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I'd like to play freeciv on my local area network over a wireless router. I can get the freeciv server up and running, and the client will connect to the server if I run it off of the same computer. However, it doesn't work for another computer connected to the same router. Other computers on the network can see the server, but clicking the Connect button results in the message

Failed looking up host.

I've allowed port 5556 in UFW, but haven't tried any other network configuration since I don't know much about networking. If anyone can help get things up and running, I'd appreciate it.

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  • Can you nmap -A -T4 the server from the client and ping it?
    – whiskers75
    Jul 28, 2012 at 12:44
  • Ping works fine; I got the following result from nmap once I installed it: sean@sean-desktop:~$ nmap -A -T4 192.168.0.103 Starting Nmap 5.21 ( nmap.org ) at 2012-07-28 13:50 PDT Nmap scan report for 192.168.0.103 Host is up (0.020s latency). All 1000 scanned ports on 192.168.0.103 are closed Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at nmap.org/submit . Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 1.69 seconds The game uses port 5556, which I've allowed with ufw.
    – Sean Fitzpatrick
    Jul 28, 2012 at 20:51
  • So the port does not seem to be open to your connector - does disabling ufw help?
    – whiskers75
    Jul 28, 2012 at 20:53
  • Disabling ufw didn't help as far as the game goes - I still can't get the game to connect to a freeciv server running on another machine. I also tried switching my network setting from DHCP to manual, but that didn't seem to help either. It's possible the problem is with the game and not with the network.
    – Sean Fitzpatrick
    Jul 28, 2012 at 21:06
  • Yes - you can try installing apache and serving a test web page to the client.
    – whiskers75
    Jul 28, 2012 at 21:06

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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So you want to set up a LAN game server?

Server setup
Install the game as per the instruction provided by the game authors.
Be sure to adjust any config files as needed to specify the port you want to run the game on.
If using UFW on the server you need to have an allow rule. Example:

anthony@minecraft:~$ sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to any port 25565
Rule added
anthony@minecraft:~$ sudo ufw status
Status: active

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
25565                      ALLOW       192.168.1.0/24

The 192.168.1.0/24 there means that any lan ip in the 192.168.1.x range is allowed to connect.
Be sure to use the port the game server is listening on.

Router/Firewall setup
The router you use will also have to allow the traffic from the lan to go to the game server. The steps required for this vary between router makes and models. The term for this is Port Forwarding. This site has step-by-step guides for an extensive list of routers and games. Although freeciv isn't listed there, the steps to forward your port for the router you have will most likely be. Take caution to not open your server up to the whole world unless you know what you are doing.

Good luck on your journey!

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  • Thanks! The game is no longer really on my radar but if I ever get around to trying it again I'll give this a try.
    – Sean Fitzpatrick
    Oct 29, 2012 at 2:19

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