Anonymous edits have been disabled on the wiki. If you want to contribute please login or create an account.

Glossary:LAN play

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

Network

Multiplayer types

Connection types

See the list of games with LAN multiplayer for all games that supports this feature.

LAN play is a form of multiplayer established and played over a Local Area Network (LAN) without requiring an internet connection to be present for any of the participating players. All players connect their machines to the same local network and connect to each others across that network.

As a consequence of its implementation, this method of multiplayer connection is independent from official online multiplayer services and the latency and player experience depends only on the connection quality and system capabilities of the involved computers. However in order for computers to find and connect to each other, most games requires the computers to be discoverable over the local network (see network settings in the used operating system), unless they support establishing a Direct IP connection over the local network.

This method of enabling multiplayer within games was commonly supported by games before the widespread adoption of the internet, as well as in the early 2000s. As internet adoption grew more widespread and the global availability of online services became cheaper and more ubiquitous, games steadily moved away from supporting LAN-based multiplayer and transitioned almost exclusively to allowing online play, with the occasionally local play supported in some titles. As such, LAN play is unsupported by most PC games released from the 2010s and later.

LAN play over the internet

In a more technical sense, LAN multiplayer has less to do with the machines being connected to the same physical LAN and more to do with them being available and reachable across the same subnet, which may or may not stretch across multiple physical routers and locations. Any technology that connects two or more devices to the same subnet, regardless of the physical location of the devices, would therefor also extend "LAN play" between those devices beyond the physical boundaries of the nearby network equipment. When this is done across a public network, such as the internet, this kind of technoology is typically known as a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

So in layman's terms, to enable LAN play over the internet, at its core all that is needed is a VPN-like solution that creates a virtual private network across the public internet between all participating players. This can be done in multiple different ways; either a standard solution using a VPN server (typically a home router) and VPN clients, or by relying on third-party services and solutions that simplifies and/or automates the process.

Alternatives:

  • Hamachi
  • RadminVPN
  • ZeroTier One (see here for specific Windows quirks)
  • Siljo-Planet (focused on IPX games; specific games only)
  • VPN Server + Client solution for home networks; consult your home router to check if it supports that kind of functionality.

Supported games

See the list of games with LAN multiplayer for all games that supports this feature.


References