One such option is Hamachi. Hamachi is a zero-configuration virtual private network tool that allows you to set up a VPN between machines without having to go through the complex setup of the server itself. Instead Hamachi relies on the Logmein Hamachi servers to aid with the Peer to Peer connection. As for the user…all they need to do is install the tool and create their network. Let’s see how this is done.

Installation

I am going to show how this is done on a Ubuntu 10.10 desktop. Hamachi can be downloaded installed on other distributions, but let’s stick with one here for simplicity.

The first step is download the proper file. You will find a .deb file for this tool here. Download that file to your ~/Downloads directory and get ready to install.

In order to install follow these steps:

1. Open up your file manager (most likely Nautilus.)
2. Navigate to the ~/Downloads directory.
3. Locate the hamachi-gui-XXX.aaa.deb (Where XXX is the release number and aaa is the architecture.)
4. Double click on the .deb file.
5. When prompted, enter your sudo password to allow the installation to continue.
6. Let the installation complete.
7. Delete the .deb (optional) and close Nautilus.

Usage

Figure 1

To start the Hamachi GUI click Applications > Internet > hamachi-gui. This will open up the tools main window (see Figure 1). If you already know the VPN you need to join all you have to do is click the “triangle” button at the bottom of the main window. This will open up a new window that allows you to either create or join a VPN network. Let’s create a VPN network.

Click the “triangle” button and, in the resulting window, click the Create Network button. In this new window (see Figure 2) there are only two pieces of information you need to add:

Figure 2

Name: name of your VPN

Password: Password to protect your VPN from unwanted users.

After you enter that information, click the Create button. The network will be instantly created and your machine will be automatically joined.

If you want to join a different network (or one you’ve previously created), you simply click the same triangle button you clicked to create the network, only you click the Join Network button next. When you click that button it will prompt you enter the credentials for the VPN. Upon successful authentication your machine will be a part of that VPN.

You can have as many VPN networks listed on your Hamachi client as you want. You want to pay close attention to which networks you are joined to. If a particular network has a green dot to the left of its name – you are connected to that network. To leave or join a network you simply need to right-click that network and select Change Status.

Most games of today are still offering options to play on a LAN instead of the Internet. Great for LAN parties for instance. Some old games on the other hand can only be played over LAN and not the Internet.

That’s were LAN gaming emulators can be very helpful. But those programs are also very popular with players who download their games from the Internet as LAN gaming is often possible whereas Internet gaming is not (most games require a unique serial number which gets checked on the Internet but not on LAN).

Please do note that it is not legal to download and play games this way.

All three solutions that are reviewed in this guide use virtual private networks to extend the local area network. Users from all over the world can join the same LAN this way.

Hamachi

The free version of Hamachi allows up to 16 clients to be connected to the same network, sufficient for extensive gaming sessions with a bunch of friends.

It is the only program of the three that requires initial communication between the participants before it is possible to connect to the virtual LAN.

LogMeIn Hamachi² is a hosted VPN service that securely connects devices and networks, extending LAN-like network connectivity to mobile users, distributed teams and business applications. You can easily create secure virtual networks on demand, across public and private networks. Hamachi² is managed and maintained from anywhere via the web, securely.

hamachi

Every Hamachi users needs an account. Networks are created in the Hamachi client and the other participants need to know the name of the network (and password) to be able to connect to it. This is a one-time process as all previously used networks are recorded in the software for easier access in successive sessions.

Hamachi can be difficulty to setup, depending on the order of network adapters in the operating system. Basic PC troubleshooting skills may be needed to run it properly.

Hamachi is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems only. A Linux beta version is available on the developer’s website, it is currently only available as a command line tool. It is immediately obvious that

All clients in the selected network channel who have launched the game are able to create and join LAN games. Hamachi uses 256-bit AES encryption to secure the communication between clients.

tunngle

Verdict: Hamachi offers lots of configuration options that the other programs do not offer. It offers better privacy thanks to the fact that only clients who know the network name and password will be able to join it. The downsides are that it may require some troubleshooting before it can be used and that there is no option to play with strangers.

