[H-GEN] Broadcast to 255.255.255.255

[ben.carlyle at invensys.com]

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G'day,

I've set my laptop up to be capable of allowing dialup so that some 
friends of mine in the local suburb can have access to network games 
without the hassle of dialing the internet[1]. One particular game we've 
been playing is Worms World Party[2]. This particular game has two TCP/IP 
modes: "wormnet" and LAN. Wormnet is an internet thing, but we've been 
playing using the LAN setting.

Ok, so the crux of the problem is that it works if we use the winXP dialup 
to connect the two respective LANs, but if my friend dials up into my 
linux machine then it doesn't seem to work. I can't see games he creates, 
nor can he see games I create. Opening tcpdump shows that in order to 
query which games have been created the program sends a UDP message to 
255.255.255.255. Now when two winXP machines are connected via dialup they 
seem to treat this as normal behaviour. The remote winXP broadcast gets 
funnelled down the PPP connection without any trouble. If my linux box is 
on the recieving end however it doesn't seem to want to pass this on.

So is a broadcast to 255.255.255.255 a windowsism or have I really set my 
box up incorrectly? I'm using ProxyARP  on the ppp connection to make the 
remove winXP box appear as a machine on my local network. Is it possible 
to setup ipchains to route this sensibly without getting into a loop?

Benjamin.

[1] No snide remarks about broadband, thanks
[2] Some of us oldies probably remember the worms series of games which 
involve graphic violence converted into cute wormy fun for our amusement. 
Weapons include banana bombs, salvation army women, stone donkeys, and 
meteorite bombardments.


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