Fake Internet Connection

Faking a Connection to the Internet

Hello, again. This time I don't have a hack for you per se, more of a tip. If you run a Hotline server (and I know of at least three that will read this) and you pay for your time online (phone bills, etc.) this trick may just help. Otherwise it's a bit of a waste of time, but who knows - maybe you will find another use for it.

So what are we doing here? Well, we're making the computer think that it is connected to the internet so that we can test our server before going online. How do we do this? It involves tinkering around in TCP/IP (and perhaps chooser)

The first step is to make sure Appletalk is active. This is controlled using the Chooser. If the 'inactive' button is pressed, switch to 'Active'. Okay, Appletalk is now on. Next, you want to configure TCP. Follow the instructions relevant to your configuration:

Open Transport TCP/IP

Press Command-k to edit configurations. Duplicate your current configuration and name it something like 'Fake Connection'. Enter the following values in the new configuration:
•  Connect Via: AppleTalk (MacIP)
•  Configure: Manually
•  IP Address: 10.10.10.10
•  Router address: 10.10.10.1
•  MacIP server zone: <Current AppleTalk Zone>
•  The other settings don't matter

And there you go. To revert to your real internet configuration, press command-k in TCP/IP and choose the one you were using before you made the new one

MacTCP TCP/IP

Select the localtalk button (or EtherTalk or TokenTalk) and click the more button. Next, click the 'manually' radio button. The gateway address is 10.10.10.1 and the IP address is 10.10.10.10 Now restart your computer.

Connecting to your Server

To connect to your server, startup the server like normal and then run the client. Do not use the tracker as you are not connected to the internet. Choose 'Connect' and for the address type "10.10.10.10" (and use whatever pasword you normally use). You will now be connected to your server without being connected to the net. Of course, no-one else can connect so it is only really useful for testing your server.

A word of warning

Although I know for sure that this works for open transport, it may not work with MacTCP (although I can't see why not) so beware.

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