Wireless Gaming (LAN)

So, let's say I have a game like Command & Conquer: Generals, and I want to play, from my notebook, against someone who's on my desktop upstairs. Do I have to have the game installed on both computers, or could I install it to a shared folder on the network? And more importantly, if I only have one copy of the game, and it came with the CD Key and whatnot, will it not let me play against myself? Allow me to rephrase; can I play against another copy of my own game on my own home network?

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I don't know about that game specifically, but every online game I've played recently requires you to have the disk in the drive of your computer. There are hacks that will let you get around this, but I can't encourage you to break the law.

Brian

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easiest way to do this is just go buy the game, it can't cost that much.

playing on an LAN is easiest of both computers are connected to a wireless router....if not, you have to connect directly to the computer upstairs via hardwire or somehow connect to it wirelessly,

sounds like you have a wireless router tho, just buy a new game and search for the LAN

 

Well, I already own the game. And obviously buying the game only gets you one CD. So, now I have this one CD, and I want to play the game against my desktop. So I have to buy ANOTHER copy of the game? And doesn't copyright law allow me to make a copy of the CD, so that I can use THAT one on my other computer, as long as it's in my house and is only for my personal use, like a backup disk? Anyway, I'm going to try and figure this out, but my desktop doesn't have a wireless card, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to wire it to my network, considering that my router is in my room with my laptop...this should be fun! [ ]

Dell I6000
15.4" WXGA
Pentium M 715 1.5 GHz
1 Gig DDR2 SDRAM
60 Gig HD / 9 Cell Battery
Win XP Home
__
Ahh, doughnuts; is there anything they can't do?
--Homer Simpson

 

go to www.megagames.com and download the no-cd crack for your game install the game on both systems and put the crack on the systemt that will not have the disk in the drive. Make sure all anticheat software is not enabled and you'll have no problems playing on a lan in your home.

the NoCD cracks are not illegal, downloading and Sharing the full game with others is.

 

If that doesnt work, sometimes you can boot up the game with the CD in one drive once the game is loaded take it out and put it into the other computer to boot it up again. However this doenst work with most games, since the game does another CD check when it loads the multiplayer map. I know from experience in Empire Earth II u need to by another CD since it does do CD checks while loading the multiplayer map.

 

I would say that you could play each other provided that the game has been installed on both machines. All of the games that I have allow for the same CD key to be used for LAN play, on up to 5 or so machines. You wont be able to use the same key on more than one machine to play online.

I can pretty much guarantee you that you will not be able to copy the disc either, its more than likely copy protected.

I doubt that you could share the folder and play it on both machines from it.

On the point that was mentioned about breaking the law with cd hacks, i dont have any issues with using cd hacks provided you own a legitimate copy of the game. I consider it to be very similar to the laws governing the copying of music cds, provided u own the original, you can copy/rip the cd for your own personal uses.

About making the connection, I guess it would help if I knew if your laptop and router have wireless technology. For now I am assuming that they do. So simply connect your desktop to the router with a standard RJ-45 network cable, and that all the connecting that needs to be done. Make sure both machines are on the same domain (right click My Computer -> Computer Name and set the domain name). Thats it! The other machine should show up in My Network Places.

Another option is to connect the two machine directlys, bypassing the hub/router, using a cross over cable, but this requires both machines to be relatively close, depending on the length of cable used. This may seem like a hassle but it is an ultra fast connection. For this it is also necessary for both machines to be on the same domain.

Hope this helps.

 

some of the old school games like starcraft actually allow you to install a game that can only be used to connect to a host and play. This allowed you to have one registered full install with a few spawns that can be used for playing lan games. granted this was still during the peek of dial-up so now that we have a lot more bandwidth that may not be an included feature anymore in games.

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I think it's safe to say with any game made within the last 3 years, at least, your going to have to buy a second disc, or illegally download a CD crack somewhere.

 

Well, at the moment, I'm currently embroiled in a campaign for world domination with Rise Of Nations, so I don't need to worry about Generals for A While. But, I see no problem copying the disks (it's not like copy protection is hard to get around...) and I don't really think it would be a problem to use it on my home network and not redistribute or anything. Either way, I'll try it out, and get back to you.

Dell I6000
15.4" WXGA
Pentium M 715 1.5 GHz
1 Gig DDR2 SDRAM
60 Gig HD / 9 Cell Battery
Win XP Home
__
Ahh, doughnuts; is there anything they can't do?
--Homer Simpson