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Why Hamachi? What does it do?


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So, I played FPB last night to open the NHL 92 Season 3 Pre-season.

We just did a direct connect no Hamachi. I did not know this was even possible. :money:

It was a small sample but the game play was a good as I have ever had online.

So,

Why do we use Hamachi?

What does it do?

Why not just direct connect?

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Direct connect is great, but you need to open a port in your router and know your IP. It would also mean a static connection. Without getting into the details, that can be a 5 minute set up, or it might sound like impossible mumbo jumbo depending on your tech savvy. Opening a port could also lead your system vulnerable to attacks, so you may want to close it right after playing.

Hamachi just makes it simpler/easier to establish a P2P connection by bypassing all those technical steps. That's its only purpose.

If you want to set yourself up for direct connect, go for it!

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I got most of that.

Direct connect seemed very easy to me. I didn't have to do anything, but I get everybody is set up differently.

Hamachi just seems to be added mumbo jumbo to me.

As you know, I am not tech savvy, No cell phone and basically use a computer for pictures and video games.

Does Hamachi make the connection, better? worst? no difference?

As I said I felt like last night was the best smoothest play ever.

I also know it was a small sample but FPB is way East and I am way West and it was great.

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When I use to play online RBI most of the players used direct connect, and it was very nice and convenient. I was one of the few that used hamachi since I wasn't tech savvy enough to open a port. I believe most of the Tecmo community uses direct connect as well. I'm pretty sure they have some tutorials up on how to open a port for direct connect or port forwarding as they called it.

Edited by jackandjose
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There are threads on these forums on how to open a port, however each router is different.

Mac, you don't need to open firewall completely for Hamachi, just allow Hamachi (and GENS) through.

In brief, opening a port requires you to connect to your router, go into the router settings, and open up a port there. You have to create a static IP, usually the one when you're wired up, and save those settings.

It was easy for you playing FPB, because FPB set it all up already. The difficult part is teaching everyone in the community on how to do it on their individual networks. Probably best to google your router and "open port" and get the instructions.

Personally, I haven't had any noticeable differences with hamachi vs P2P. I don't think it adds any frames/lag.

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Usually it's more involved than just opening your firewall. Were you hosting or Fpb? If he was hosting and has port forwarding set, I don't believe you need it set up on your computer.

Edited by jackandjose
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Opening a port could also lead your system vulnerable to attacks, so you may want to close it right after playing.

Since you're only opening one obscure port, you're probably not vulnerable to anything.

In fact, I'm more worried when I have Hamachi up, because it's putting my computer on the same network as other people's computers, and that is risky, so I always turn it off when not in use.

All I did was open my firewall.

I thought I had to that for Hamachi.

Is that what we are talking about? :grimace:

Do I need to open firewall to use Hamachi? :eyes_droped:

Is it bad that my ports are open? :electric_shock:

If you are saying that all your ports are open... YES THAT IS VERY BAD! :P. That computer probably needs a lot of penicillin at this point.

The idea behind Hamachi is that you don't need to open any ports, it creates a tunnel to other people on the hamachi network.

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Since you're only opening one obscure port, you're probably not vulnerable to anything.

In fact, I'm more worried when I have Hamachi up, because it's putting my computer on the same network as other people's computers, and that is risky, so I always turn it off when not in use.

Let's say I'm a bad guy and I know smozoma has port 27886 open (the GENS port). Can't I exploit that opening?

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Yeah, I played some exis with FPB too and connected to him, and thought "this is so much easier without Hamachi". But I see now it was only easy on my end. On the "server" end it takes some technical know how. (And come to think of it, we had trouble connecting the first game, too.)

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Let's say I'm a bad guy and I know smozoma has port 27886 open (the GENS port). Can't I exploit that opening?

Yeah I'd optimally like everybody to do it here. But I'm not sure everybody here can handle that kinda stuff, I'm mostly unwilling to make a tutorial or anything.

As for being ''dangerous'' AFAIK only Gens used port 27886, so somebody would have to find a way to ''exploit' the Gens program in a way that could harm. I don't know if that's even possible because of how simple Gens is, or if anybody has the patience or malice for that. There's also other ways to make sure that doesn't happen still.

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Let's say I'm a bad guy and I know smozoma has port 27886 open (the GENS port). Can't I exploit that opening?

