This was something I've noticed and needed to be suggested.
Prior to the implementation of encapsulation through DOSBox IPX servers, players were required to be under the same network via LAN or through tunneling programs like Radmin VPN and ZeroTier.
While it does the job, it makes getting things setup less accessible because of various factors depending on the tunneling program of choice. Radmin VPN currently is the king because it offers unlimited user limits but suffers from compatibility issues outside of Windows. I have a friend or two who refuse to use the program because it lacks a native Linux version. From my understanding it was requested to the makers of Radmin quite often and weather or not it would be implemented is unknown.
Granted there are other solutions like ZeroTier and Hamachi where they have Linux compatibility of some kind but are very limiting (Hamachi having 5 users per network) and some can be a pain to setup sometimes. But even then, there is the issue of security due to users being on the same network (like a LAN) and opens the door for various attacks since all ports are open.
The feature of encapsulation through DOSBox IPX servers (via fraggle's ipxbox), made using the wrapper much more accessible because it is all plug and play with less steps to take instead of taking more steps trying to setup some middle-man solution like a VPN tunneling program.
However it works for most games but not all, some games like POSTAL uses SPX and that reverts back to the idea of using VPNs making the game less accessible for multiplayer gatherings. I assume it was likely due to the way IPX tunneling is implemented in DOSBox itself. So this leaves me with a couple of ideas.
A ) Trick SPX sockets into IPX sockets so games like POSTAL could work. (If that's technically possible at all.)
or
B ) Implement a dedicated relay server meant for ipxwrapper (similar to that of ipxbox) so people could self-host themselves (or on a VPS) and ipxwrapper could connect to said relay server. Negating the need of using tunneling software like Radmin VPN and allowing actual SPX sockets in the process.
This was something I've noticed and needed to be suggested.
Prior to the implementation of encapsulation through DOSBox IPX servers, players were required to be under the same network via LAN or through tunneling programs like Radmin VPN and ZeroTier.
While it does the job, it makes getting things setup less accessible because of various factors depending on the tunneling program of choice. Radmin VPN currently is the king because it offers unlimited user limits but suffers from compatibility issues outside of Windows. I have a friend or two who refuse to use the program because it lacks a native Linux version. From my understanding it was requested to the makers of Radmin quite often and weather or not it would be implemented is unknown.
Granted there are other solutions like ZeroTier and Hamachi where they have Linux compatibility of some kind but are very limiting (Hamachi having 5 users per network) and some can be a pain to setup sometimes. But even then, there is the issue of security due to users being on the same network (like a LAN) and opens the door for various attacks since all ports are open.
The feature of encapsulation through DOSBox IPX servers (via fraggle's ipxbox), made using the wrapper much more accessible because it is all plug and play with less steps to take instead of taking more steps trying to setup some middle-man solution like a VPN tunneling program.
However it works for most games but not all, some games like POSTAL uses SPX and that reverts back to the idea of using VPNs making the game less accessible for multiplayer gatherings. I assume it was likely due to the way IPX tunneling is implemented in DOSBox itself. So this leaves me with a couple of ideas.
A ) Trick SPX sockets into IPX sockets so games like POSTAL could work. (If that's technically possible at all.)
or
B ) Implement a dedicated relay server meant for ipxwrapper (similar to that of ipxbox) so people could self-host themselves (or on a VPS) and ipxwrapper could connect to said relay server. Negating the need of using tunneling software like Radmin VPN and allowing actual SPX sockets in the process.