NOTE: Throughout this document,
we will refer specifically to games of DOOM played over the
Internet via a DIRECT CONNECTION, i.e. no modems are involved
anywhere in the link. Note that IHHD, SLIP and PPP connections
all involve modems at some point. Although other methods of
connecting two DOOM machines together across the Internet exist,
this document will focus on direct net connections using the
iDOOM network driver program.
Getting Prepared
Q1: I want to play DOOM over the Internet using iDOOM. What
hardware do I need?
To successfully play DOOM across the Internet, you will need
the following hardware:
* A machine capable of playing DOOM (D'OHH!)
* A network interface card (NIC). And not just any old NIC,
mind you - your NIC must be supported by a packet driver if
you wish to use it to play Internet DOOM. Usually this means
that your NIC must be an ethernet card, although iDOOM has
been successfully played over token ring. This document
assumes that your PC is already equipped with a suitable
NIC, although it may currently be in use for some other
non-TCP/IP function (such as a node on a Novell network).
* A direct connection to the Internet. If there is a modem
somewhere in the link between your PC and your opponent's
PC, this FAQ is not for you. Although it is possible to play
Internet DOOM over a modem link (either by dialing up to a
UNIX machine and using IHHD or via SLIP/PPP), such
connection methods are beyond the scope of this document.
Q2: OK, I've got all the hardware. What software do I need?
In addition to the hardware requirements, some software is
also required to round out your the package. Before you can play,
you'll need to pick up the following:
* DOOM 1.2 or higher (1.7 is STRONGLY recommended, since
this version seems to have solved some problems related to
network games). DOOM versions 1.1 and below are incapable of
using iDOOM.
* A packet driver written specifically for your ethernet
card. The Packet Driver is what lets iDOOM (and therefore
DOOM) "talk" to your NIC.
* iDOOM.EXE, the Internet driver for DOOM.
* The WATTCP Applications. These are not absolutely
necessary, but can definitely be useful for debugging and
testing your setup.
Q3: Hold on - I don't have some of this software! Where can
I get it?
* To obtain iDOOM: Log on to ftp.vet.uga.edu via anonymous
ftp. Change to directory /pub/doom. Download the file
IDOOM11.ZIP. Version 1.1 is the latest version of iDOOM as
of this writing.
* Many ethernet cards come with the appropriate packet
drivers on a utilities diskette packaged with the card. If
your card does not come with a packet driver, there is an
excellent collection of freely available packet drivers
called the Crynwr (nee Clarkson) Packet Driver collection.
You can obtain it via anonymous ftp from oak.oakland.edu.
Change to the /pub/msdos/pktdrvr subdirectory and download
PKTD11.ZIP and PKTD11C.ZIP. The files PKTD11A.ZIP and
PKTD11B.ZIP contain source code and example programs for the
packet drivers - you won't need these in order to play
iDOOM.
* To obtain the WATTCP applications, ftp to
dorm.rutgers.edu, change to the /pub/msdos/wattcp/
subdirectory, and download file APPS.ZIP.
Q4: OK, I've got everything, now what do I do to set it up?
Setting your computer up for TCP/IP access is very
straightforward. As an illustration, I'll be taking you through
the steps necessary to set up a PC with an SMC ethernet card and
the IP address 128.192.23.5. You'll of course need to substitute
your own specific information in place of the examples given
here. All set? OK, let's get started.
Step 0: START WITH A CLEAN BOOT!!!!! Set up your CONFIG.SYS
and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to load as few drivers as possible. This
includes such things as memory managers (HIMEM, EMM386, QEMM,
etc.) and network drivers (e.g. LSL, IPXODI). DOOM doesn't need
the former, and the latter will probably conflict with the packet
driver. We recommend that you prepare a boot floppy with a
CONFIG.SYS containing only a FILES=20 line, and an AUTOEXEC.BAT
containing only the line "prompt=$p$g".
Step 1: Set up the packet driver. Determine your ethernet
card's IRQ setting, it's base I/O port setting, and it's memory
address setting (if any). You should be able to determine this by
looking at the card itself and consulting the user manual. You'll
need some if not all of this information, depending upon which
packet driver you use and/or type of hardware you have (for
example, some IBM computers with the MicroChannel bus can
determine the settings on the card automatically without you
having to supply them on the packet driver command line). Unzip
the appropriate driver from Crynwr Packet Driver collection
archive. In our example case, the packet driver is called
SMC_WD.COM. By looking at the jumpers on the card and consulting
the manual, I determined that the card has been set to IRQ 7,
Base I/O port address 300h, and the base memory address is at
segment d800h. For this example, I have chosen to use interrupt
60h for the packet driver. Packet drivers typically operate on an
interrupt in the range of 60h to 80h inclusive; since nothing
else in my sample system happens to be using the first available
interrupt (INT 60h), I chose that. Thus, to load my packet
driver, I use the command line
SMC_WD 0x60 0x7 0x300 0xd800
where 0x60 is the packet driver interrupt, 0x7 is the IRQ setting
on the card, 0x300 is the I/O port base address, and 0xd800 is
the memory base address (NOTE: all numbers are in C-style HEX
notation). Don't worry if you don't understand what all this
stuff means - as long as you use the correct numbers, your packet
driver should work. NOTE: If your PC is currently part of a
Novell network (e.g. Netware, Netware Lite, Personal Netware) the
parameters you need can be found in a file called NET.CFG,
usually located in your \NOVELL, \NWLITE or \NWCLIENT
subdirectories (along with all the other drivers needed by
Novell).
At the very minimum, the packet driver should give a sign on
message and report the ethernet address of your NIC when you load
it. Chances are that if your NIC has been functioning properly