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GreedyGammon 3.x connection (howto) Step by Step (Updated 5/25/2023)

Update May 25 -2023

This entire process of configuring the server has been updated and simplified. Now ALL you have to do it configure your router port forwarding, send a copy of your client.txt file to your friends and click 'start server" to start connecting and playing. GreedyGammon will take care of the client.txt file, the server.txt, the ftp upload of your settings.

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This is an old post and some information may be outdated.
First you must install GreedyGammon. If you need help with that viewtopic.php?t=345
If you tried to setup as server and have problems I will gladly help just email support(at)greedygammon.com :D

So first let us do a quick summary of what this is all about. GreedyGammon is not a public BG server.
A previous version of GreedyGammon did function as such but current version of GreedyGammon is
designed to be a private server for friends to play each other. The software as is, can be configured to
accept remote connections and play. That is why there is no password required. Once you have configured
GreedyGammon and your modem to be a server, only those players who you provide setting to can connect to your server.

This forum topic attempts to convey as clearly as possible how to configure this functionality
It may seem a bit daunting if you have never fiddled with these settings but it is worth it.
Once you have it working you can play in private with your friends without any ads fees, rake, and downtimes all the annoyances that come
with relying on a third party to host your game. Well that is the idea anyway.. so here goes :D

Please verify you are using the latest update. May 25-2023 [ 3.1.155]
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask and i can help you set it up.
There have been many changes and the instructions may not be as clear as they should.
This current configuration is working much better than prev versions
If you don't have ftp access one is already created for you on greedygammon.com/server
If your ISP changes your IP, the server will detect it and upload the new setting all by itself you don't have to do anything.

Update 3.1.155
Server tetraHydro is back online. Just go to preferences>Connection and click Connect on the client box.
Invite a friend to meet you there or you can play anyone who is logged in.
Try it out and if you like it, you can setup your own router to be a server as described below

Update 3.0.157 Nov 29 2021

GreedyGammon version 3.0.157 (Nov 29 2021)

The server setup has been completely overhauled
The server is now separated from the client running in its own exe.
Image
The encrypted "connection string" is gone.
GreedyGammon will detect both your LAN and WAN ip address and add them
to the drop down combo for you to select the 192.168. x.x for playing on your home network

Update 3.0.164 local.txt file is no longer used. Everything is listed in client.txt for both WAN and LAN games as shown below

http://greedygammon.com/server/tetraHydro.txt
http://greedygammon.com/server/marcurling.txt
http://greedygammon.com/server/local_tetraHydro.txt
http://greedygammon.com/server/maareyes.txt

Update 3.1.109 has introduced a better way to connect home network LAN by using a local.txt file in your documents>greedyg folder
local.txt is generated by the server when you select 192.168 ip. Copy it and place it in every local client machine in their documents greedyg folder.
No internet or port forwarding is required for LAN play. IF you select your WAN IP you will need port forwarding and internet for your remote friends to connect to your server. Click on the server IP label to edit your WAN LAN numbers. They should already be in there just drop down the combo and select the one you want. Make sure the "disable connection" option (red arrow image below) is not checked if you want to connect as client or run the server. It is checked by default since it does sometimes cause a small delay when checking for available servers upon startup. An unnecessary annoyance if not any intentions to connect to server for remote play
Image

The server is now equipped with FTP component that will auto upload your server.txt file directly to your
website. To use it, fill out the fields and click "upload" and if it is success, it will remember your settings and auto upload your ip, port, server name so your users can read it even if your ISP changes your IP it should still work depending on how your port forwarding is setup. You may have to adjust port forwarding to work with the new IP.
Image
Basically how it works is with 2 files
server.txt and client.txt.

server.txt will have your server name, ip, port and a "0" for online offline and another number "0" for users online
tetraHydro 123.456.789.10 33333 0 0 for when it is offline or
tetraHydro 123.456.789.10 33333 1 1 for when it is online

Update an extra digit has been added starting version 3.1.137

tetraHydro 123.456.789.10 33333 0 0
tetraHydro 123.456.789.10 33333 0 1

You won't have to worry about any of this the ftp uploads default settings and works without any user intervention
It will create your server.txt file and upload it.
Anyone needs ftp account i can setup one for you on greedygammon.com

client.txt will have the URL where you uploaded server.txt to like this
By default it will be http://greedygammon.com/server/tetraHydro.txt (the default server)
or http://greedygammon.com/server/yourusername.txt (if you run your own server, remember to send that line to your friends to add to their client.txt file)

distribute client.txt to your users for them to place in their documents/greedyg folder.

Thats it, open up preferences, select the IP you want to work with and click "start server"
The server will upload server.txt to your web space with a "1" at the end to indicate the server is running.

When the server is closed, it will upload server.txt with a "0" at the end to indicate server offline.
The local html help file from within the game has a section on connections with screen shots.
Please post here in this forum for any help.

====================If you already know how to port forward u can skip the rest of this.. ======

This is a step by step detailed instructions how to setup GreedyGammon to connect and play with remote players.

First we must configure our computer to allow others to connect to our IP address. We do this with a process "port forwarding"
To do this port forwarding, we must first find the local IP address of our computer.
[update 3.0.157] GreedyGammon will detect your IP for both LAN and WAN games (home network and internet games)
We can verify this with a utility that exists on our machine called ipconfig.exe
ipconfig runs from the command line so we must first launch a command window by typing "cmd" in the run box.
This will give us a command line window where we will type ipconfig and hit enter.

Image


The output from ipconfig will look like this
Image

We are looking for a line that reads IPv4 Address and will have the numbers 192.168.0.x
In our example the x = 13 it will be different for each computer. It is this number 13 we need to remember



Next we must open our router settings page to configure our port.
A common way to open your router settings is to browse to 192.168.0.1 just type those numbers into chrome url box and if it doesn't open your router settings you will have to google for your brand how to get in.

