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Multicast in VPN for multiplayer gaming
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Multicast in VPN for multiplayer gaming

pikepike Veteran
edited July 2018 in Help

Hello LETalkers,

I searched arround the net and found OpenVPN based solutions for what I need. However most tutorials assume you are hosting the OpenVPN server from your home network, so the VPN users get direct connection to your home router through it. Other people wrote about using Multicast proxy to pass the UDP packets over to the VPN (I guess in this case the OpenVPN server can also be hosted on a VPS) but I couldn't find a tutorial on this.

Also my home router (AVM 6490 Cable) offers the possibility to host an IPSec VPN server, where clients have to download ShrewSoft VPN Client that creates a TAP interface in Windows (so multicast should work over it in theory but it doesn't).

What I want to achieve is a selfhosted VPN that enables multiplayer games without direct connect option to "find" a server hosted by another client (games like StarCraft). The clients use Windows 7 or Windows 10 and any client should be able to host games.

Opinions?

Comments

  • zkyezzkyez Member

    Openvpn in tap mode?

  • pikepike Veteran

    @zkyez tried that, didnt work.

  • tomletomle Member, LIR

    Have a look at tinc vpn in switch mode. It's a mesh VPN so traffic between the peers will flow directly. Also supports multicast.

    Thanked by 2pike netomx
  • hanbohanbo Member

    My friends and I use openvpn and it workes pretty good. But you might need to lower the metic of the tap network adapter, otherwise games without direct connect sometimes dont find each other.
    These are the configs we use:
    client config: https://pastebin.com/SQ8r4DeL
    server config: https://pastebin.com/G8YTs23k

    Thanked by 1pike
  • pikepike Veteran

    @hanbo thank you so much I will test this out tonight!

    also thanks @tomle I will keep tinc in mind but I want to use a centralized VPN, if possible.

  • you can also add client-to-client in server config. This will allow you to see all other clients instead of just the server. If you have a vps with openvpn let's assume it's 10.8.0.1 u are .2 and ur friends .3 and .7
    You will be able to see them

  • pikepike Veteran

    @blackjack4494 said:
    If you have a vps with openvpn let's assume it's 10.8.0.1 u are .2 and ur friends .3 and
    .7 You will be able to see them

    Sure, bridged OpenVPN should do the job, but I need the game broadcast to reach the other clients. And it does broadcast to 255.255.255.255, so I guess it has something to do with interface metrics.

  • I would recommend SoftEther over OpenVPN any day... look into and you will see why. OpenVPN is severely limited unlike SoftEther.

  • fkjfkj Member

    Not sure how OpenVPN handle this but in the scenario like this Tinc is def the first choice.

  • pikepike Veteran

    @fkj said:
    Not sure how OpenVPN handle this but in the scenario like this Tinc is def the first choice.

    But I want a selfhosted VPN that I can brand and hand out certificates to my users. OpenVPN would be great, however I didn't get it running so far.

    Currently I'm using the buildin IPSec VPN of my router, which works if you change the metrics on all windows clients to prefer the VPN connection for broadcast. However I get 20ms to DE-CIX so everyone connecting to another client in the VPN gets +40ms at least.

    If I finally get this working I'm going to post a little tutorial here since this thread is the first one I find now when googling for "multicast vpn gaming".

  • https://www.zerotier.com/

    I run tons of multicast/broadcast through it

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