Yeah I'd optimally like everybody to do it here. But I'm not sure everybody here can handle that kinda stuff, I'm mostly unwilling to make a tutorial or anything.

As for being ''dangerous'' AFAIK only Gens used port 27886, so somebody would have to find a way to ''exploit' the Gens program in a way that could harm. I don't know if that's even possible because of how simple Gens is, or if anybody has the patience or malice for that. There's also other ways to make sure that doesn't happen still.

Yep, to exploit that port, someone would have to inspect how kaillera+gens works and find a flaw that can be exploited. Then they need to somehow know to connect to your machine while you're waiting for a connection from someone else. It's not going to happen.

There's the guide Brutus posted. But some people just can't figure it out or for whatever reason don't have access to change things. Also, if you set up a static IP on your laptop, then you go on vacation, you're going to go crazy trying to figure out why your internet doesn't work at the hotel.

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Over at tecmobowl.org direct connect is the preferred way to play. I never could get the direct connect to work on my end so ended up never hosting or doing hamachi.

I think this is the biggest barrier for getting new users to play. Even though it gets easy after you have done it a few times. But when I tell a new person they need to get an emulator, AIM, direct connect or hamachi they lose interest fast.

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I might join a Tecmo Bowl league soon (I've already joined the Tecmoworld.com forums), and I've played a few games (even with Discord), but I have never hosted. I'm having trouble logging on my cable company account to deal with the router stuff, so I just play non-league games.

Also, for me, online playing by connect to servers for games like QuakeLive or World of Warcraft is like the easiest, Hamachi is like a second, and a direct IP connection is third, really.

And for those who might want to know - if you do play directly through an IP connection, you might want to remember that your IP number is static, and you can reset it to a different number if you'd like for your next time playing by disconnecting your router's power cord for 30 seconds, then connect it back. You could even check through Command Prompt your IP settings and see the number for your IP changed.

Hope this was a refreshing view about online connectivity, fellas.

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I might join a Tecmo Bowl league soon (I've already joined the Tecmoworld.com forums), and I've played a few games (even with Discord), but I have never hosted. I'm having trouble logging on my cable company account to deal with the router stuff, so I just play non-league games.

Also, for me, online playing by connect to servers for games like QuakeLive or World of Warcraft is like the easiest, Hamachi is like a second, and a direct IP connection is third, really.

And for those who might want to know - if you do play directly through an IP connection, you might want to remember that your IP number is static, and you can reset it to a different number if you'd like for your next time playing by disconnecting your router's power cord for 30 seconds, then connect it back. You could even check through Command Prompt your IP settings and see the number for your IP changed.

Hope this was a refreshing view about online connectivity, fellas.

You shouldn't have to log into your cable company's anything to control your router. You should be able to access it directly, usually by going to http://192.168.0.1, http://192.168.1.1 , or http://192.168.2.1 . Then you usually can just google for the default password to that router model. Unless they've come up with some new way to take your control away!

We can actually do server-based connections with Gens+kaillera, but the problem is that it is slower because there are more stops for the data. Unfortunately, the techniques that make QuakeWorld look like the connection is perfect don't work with console emulators.

What you are describing is not a static IP. That is a dynamic IP, decided upon by the router. A static IP is when you configure a setting on your computer that says, my computer MUST be THIS EXACT IP (which causes problems when you take your laptop on vacation and the hotel router says.. "no, you can't be that one.. no internet for you", which is why computers are set up for a dynamic IP by default).

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I do like Kaillera, but yes I see how it can slow down. QuakeLive (or a game like Call of Duty 1, when I've installed a patch, of course) shows a list of servers after entering from the main menu (sorcery!). Right, the IP address I meant was a dynamic IP, thanks for the typo notification.

One issue I have, what do you see when you go to http://192.168.0.1, http://192.168.1.1 , or http://192.168.2.1 (I still go to my cable company's website)?

Thanks!

Edited by GusIslander
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One issue I have, what do you see when you go to http://192.168.0.1, http://192.168.1.1 , or http://192.168.2.1 (I still go to my cable company's website)?

Thanks!

You should see something that asks you to log in. Does it do that (while keeping the address at 192...), or does it actually redirect your web browser to their website?

Only one of those links should work properly.

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