Image
If you have never set your password for your router you must google how to get in without a password or what the default password is for your brand.
Here is a page with info about that https://www.noip.com/support/knowledgeb ... ing-guide/
Once you manage to get into your router settings, you will look for a port forwarding section usually somewhere in the advanced settings area.

Image
When you find the port forwarding section, you will now use that number we found in ipconfig and set that as the ip we want to work with. We will set the port to 33333 which is the default that GreedyGammon uses. You can change this yourself in the GreedyGammon registry if you want to use a different port. And that is just about it. Make sure all the settings are on like "enable" and "always forward" etc. The ports may show a range just put 33333 in all the port settings. The particular Netgear router settings page requires the IP input and then you have to click "edit" to put in the rest of the settings. Just play around with your interface till you get it working. If it is your first time you may be somewhat apprehensive but once you get familiar with it, easy. Also it is good to know your way around your router settings so that you are not leaving your internet connection open to hackers. Read up on how to secure your router (google) So anyway..you may be wondering "IS THIS SAFE?" well u can google that too :D Port forwarding is a common practice among gamers. If you have your AV and firewall set, you should be ok.

Once you finish your port forwarding settings, go to GreedyGammon preferences -> Connections tab and you will find your settings already filled in

Send "client.txt" to anyone you want to play with. They will put the file "client.txt" in their documents/greedyg folder and when your server is on, they can connect by clicking "Connect" on the "Connect as client" section of preferences.

When a remote connection is established, there will be audio notification and the player names will appear below the chat box.
Proceed to invite chat and play

Image

Note, you only have to setup your server once. and your friends only need to add client.txt to their greedy documents folder one time. From there the settings are saved and all the server owner needs to do is click "Start Server" and the client will click "Connect" and start playing.

Now, to invite someone who has connected either player can simply click "play" same as playing the bot and the username of the player will show up in the opponent name of the new game combo box.

So you may ask, why should you go through all this hassle when you can just go to a gaming site like Yahoo or MSN or wherever and play there?
Well, GreedyGammon has many features those sites don't offer. Yeah.. like what you may ask?

- How about jf.mat log files generated to analyze your games with gnubg
- How about greedy bear off and auto race feature when contact is broken
- How about the bot resigning when the game is essentially over.
- Easy single click to play fast no clumsy dragging
- Auto play forced move off the bar.
- And many more features that you just won't find in your generic backgammon game

And the most important advantage is that you never have to rely on a central server
to play with your friends. Servers come and go at the whim of the owners.

Hope this helps!

Are you ready to play? :D 8-) :shock:



https://www.noip.com/support/knowledgeb ... ing-guide/ port forwarding resource for different router brands
Visit https://www.pcworld.com/article/244314/ ... outer.html for easy to follow instructions .
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Re: GreedyGammon 3.x connection (howto)

Another good online resource for port forwarding https://www.noip.com/support/knowledgeb ... ing-guide/

This system will only work if your IP address remains constant. Also your local IP must also be static. If your IP changes you will have to do further configuration to make it work. My own IP from my ISP stays the same for a year, and my main computer local IP is also always the same so I never had to do any static IP configurations. But if you do have to do that, you can google how to setup a static local IP.

With this GreedyGammon peer to peer connection, you can form your own group to play with people you know. If you go to public game servers, you will run into idiots that will make you wish not to play online anymore. Been there done that.. :? :shock: :D
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Re: GreedyGammon 3.x connection (howto) Step by Step

:shock:

So this configuration assumes that you have an IP address that stays the same.
If you IP changes often then you will need to assign your local IP (google how)
If your public IP changes often there are workarounds for that too.
I can setup a custom server for you that reads the current IP from your website
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Re: GreedyGammon 3.x connection (howto) Step by Step

Based on feedback from users I add the following..

update Nov 29 2021
there is no more "connection.txt or "disable default connection"
The current configuration files are "client.txt and server.txt" that's it.

-after you click "start server" if everything is correct up to that point, you should see the little red color label that reads "offline" change to green and "Online"
The connect button which was greyed out will be enabled and you must click it to connect to your own server


If you still have problems, send email to "support@greedygammon.com" and send your connection string and I will try to connect and we can try to find the problem. It's not complicated. ;) . It just lacks some error messages to notify what is missing if it doesn't work. There is no way i know of to check from within the program if the said port is open. A proper diagnostic tool could be implemented in the future if the usage levels warrant it.
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Re: GreedyGammon 3.x connection (howto) Step by Step

With version 3.0.148 there is an alternative server settings scheme that uses a remote file read capability similar to how server tetraHydro connects.
You can read up on it in the announcement section here

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=343

Basically instead of sending connection string to your clients, you can send them a url to a file that contains the connection string and if the server IP changes the server owner can change the IP in the remote file and the clients will read it when GreedyGammon starts up.

Hope that helps!
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Re: GreedyGammon 3.x connection (howto) Step by Step

version 3.0.155 details as posted in Announcements

Server settings are now editable directly from the preferences connection tab

- Animation style and calibration improved

- Country setting can be manually set from preferences options tab

- Home network play mode enabled by using 192.168.x.x without going through the port forwarding settings. To play someone on your home network use your local IP as your server IP setting, set a port # (1234 works) and send the generated connection string (long string of characters generated by the server tab, to your home network opponent by email or file. They can add that connection in their connect as client setting and will see your connection when you start your server. Remember you must also add and connect to your own server with your own server string on your "connect as client" setting.

Connect as client "add" screen will show the actual ip port and name on a label below the encrypted string so you can verify with the sender they sent you the correct connection string
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