie I know, but I've finally figured out a way of getting this to work... ish!
At first I thought the problem was at the server end - i.e. not properly sharing the bandwidth properly or something like that, but after trying win98SE, winNT, win2k, Linux and openBSD as routers and none of them being any better than the other I decided that it can't be the reason.
I then moved on to trying out different client end OS's. Win98, Win98SE and Win2k all had the same problem, making us need to run at a capped 40fps.
But then I came upon WinXP. It turns out this allows us (only 2 of us though) to play with frame rates capped at 90, with rates of 10,000. This gives us pings of 20-30 on Barrys / Jolt servers, which is what we were after, seeing only 2 of us in the house play Q2.

We tried with 3, but that fecked up again...

WinXP is the answer - move over to it people - it r0x0r!