[SOLVED] Using a VPN to play LAN games

LemonadeLlama · Last edited by LemonadeLlama on Sun Jun 23, 2024 1:08 am; edited 1 time in total

Hey everyone.

I have some friends who play LAN games together on Windows using Radmin VPN.
I would like to join them, but I understand that Radmin VPN is unavailable on Linux.

I am looking into using Wireguard as an alternative, but I have seen conflicting reports online of the success of doing this.

This reddit thread seems to imply that you can't use them together because Wireguard operates at layer 3 but Radmin VPN operates at layer 2.
This article says you can use Wireguard to play LAN games together, but that doesn't necessarily disprove the reddit thread.

What would be the best option? Is there a Linux VPN that can talk to a Radmin VPN on Windows? Should my friends switch to a different VPN? I'm not sure what I should do here.

szatox · Advocate Joined: 27 Aug 2013 Posts: 3477

Openvpn.
It runs on windows and linux, it can work with either tun or tap device (forwarding L3 and L2 respectively), and it supports UDP and TCP transports, so you do have a fallback option in case your ISPs stand in the way. UDP is the right choice when available.
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mrbassie · Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 4:58 pm Post subject:

https://download.wireguard.com/windows-client/
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szatox · Advocate Joined: 27 Aug 2013 Posts: 3477

I don't think WG is capable of forwarding L2 traffic though, which is actually required by some LAN games.
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LemonadeLlama · Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2024 10:06 am Post subject:

LemonadeLlama · Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2024 10:16 am Post subject:

So from what I can see, it looks like I should be able to set up a configuration to create a TAP device, which will allow everyone playing the same game to receive broadcast traffic for LAN play.
Are there any guides on setting this up? I understand that this is different than conventional VPN configurations.

szatox · Advocate Joined: 27 Aug 2013 Posts: 3477

OpenVPN is quite old and popular, there are lots of guides.
Yes, TAP device is the way to go. Something like that should do https://openvpn.net/community-resources/ethernet-bridging/

It can automatically allocate dynamic IPs for clients or just provide L2 bridge for integration with other services; you'll also need to make sure client isolation is disabled, I don't know what the default for this option is.
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sephora · n00b Joined: 28 Nov 2022 Posts: 40

Hi LemonadeLlama,

I don't know if you already got your VPN up and running. But just in case here is a small guide i posted a while back here:
Howto: OpenVPN server

Maybe you'll find this helpful.

LemonadeLlama · Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2024 1:08 am Post subject:

Thank you for your help everyone, but ultimately, we decided to start using ZeroTier as our VPN of choice. It does what we need.