Tunngle – The Hamachi Killer – Learn How To Play LAN Enabled PC Games Over The Internet For Free!

Revisions:

7-30-09: Initial release.  Added another section for Underground Gamer requests.

7-31-09: Added World in Conflict and Warcraft 3 gamer request.

8-01-09: Added No One Lives Forever 2 gamer request, Far Cry 2, and Gears of War.

8-02-09: Changed the game request section slightly.  Now it has a “Known to work Straight Up” part of it.

8-3-09: Added notes to the games section for quake 3 and call of duty 1.

8-7-09: Added Worms Armaggedon and Worms World Party to games section.

8-8-09: Added hamachi channel. I hope I am not going to regret this.

8-11-09: Added Call of Duty 2 and Gears of War to verified games list.

8-13-09: Added install Tunngle demonstration video.

10-31-09: Added a long list of games: Battlefield Vietnam, Borderlands, Demigod, Duke Nukem, GTA IV, Killing Floor, Left 4 Dead, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Shift, and Underground 2; Red Faction Guerilla, Resident Evil 5, Section 8, Serious Sam – The SEcond Encounter, Splinter Cell – Pandora Tomorrow, Starcraft, Street Fighter IV, Titan Quest, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3

2-7-10: Added Troubleshooting Tunngle Video

3-1-10: Removed old videos.

4-7-10: Yes, I am going to fix the pictures. Will do that tomorrow.

7-3-10:  Added note to the game list section. There are lots of LAN games, so way in hell I will update this list for all the hundreds of LAN games I have tested.

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Foreword:  I am very excited.  This is definitely one of my favorite posts for 2009, and as you read further, you will understand why.  This guide is clearly not illegal.  It is simply another method to enable users to play their LAN enabled games over the Internet with friends.  No longer are you bound to be in the basement with your PCs to play LAN games! There is a reason why I spent two long nights working on this guide and the excellent video!  ~ Versatile

If you follow this blog, or know anything about VPN programs, Hamachi is a great program that people can use to play LAN games with each other.  In short, Hamachi was the king for implementing LAN games to play over the Internet.  How it worked is people would join these networks, and Hamachi gives each user a unique IP address.  When you launch a game, the game is tricked into thinking that everyone in the network is on the same LAN, and hence, you can see each other to play the game.

Of course, Hamachi has other useful purposes such as being a great secure chat medium, as well as being an alternative as a safe VPN to tunnel into your PCs and transfer files or encrypt remote transfers or remote administration.

See you are praising Hamachi?

Just like any program in life, everything has its downfall unfortunately. Hamachi is a great program, but when you try to play LAN enabled games over the Internet, it is not an exact science.  I harp a lot about the importance of VPN alias, and I thought that was the holy grail to make games work, but that is not true unfortunately.

Although you do the VPN alias for the user, it turns out that sometimes it doesn’t make the server show up in the game.  You may have to disable encryption, and instead of having the the first 3 octets of the IP address same as host and the last octet the same as the client’s last octet, you may have to change the method where the last octet of the VPN alias is one number higher than the client’s last octet.

For example:

Host IP: 5.156.23.333

Client IP: 5.142.69.449

The traditional VPN alias for host would be:  5.156.23.449.  Sometimes not all games will work properly, and through error and trial, you find out the VPN alias should really be 5.156.23.334.  Get my drift?  It is not an exact science.

Plus, there are claims that in Vista and Windows 7 that the UDP traffic that Hamahi used is not being routed properly in the OS so that is why you may not see a game in the LAN menu.

Well frick man.  How about Garena?

I’m glad you reminded me about Garena.  Don’t get me wrong, Garena is a great program to. Hamachi is limited in the sense that in order to play your favorite game, you need other people online at the same time in your network.  Since the network is limited to 16 players, you constantly have to kick people to get new people inside.

When using Garena, this is not the case anymore.  Garena is almost like Valve’s Steam in the sense that it has a game browser.  It has multiple network rooms, where the max limit of each room is 225 players.  Garena takes care of the VPN alias in the background.  All you need to do is make sure your game is the latest version as the other players, host a game, and then people can instantly join you through the multiplayer aspect of the game in question.

The problem? Garena has a small list of games. The hottest games they got going on right now is Left 4 Dead, Killing Floor, Starcraft, and the Warcraft 3 series.  It is funny that they have COD4 and COD5.  Although its nearly empty for USA rooms, its vastly popular in Brazil and Europe networks?  What gives? >_>

If you have a LAN game like Diablo II, there is no way you can make that work in Garena.  You can try to make it work in Hamachi though, but you will have to mess with the VPN alias, and making Hamachi the primary adapter in Windows, which I have guides on already.

This is why I am so glad to find a new program called Tunngle.

All right, you got me.  What is Tunngle?

Tunngle (pronounced as “tung-gle” – I hope that is right pronunciation) is another VPN client program like Hamachi or Garena.  However, it is vastly compared to Hamachi because of its feature set.

Take a look at the chart below, thanks to the source, and major props to Brioche.