Tunngle

Tunngle uses a similar system to offer a virtual LAN to clients. Users need to create a Tunngle account before they can connect to the software and the virtual networks.

Tunngle is a different breed of program. Every user connects to the same server that offers access to channels and community features via the network explorer menu.

Channels are divided into gaming categories and chat lobbies. Gamers who want to play a round of Warcraft 3 would for instance need to click on Strategy, then Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne to join the virtual LAN and chatroom for that game.

Every client who joined the channel is available for gaming, the maximum number of clients is 255 for every channel.

The basic game setup works like this. The client launches Tunngle, switches to the channel of the game, and starts the game afterwards.

All people in the same game room will be available for LAN play. The main advantage of Tunngle, and Garena for that matter, over Hamachi is the fact that they provide access to a gaming community on top of the virtual LAN gaming capabilities. This makes it possible to play games even if friends are not available at that time.

Tunngle uses 256-bit AES encryption just like Hamachi does to secure the computer connections.

Tunngle is currently labeled beta. The developers have announced plans to offer a free basic version and a premium version with advanced features after the beta phase.

Garena

Garena is similar to Tunngle in many regards. It was available before Tunngle and offers additional community features and a bigger community at this point.

garena

The underlying technique is the same. Players create an account and use the Garena software to connect to the virtual network.

Game rooms are available that need to be joined to play with the other people over LAN.

The community features are extensive, Garena features avatars, message logs, tournaments, blocking users, friends, replays, ladders and more.

The available game list is considerable smaller than that of Tunngle, the gaming channels on the other hand are filled with players, which is not always the case on Tunngle.

Garena is only available for Microsoft Windows operating system.

Verdict

Hamachi is excellent for users who only want to play with their friends. Tunngle offers the largest assortment of games while Garena the largest player count.

Have you been using any of the applications reviewed in this article? Share your experience with us in the comments.

I did write about some of them here at ghacks already but I guess only the die hard ghacks readers will know about this. I would like to start with a tool that I have been using for some time now. It is called Hamachi and the main benefit is that it is able to simulate a lan over internet. This is great if a game only offers lan play for instance. I do not suggest you use it for the following purpose but it is possible. Many games require serial numbers and those numbers are checked when you connect to a game server on the internet. They are not checked if you create a lan game.

System Tools:

Please insert the CD into the drive and restart the application. I hate this message. Forcing legit users to have the CD / DVD in drive to execute the program is something I never understood. Pirates crack those protections in seconds and legit users have the problems with methods that are supposed to make it harder for pirates. Something is wrong here. I do like Daemon Tools which emulates CDs on your hard drive. Create an image of the CD, mount it in Daemon Tools and you may use the software without the Cd.

That shitty movie is not playing. I don’t see a picture, I hear no sound. Have you ever witnessed something like that ? This could be due to a missing codec on your system. Gspot analyzed a movie file and displays the codecs it is using. Did I say that I hate the fact that there are billions of codecs out there ? Waste of time and energy.

Notepad 2 replaces Notepad which ships with every windows installation. It offers more features than Notepad like syntax highlighting.

Rbtray makes it possible to minimize every window into the system tray instead of the task bar. If you are like me and dislike crowded task bars this tool is for you.

I like my computers as silent as they can be. One method to achieve this is to use a software that is able to control the speed of the fans in your pc. Speedfan is my choice. It displays temperatures for important system components such as processor, motherboard and hard drives and lets you change the fan speed if that is supported on your system.

Vippy the writer friendly cursor changes the cursor into a eye-friendly one. This is great if you have troubles finding the cursor in a text document. Vippy changes the color of the cursor to red for instance.

Internet:

Ghacks is running on a dedicated server and I have to make the connection using a terminal program. I do use Putty for this, it is fast and clean and does exactly the things that I need it to do. I do use WinSCP to connect download backups that I made from the dedicated server. SFTP means secure file transfer.

