Linode Forum

[bear_hug]

Hello forum,

I would like to set up a VPN on my Linode 512 (which is running CentOS 5.7), and I hope to get some pointers from the Linode community.

Besides doing this setup as a learning experience, another reason is because I currently live outside of the U.S., and I would like to use VPN for multiplayer gaming (such as TF2 or BF3). I wonder if a Linode 512 is good enough for such usage.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

[bear_hug]

I did some Google searching. Is OpenVPN a good choice for beginner? I am reading the guides:

- http://openvpn.net/index.php/access-server/docs/quick-start-guide.html
- http://nkush.blogspot.com/2011/10/installing-openvpn-22-on-centos-57.html

I am confused about how I should connect my laptop from oversea, to my Linode VPS in the U.S., for gaming. :cry:

[Guspaz]

If you just want to do multiplayer gaming and you're not hosting the game on your server (because then you don't need a VPN), a star-topology VPN is very inefficient and will provide a poor experience. For that, you want a P2P VPN like Hamachi:

https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/

The interface is kind of like an instant message client. It's typically used for multiplayer gaming.

If you have trouble, there's some troubleshooting here:

http://logmeinwiki.com/wiki/Hamachi:Gaming_over_Hamachi

[Tiven]

Yup, you pretty much have to forget about gaming with others though a VPN like openvpn.

Use hamachi for that.

[bear_hug]

Thanks for the replies. I will try Hamachi.

Just want to talk a bit more about why I want to set up a VPN (because at this point I don't know if Hamachi suits my needs or not):

- As mentioned, for playing multiplayer games, because some U.S. servers block the oversea IP.
- Many U.S. websites redirect oversea visitors to the regional pages. For example, imgur.com, which doesn't allow visitors in my region to use anonymous uploading.

So I did some searching on the web, and found several suggestions about using paid VPN service. Since I am using a Linode VPS, I want to use my own VPN instead. :D

[Resr]

bear_hug wrote:
- As mentioned, for playing multiplayer games, because some U.S. servers block the oversea IP.
- Many U.S. websites redirect oversea visitors to the regional pages. For example, imgur.com, which doesn't allow visitors in my region to use anonymous uploading.
Yeah that are real problems, and I'd also like to know how to overcome this. Gonna check out Hamachi, thanks!
__________
ipad application development

[Guspaz]

Hamachi won't let you play on US servers or use US websites, because it's a P2P VPN; you'd have to be hosting the server yourself, or have somebody else who joins your Hamachi network host a server.

If you're setting up a VPN to play on US game servers, your latency will suck, and you'll probably be banned from a lot of servers... The VPN will make it worse than it'd be if you connected directly.