IT Professionals

VPN Madness

Posted by on Nov 4, 2008 | 3 Comments

I have to admit, this latest question that ended up on my desk through the grape vine honestly has me completely stumped. I do not know what to think about it? Here is what was asked initially.

My friends and I are using VPN programs to connect a virtual LAN over the Internet. The current one I run is VPN-X server/client. It works for both Mac and Windows.

The problem is we connect, and can see each other, ping each other, and view shared files. The problem I am having is if I or another Mac hosts the game, Warcraft 3, I can’t see the game or vice versa. If an XP hosts the game, all can see it. And we had problems with Vista hosting it, but I think we have nipped that in the butt. So the problem is running Mac OS X and hosting the game, I can’t have another Mac “see” the game. If I am hosting the game, and an XP signs on, they see it. Vista sees it. So I know I have the right ports open; I just think there is something the Mac does not want to do to “see” the game when connected via VPN.

Side note for clarification. If I am on an actual LAN, and host a game, any and all computers can see it. Macs included. Please help if you can. Short of jumping over to the Boot Camp, which does “solve” the problem, but it’s not a solution I prefer as I do not like having to shut down all that I am multitasking just to play one game.

If you do read this and want to answer it, can you respond with an “I will talk about it this day or under this title.” Or simply just responding here is best, unless you want to do it on the cam. Thank you for your time if you can help me. — Troubled VPN User

So here is a basic breakdown:

  • VPN programs being used to connect to a virtual LAN.
  • Each VPN participant can view and ping one another.
  • Mac hosting WoW translates into visibility issues when connecting to the game.

This is where I am going to tap each of you, the Lockergnome collective. While I may not play WoW myself, I can understand how frustrating this situation must be for the person that wrote in above. Hopefully one of you out there, have some ideas you can share in the comments area to get the individual above back on the right track.

  • http://stewartmedia.biz/myblog/ jimboot

    Gaming the system always ends in tears. What a lot of people miss though is some of the really simple things… Like having a look at what’s going on inside webmaster tools for instance. You can learn a lot there.

  • Anonymous

    My site has a bunch of blog comment links (thanks btw) and some other links that are a little more substantial.

    Panda hit me hard, but now all my rankings are back.

    Long story short, pursue a diversified link building strategy that incorporates AND encourages social media engagement eg comments, shares. AND follow the Google quality guidelines.

  • http://frasercain.com Fraser Cain

    Diversification is always great, and there’s increasing evidence that the search engines use all the new social signals as additional ways to help rank content. So by investing your time in social stuff, you’re actually boosting your SEO as well.

    Regarding quality content, I’d argue that if your content doesn’t provide value, it’s not actually high quality. People think they can write eloquently about a topic and do well in the search engines, but as you say, that’s not enough. When a person searches for a term, you want them to be grateful that they stumbled upon your page.

    Keep solving problems on your website, and your SEO will take care of itself.