rittersporn2
Mostly Harmless
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Posted - 2007.10.24 23:55:00 -
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My 42 cent on ports and proxies and why I don't think the new ports will change a lot:
Often people are behind firewalls. Most firewalls are working very strict by blocking all unknown traffic so most likely if you are blocked on port 26000 (which is a defacto port for online games since Quake1 started to use it in 1996) you are most likely also blocked on other ports.
Whenever Firewalls are around it is often required to use a proxy - either by manually entering one into your software, eg browser, or a transparent proxy which basically catches your normal communication and relays it through a proxy.
The Problem about a proxy: it is applicationspecific. So a proxy may relay http/web, ftp, irc and so on, but only protocols which it is aware of. Thats because a proxy actually interacts with the client, server and application and is not just handing data through. So most likely a proxy will NOT support unknown stuff like Quake, Urban Terror, EVE, your favorite P2P software and so on.
As a proxy is rarely under control of the users behind it we simple endusers can't change what a proxy is aware of. Simple, over and out.
Two solutions:
1. Using a Proxy compliant way of communication.
CCP could develop a more robust and traditional alternative protocol for proxy users. One could pack the EVE-communication inside HTTP-valid data, which has become the lingua franca of the net anyway. If carefully crafted this works very well. But it produces some additional overhead, traffic, lag and CCPs router/servers might need more power. All in all I think it isn't flawless but should be doable and without major drawbacks.
2. Using tunneling through SSH
SSH is the standard protocol for remote control and rarely blocked. If you happen to have access to a computer in the internet running ssh (be it windows or unix) you might tunnel a port by using ssh and Putty:
ssh -g -L26000:87.237.38.200:26000 yourinternetserver.com
Or you use Putty which supports tunneling under Connection=>SSH=>Tunnels.
Now the problem: CCP doesn't allow us to supply our own server address. Usually I would connect to something like localhost:26000 or gateway:26000 but I can't enter it at the logon screen. So one has to define an alias address for the physical data of CCPs server with something like (linux) ifconfig eth0:0 87.237.38.200 on the gateway. Not very nice to be honest. Don't ask me how to do it with windows but I think W2K and WXP can do aliasing too.
All in All I would hope for a closer contact between CCP and network-aware users to make tunneling and proxying a lot more workable.
Ritters****2 (name censored to protect minors like you)
Graduate of Darth Vader School of Personal Management
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