ipxgw doesn't work with DOOM anymore

[DemS98]

Until April, I could play DOOM multiplayer through ipxgw but lately I tested and it doesn't work anymore: DOSBox and real DOS take a lot to connect and, when the match starts, I can't play cause the game, both in DOSBox and DOS, is stuck.
I tested only in DOOM but may apply to other games.
I tested ipxgw on my Ubuntu 20.04 and on a virtual machine with Arch Linux.

[ksalin]

Sorry for late response. First some background info: This project was originally tested working only in one setup, which had one DOS PC running ipx drivers configured to work together with the ipx frame types etc. that are normal with i.e. Windows 98's IPX driver. Then that PC was connected to a modern PC running this ipxgw, with one ethernet interface directly connected to that DOS PC. The Linux distribution was some now 5+ years old 64-bit Ubuntu.

Since then, a github user 'zouppen' has improved the code, and I merged his commits to master today. The changes seem all fine. Perhaps you can now test again if this solves the issue you were having? The changes should improve compatibility among different IPX versions and newer 64-bit OS (as well as Raspberry Pi). The changes also fix a bug where the ipxgw code could become stuck.

[DemS98]

The problem persists. I even tested with Quake and it doesn't work.
Edit: I found a workaround by creating a virtual machine with Ubuntu 18.04 and bridging the virtual ethernet with the real ethernet.

[superfury]

The problem persists. I even tested with Quake and it doesn't work. Edit: I found a workaround by creating a virtual machine with Ubuntu 18.04 and bridging the virtual ethernet with the real ethernet.

Yeah. I did that too with my testcase (on 18.04 as well).
The main issue there is that Virtualbox's NAT doesn't route IPX on the real network. Although it might also not receive IPX packets from host computer apps(like UniPCemu, which broadcasts Ethernet II IPX packets from the host machine, but they don't arrive at ipxgw in Ubuntu unless UniPCemu is running inside Ubuntu as well as far as I can see).

[DemS98]

The problem persists. I even tested with Quake and it doesn't work. Edit: I found a workaround by creating a virtual machine with Ubuntu 18.04 and bridging the virtual ethernet with the real ethernet.

Yeah. I did that too with my testcase (on 18.04 as well).
The main issue there is that Virtualbox's NAT doesn't route IPX on the real network. Although it might also not receive IPX packets from host computer apps(like UniPCemu, which broadcasts Ethernet II IPX packets from the host machine, but they don't arrive at ipxgw in Ubuntu unless UniPCemu is running inside Ubuntu as well as far as I can see).

In the end I switched ipxgw with ipxbox by fragglet, which is a lot more stable and overall a better product.

I posted a solution on Vogons for IPX netplay between real hardware and DOSbox: it works great, like LAN play (with the requirement for clients to have a good connection).

P.S. I recognize you from the same forum 🙂

[superfury]

When testing with my own emulator (see https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=96309) I did find out something interesting with Dosbox clients and Doom95. Doom95 somehow can't seem to communicate with other Doom95 clients, but MS-DOS Doom seems to be able to? So MS-DOS Doom will detect all Windows 95 clients, but the Windows 95 clients can't seem to detect each other for some weird reason? The network interface itself seem to working properly though (running dxdiag's communication test and chatting on the 3 connected Windows 95 clients seems to work as expected, all seeing each other's messages). 1 Windows client with multiple MS-DOS(ipxgw) clients also works properly (tested using Doom for MS-DOS), although it gets kind of laggy for some odd reason.
So perhaps there's an issue of Doom95 talking with other Doom95 clients for some weird reason?