IHHD - Internet Head-to-Head Protocol FAQ ========================================= IHHD does not require SLIP to do it. This is a very impressive way to avoid long distance charge if you wanted to play multiplayer game with your friend who is miles away from you. What you and your firend need is an Internet account that is running UNIX as the main OS. IHHD servers like a link between two locations: from your modem line to your Internet acccount, data then route to your friend's Internet account (IHHD requires on both ends) to your's friends modem line. An FAQ is posted seperately on this group too. Here I attach the offical HOWTO document about IHHD, enjoy: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BIG HANK'S GUIDE TO AIRWARRIOR THROUGH THE INTERNET Practical Instructions for Total Dweebs by Henry "Big Hank" Liang liangh@eniac.seas.upenn.edu INTRODUCTION Okay. You've got SVGA AirWarrior, and chances are you've done a little bit of flying on GEnie. Whether you're a seasoned GEnie veteran or a total dweeb, however, it's likely that you don't really have any cool things to do with AirWarrior when you're *not* plugged into the host. You've had your fill shooting down drones, bombing targets, and all that other offline stuff ... if only you could fly AirWarrior against another calculating human pilot without spending the big bucks demanded on GEnie. 'Course, it'd be even better if you didn't have to call into the next time zone to find a Head to Head opponent. Enter IHHD -- the Internet Head to Head Daemon designed by Jim Knutson (aka "Red Beard" #5111). With this brilliant little piece of code, multiplayer gaming has soared to new heights -- but no other game besides AirWarrior has gained such a large following of Internet-connected players. With IHHD, you'll be able to fly Head to Head (H2H) against other human opponents all over the world, with the only cost to you being the regular prices you pay to connect to or use your Internet host. HOW TO GET IT First of all, your host needs to be running UNIX as its operating system. Sorry, VAX VMS users, you're screwed. If you aren't sure what your host is running for its operating system, check the information given at the login prompt or send mail to your host's computer guru. Other than that, you should be able to run IHHD with ease. Your first order of business is to get the IHHD software. It is available via anonymous ftp at cactus.org in the pub/IHHD directory. To get it, 1. FTP to cactus.org (Type "ftp cactus.org" at the UNIX prompt.) 2. At the login prompt, enter "ftp" 3. At the password prompt, enter your e-mail address 4. At the command prompt, type "cd pub/IHHD/src" 5. Type "binary" 6. Type "get dialer1.6.4.shar" 7. Type "quit" Okay, if you followed the above steps, you should now have the dialer1.6.4.shar file in your home directory. Type "ls" at your host's command prompt to verify its existence. If you don't see it, try the above steps again or call for help. Next, if you've successfully retrieved the dialer1.6.4.shar file from cactus.org, you need to prepare the IHHD to run on your computer. For UNIX veterans, the dialer1.6.4.shar file is in fact a shar file, and contains a makefile for easy compiling on your system. For the rest of us, follow these steps to get the IHHD up and running: 1. Create a directory to put the IHHD software in. Type "mkdir IHHD" at the command prompt. 2. Move the IHHD file to the new directory. Type "mv dialer1.6.4.shar ~/IHHD" 3. Go to the IHHD directory. Type "cd IHHD" 4. Unpack the IHHD files. Type "sh dialer1.6.4.shar" 5. Compile the IHHD software to run on your system. Type "make" 6. You should now see a whole mess of files in the IHHD directory. The important filenames you're looking for should be: dialer tcpdialer tcpanswer call showlog 7. If you've got these, you're cool. Otherwise, try the above steps again, re-retrieve the dialer1.6.4.shar file from cactus.org using the instructions above, or call for help. If everything checks out, you're ready to rumble! PLAYING AIRWARRIOR THROUGH IHHD You'll want to test out IHHD to see if it really works, of course. To do that, the best way is to simply try to play a regular H2H game of AirWarrior with someone else running the IHHD software. The best way to arrange a match is through e-mail and "talk" on the Internet. Here's how you get connected using IHHD: 1. Set up a time to play with another Internet AW player. Ideally, you should use e-mail to make the prior arrangements, and then agree to meet in "talk" or "ntalk" at a designated time. Make sure you and your opponent use the same lin settings for your modems. Your data bits, parity, and stop bits should be the same or you'll experience heavy warping, line noise, and other yucky stuff. Generally, most AW players use 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, and no parity (8N1) for H2H fights. Make sure data compression on your modem is off, if you have such a feature. A good modem string to use is ATZS46=0. 