I have a Skype account to talk to my friends and see who is online at the moment. There is no charge if both users are connected to the Skype network. I do prefer Teamspeak while gaming. Teamspeak has the advantage that more users may chat and talk at the same time while Skype has that limited I think. When I was playing WOW we were using Teamspeak with more than 40 people in one channel. Don’t worry, you can moderate everything.

If you want to view tv on the internet you should take a look at tvu player which offers some interesting channels to choose from. To name a few: ABC, ESPN, Comedy Channel, CBC, Fox and more. All free, with relative good quality. You need a broadband connection for good results.

You need some additional tools if you want to save video streams. Most providers hide the real url to the stream making it impossible to detect it by normal means. Url Snooper comes into play and detects the real address by analyzing all network traffic.

I need a local test installation of ghacks to test new features before I make the upgrade on the running site. XAMPP offers everything I need to have a local Apache installation with PHP and MYSQL support. It is great for learning and testing upgrades.

Security:

You might remember the Sony rootkit incident. They planted a rootkit on some of their CDs and users had a hard time getting rid of it. Rootkit Revealer is one of those tools that helps detecting and removing rootkits.

Other:

I do not buy lots of new CDs but sometimes I buy some used ones on Ebay or Amazon. I don’t have a CD player at all so I have to get the songs from the CD on my computer to be able to play them and transfer them to my Ipod. CDex is the tool I use for that purpose. It is fast, pulls all relevant information from the internet (author, title, songs..) and adds them automatically to the songs.

Lan over the Internet has many uses but it was especially designed for gamers in mind. Now you can play games in lan modus over the internet, no need to carry your computers to your friends anymore. Can’t join a lan party because you have work to do at home some of the time ? No problem, just fire up Hamachi and join the fun in your spare time. Hamachi works great with most games with no configuration whatsoever. Let us take a look at this in detail:

Hamachi adds a new network adapter at installation, if you are using firewalls you might have to adjust your firewall rules. (By default Hamachi uses the port 12975) You have to enter a nickname at first start and recieve a unique IP in the range of 5.x.x.x. Enter the preferences before you start a network, you have to adjust some settings in there. (click on the button configure hamachi and select preferences).

You should setup an master password for security reasons. You have the option to run Hamachi at windows startup which I do not recommend unless you and your friend(s) are always online and want to use the service. You should Block Vulnerable Microsoft Services in the Security tab and probably block new network members by default. (you might want to wait until all your friends are known in the network)

It is time to create your first virtual network, to do so click on Power on (if you have not done so already) and select Create or Join Networks. One person has to create the network while all others join the network. Choose create a network and give it a name and a password. Voila, your vpn is active and you see the name of it in the main window.

Once a friend connects to it you see the ip of that friend and the nickname beneath the channel name. The light should be green which indicates that everything is running fine. Right-Clicking a name allows you to ping his computer or chat with him. I recommend a voice application software like Skype or Teamspeak for troubleshooting purposes, you are probably going to use one of those anyway when playing games. You should be able to ping the other connections (right-click, select ping) which indicates that everything should be fine and ready to go.

You can also do other things with Hamachi, here is a personal selection:

• Run an Internet (LAN) Radio Station with Hamachi
• How to setup and connect a proxy over Hamachi
• User Management and Advanced Shares
• Yellow Status
• Configure Outpost Firewall, Zone Alarm, Sygate and Norton Internet Security 2005

Hamachi Troubleshooting Guide. (Taken from Hamachi forum):

• Ensure that everyone can ping everyone, use peer’s right-click menu for that. If ping times out, you will need to check personal firewall settings and make sure it is not blocking pings and game traffic on Hamachi connection. Guides for configuring some popular firewalls are available in HowTo section.
• Launch game and select LAN mode. Make someone host a game. With majority of games everyone else should see hosted game on the list and be able to join it right away.
• If the above does not work, try connecting to the hosting server by its 5.x.x.x IP
• If again it does not work and you are positive that personal firewall is configured correctly, then the game might not be coping well with the presence of two network connections (physical and Hamachi) or generally unhappy about 5.x.x.x addresses. Example of the game of the first kind is AOE series, of the second kind – CS