Wayfarers of Veeshan

Okay, I have another computer problem! I just purchased a router and am trying to network my laptop with my desktop. I am unable to get either computer to see each other. It is not causing major gameplay problems as they both can connect to the web at the same time. I would like to run the program that Zbik mentioned in the guild file area and I can't map a network drive for the program off of my laptop so that my desktop (the one running maptracker) can run the program. If there is anyone that can help, please let me know!



(NOTE BY FERRER: I changed the name of the subject from HELP!! to ROUTER AND EQ HELP!! on 9/23/02)

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Berrin Bananabread, Warrior of 41 Seasons
Jozona Mordoni, Paladin of 55 Seasons
Ceerril Shortyguts, Druid of 27 Seasons

Okies, for those of you who have routers or are planning on purchasing one, here is something to remember when setting up your home network:

1) A router (or most of them anyway) will only allow one PC to be a DMZ (basically directly connected to the internet).

2) You must know how to access your routers set-up menu to designate your primary PC as the DMZ. If you don't, you will get booted to the server screen from time to time (happened to me alot after getting router and just recently got it resolved).

3) Remember that you do not need a second IP address from your ISP, the router will assign one automatically. If you buy a hub, you will need the second IP address for the additional computer.

Just wanted to pass this information along to others who might experience the same problems I did!

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Berrin Bananabread, Warrior of 41 Seasons
Jozona Mordoni, Paladin of 55 Seasons
Ceerril Shortyguts, Druid of 27 Seasons

I use a Linksys router and here's how I've got it setup:
The router acts as my main connection and gets assigned the IP from my provider. The router also acts as my firewall and uses NAT and DHCP to assign my internal IPs.

So, one dynamic IP from my ISP can be up to 255 internal systems on my network. :D

For the non techies what Tan said was:

His router gets its IP address from the ISP. It then assigns a fake IP address to his main pc and any other pc he has on his network and it routes the internet connection from the ISP to all of the computers on the network.

Berrin: You don’t need a second IP address from your ISP if your router has DHCP (gives your computers fake IP address). But yes only one Computer can use DMZ.

OK a how to for every one else:

If a computer is set to DMZ what happens is that the router does not act like a firewall (guard your computer from hackers). Routers act like a firewall and block ports. So DMZ allows computers to receive data on all ports (where your computer gets data from other computers). Everquest sends data to lots of different ports. It starts on one port then change to another then change to another and another. Your router sees all of this port changing and says "hmmm that looks like a hacker" so it blocks those ports and EQ crashes.

Ok how to setup a network if you need more then one computer to have full access to the internet (only if you need 2 or more pcs to connect to EQ at the same time. If you only need one pc to connect to EQ then just get one Cable/DSL router and set up your EQ computer to work as DMZ so EQ will work and use the router for all other computers).

By a Cable/DSL router (Linksys has a real good one. Get one that has a built in switch or hub) and also get a small 4-5 port hub or switch in addition to the router. Plug in your internet connection from your Cable/DSL modem into the hub. Plug your Router into another port on the hub. Now plug in your primary PC to the Router and your secondary pc into the hub. Set your router to use DMZ for your primary pc (Note: You will not have any firewall protection if you set up your pc for DMZ but all the other computers connected to router will). Now download a Software firewall. Norton makes a good one. Use that to protect your computer from hackers. Make sure your software firewall is set to allow everquest or EQ will not work. Now for your second pc that needs un blocked access for EQ also install the software firewall for protection. Now this pc will require a second ip address from your ISP. But that is how I have my home network set up and it works great. If you don’t understand part of that I will explain more...

Another way to do it is to forgo the router and just get a small hub/switch and plug your modem and both pcs into it and just use a software firewall. I use the method above because I have more then the 2 computers but want to keep the other computers behind the firewall and my router has a built in Wireless network access point so I can use my laptop any where in the house.