2. When it's time to play, start up AirWarrior and go to the "multiplayer" menu option. Call up your Internet host using your modem. Make sure that your baud rate and line settings correspond to your opponent's. 3. Login to your Internet host normally. 4. Contact the other player through "talk" or "ntalk", or send a short e-mail message indicating that you are on the net and ready to play. 5. Once you both establish that you're there and ready to go, exit "talk" and return to your UNIX prompt. 6. Type "cd IHHD" to enter your IHHD directory. Alternately, you can add the IHHD directory to your path. Ask your local UNIX guru if you don't know how to do this. 7. Type "dialer opponent's.host" to start the IHHD connection. For example, if you were playing against knuston@cactus.org, you would type "dialer cactus.org" to initiate the connection. Another way is to type "tcpdialer opponent's.host" while your opponent types "tcpdialer -answer". Or reverse roles, where you type "tcpdialer -answer" while your opponent types "tcpdialer your.host". Don't ask me what the difference is; I don't know. So, to recap, there are two methods of IHHD connection. Method 1: dialer. You each type "dialer other.guy's.host" Method 2: tcpdialer. One of you types "tcpdialer other.guy's.host" while the other types "tcpdialer -answer". 8. Regardless of which method you use to connect, type short text messages followed by a carriage return until you see your opponent acknowledge you. Unless you have "local echo" set to ON in your serial settings, you will not see the text you type. 9. If you don't see you opponent after a resonable amout of time, exit dialer or tcpdialer by pressing "ctrl-c" (i.e. hitting the "ctrl" and "c" key simultaneously) a number of times. Contact your opponent again through "talk" and agree to try the other method of connecting. 10. If you're connection looks fine, your opponent has acknowledged you and you have acknowledged him, verify again that you are both in AirWarrior and, if so, hit the "H2H Link" button on the AirWarrior menu bar. Only one of you will need to hit "H2H Link" to make the connection. A successful link will cause a white text bar to appear at the bottom of your screen. If this doesn't happen and you get an "Invalid link" message, try again. Try the other connection method if you continue to have troubles, or call for help. 11. If you got the white bar and you're able to type messages to your opponent, congratulations! You're now connected via IHHD. You can now proceed to do all the H2H stuff as if you were connected via a regular phone line. SOME THINGS TO BE AWARE OF I. Net Delays and Warping Unfortunately, because of the nature of the Internet, delays and warping may occur with your IHHD connection, depending on the quality of the connection between your and your opponent's host machines. These delays are often sporadic, and depend largely on what's going on on the Internet at that particular times. Then again, you might just be extremely unlucky and have a cruddy Internet connection. To gauge the quality of the connection, try to "ping" your opponent's computer from your host. At the UNIX prompt, type "ping -s opponent's.host". You should get a listing of "ping times", which you may stop at any time by pressing "ctrl-c". The shorter the times, the better. Also, while you're flying via an IHHD connection, try hitting "ESC-q" to see the ratio of acknowledged packets versus rejected packets. Of course, the less rejected packets you get, the better. Another way to judge the quality of your connection is to simply look at the other plane's warping. If he's jumping all over the place, you've got a cruddy connection. If he's relatively steady, you've got a good connection. If all else fails, burn incense and sacrifice a beautiful young virgin princess to the net.gods. No, wait. Better yet, send the virgin to Big Hank (finger liangh@eniac.seas.upenn.edu for an address). :) II. Getting Dumped After Connection Sometimes, regardless of how great your connection, you'll get dumped from AW and get a screenful of garbage and stuff. In this case, don't hang up yet. Go back to the "Multiplayer" menu and hit "Connect" again, selecting "manual dial". This should return control to your terminal. If you don't see the white text bar, try hitting "H2H link" again, also. If you've tried everything a number of times and it still doesn't work, hang up and redial into your host, starting everything from the top. If you have further questions, post to the mailing lists IHHD@cactus.org or 666th-etal@cactus.org. -- Northeastern University Vivo Software Undergraduate Candidate Member of Technical Staff College of Computer Science Quality Assurance Team, Engineering acsm@ccs.neu.edu chow@vivo.com World Wide Web: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/acsm