Features	Hamachi	Tunngle
Network capacity limit	16	255
Works properly on Vista & W7	No*	Yes
Integrated network browser	No	Yes
Integrated network search	No	Yes
Works with games	Sometimes**	Always
Class C emulator	No	Yes
Native secure protocol for file sharing	No	Yes
Tight sharing access control	No	Yes
Know how many players are in a network before joining it	No	Yes
Advanced security	Yes	Yes
Players in a network	Offline&Online	Online***
Friend system	No	Yes
Global chat blacklist	No	Yes
Global banlist	Yes	Yes
Global messenger	No	Yes
Game dedicated organization	No	Yes
Support	Absent	Full & Quick

As you can see, Tunngle blows Hamachi out of the water.  It has an interface that is a cross between Steam and Garena.  It has a list of game networks that you can join and its very easy to play a game.  Zero configuration which I will talk about later in this guide.  It truly is the holy grail that all the hardcore PC gamers have been waiting for.  Oh yea, and if a game is not on the Tunngle network, you can go to a misc network and play your game there!  It has sexy written all over it.

You are killing me with anticipation.  How do I get started with Tunngle?!

Haha, keep your pants on. Here is the guide you have been waiting for in easy to follow steps:

Note: The program is made by German programmers, and it is still in beta.  They are working on an English translation, which I hope is released soon!

1) Go to www.tunngle.net.  Download the program and install it.  Make an account at the website and fill out the required information.  Make sure to confirm the email message.

2) Launch the tunngle.net program.  It will look like the screenshot when you first load it.

3)  After awhile a message will pop up below.  Say “Ja”.

4) Type in your account and software password.

It will take about a minute to connect and it looks like the screen below.

5)  Here you are at the main screen.  Click on community, then network, then go to browser.

6)  On the left hand side, is all the categories. If you select any particular category, you can break it down to the specific games.

7)  Enter into any game room.  Now minimize Tunngle, and launch your game.  When you go to the LAN portion, you should see servers if anyone is hosting.  Likewise, you can host and others will see it.  No configuration.  No need to mess with VPN alias or other settings.

Pretty cool right?  Let’s say that your favorite game is not in the Tunngle game browser.  No worries!  Just go to any game room, although you can go to one of the rooms under “misc”.  Host your game there with your friend, and Tunngle takes care of the rest.

OMG, this really is the holy grail!

Of course it is. If you do not realize the beauty of this program, then I ask you leave or reconsider why this program is a breakthrough. Easy to use, easy to setup, and best of all, it works with all games with LAN functionality.  Screw you Garena.  Hamachi can rot in hell when your favorite game is not working, but yet it works great in Tunngle!

The only problem is right now like 98% of the user base in Tunngle are Europe/Asia game players.  There are hardly any USA players, maybe 0.05% are USA/Canada players.  My goal is that this article, coupled with my Youtube video, will open up other peoples eyes to get onto the Tunngle network.

I will definitely be visiting the Tunngle network to share my story as well as this article and see if I can help with promotion of such a fine program. Thank you Tunngle.  You are a blessing.

Underground Gamer Requests

Note (added 7-3-10): There are a lot of LAN games I have tested, and due to the ridiculous amount of those games, I cannot and will not put those games into the list below. Therefore, if the game has LAN, it is guaranteed to work. No ifs, ands, or buts. It will work!

Tunngle is still in its infancy stage.  With that said, as more and more people read about this article, I want you to let us know what games you have that you want to play on Tunngle.  As more and more people comment, we will have a special list for everyone to contribute to!

Games we want you to have to play with us.  Games with an * means modification may be needed.  Just go to the tunngle server, host a LAN game, and people can join without special instructions!  All games below are verified to work unless noted below:

• Battlefield Vietnam
• Borderlands
• Call of Duty*[best if you use the windows 1.5 private server crack to defeat “awaiting cd key authorization” method]
• Call of Duty 2* [Use the 1.3 private server crack to defeat “awaiting cd key authorization” method]
• Call of Duty 4* [Use the 1.6 private server crack to defeat “awaiting cd key authorization” method]
• Call of Duty 5* [Use the 1.7 private server crack to defeat “awaiting cd key authorization” method]
• Call of Juarez
• Demigod
• Duke Nukem 3D
• Far Cry 2
• Gears of War* [See special tutorial here]
• Grand Theft Auto 4
• Half-Life
• Halo 2* [requires special steps. See tutorial here]
• Killing Floor
• Left 4 Dead
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted
• Need for Speed: Shift
• Need for Speed: Underground 2
• No One Lives Forever 2
• Quake 3: Arena  [better if you turn on dedicated server, then join it to fight lag]
• Quake Wars: Enemy Territory  [needs verification]
• Rainbow Six Las Vegas 2
• Red Faction Guerlla
• Resident Evil 5
• Section 8
• Serious Sam – The Second Encounter
• Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
• Starcraft
• Street Fighter IV
• Titan Quest
• Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3
• Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos
• Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne
• World In Conflict
• Worms Armaggedon
• Worms World Party
• UT 3
• UT 2k4

Troubleshooting Tunngle Video Tutorial