Need help with my situation...

i don't want to host a domain name, but i do want to do the following, and i was told my a friend that to set up my PC as a dns server would be best.

i play a certain Playstation 2 game online using ICS, but I can only access the European servers as we believe the addresses are hardcoded into the disc. HOWEVER, we think that if we set up a DNS server on our PCs, then get our PS2 to use our PC as a DNS server, we could get the European IPs to resolve as the American IPs. So, for example, if the European game normally went to 239.255.255.250 (it doesn't, but lets say it did), we'd want the DNS server to make it go to the American equivalent (lets say its 213.134.232.402 or something). I've downloaded BIND for Windows XP, but how do I set it up like this?

whew, buddy. Well, I'll confirm that your friend is right. You can most certainly do what you are wanting to do IF the PS2 is resolving domain names instead of directly connecting to IPs.

So my first question is, do you know the domains that need to be overridden by your dns server?

i know all the european addresses that need to be over-ridden as i used a packet sniffer to determine them, and know one of the US equivalents. I plan to, at first, use just that one equivalent and see if it makes a difference, and if not, wait until my friend in the US gathers all the addresses.

but how do i set it up?

thank goodness you know how to packet sniff. You're doing precisely what I would've done. Tell me the domains you need to override so that I can get a feel for the best way to do this.

for the moment, as i'm not sure of all the domains yet, i'd like the dns server to override gate1.eu.dnas.playstation.org (202.213.243.169) with gate1.us.dnas.playstation.org (202.213.243.168). of course, this may not result in me gaining access, as there are other ips the game accesses, but i believe it might work. also that US address may not be correct, as i guessed at its existance and it turns out to be true. but if you could tell me how to set THAT up i'd be grateful.

the most important question is above, but i have a question below -


in the realms of theory though, i was wondering if it would be possible to get the game to access BOTH servers so people get a choice. IE when the game requests the gate1.eu.dnas.playstation.org, it resolves as both gate1.eu.dnas.playstation.org AND gate1.us.dnas.playstation.org. This may cause problems in certain games (like EQOA) but in things like Socom, if it were possible, it should result in a list of servers appearing. is this second thing possible?

the project

Ah, excellent. So basically what you're telling me is that all servers fall under the *.eu.dnas.playstation.org and *.us.dnas.playstation.org domains?

the theory

Eh, this thing we're doing is too inflexible to do much with. You've got a hardcoded domain of some kind in your play station software. You're forced to use that domain. Playstation makes only one kind of request to resolve that domain. So the response can only be 1 or more IP addresses. So that's what we've got to work with. If you wanted the domain to randomly resolve to a US or EU server, then that I can tell ya how to do it. There's a chance we could redirect resolution to US servers automatically without hardcoding the IPs in your server, but for sure, we can't offer a choice driven by your DNS server. The choice engine must be driven by something else and your DNS server will provide the IP information.

that would make sense, but thats not correct. the servers for the game i want to play, Everquest : Online Adventures, are at another address. however, i believe that the server which directs the game to the European EQOA server, the server which I know definately to be unique for europe, is the dnas server. how do i set it up so it accesses the american dnas?

alright, I've got a simple solution in mind and we'll see if that works out. First of all, have you downloaded the config files you need as described in my dns server setup tutorial?

yup. don't have a clue what to do with them, but yup. XD

Alright, I suggest you follow the tutorial. It may not be doing what you want it to do, but it helps familiarize you with the dns server configuration. Then you need to add this to named.conf:



Then you need to create the file "eu.dnas.playstation.org.zone" in the directory you have 'basiczone.com.zone'.



That file will redirect resolution of gate1.eu.dnas.playstation.org to gate1.us.dnas.playstation.org. Add more CNAME records as necessary following that general pattern. Change the "127.0.0.1" to your server IP as well.

i set it up like so, but there's a problem. i'm running XP and whenever the application to run the server starts, it closes immediately.

that means there's a problem with your named.conf file. Read off the errors for me. I believe the tutorial tells you how to get at them.

errno2result.c:61: unable to convert errno to isc_result: 10057: Socket is not connected
rndc: recv failed: unexpected error

no, that's not how to get error information. The one I prefer is to do this at the DOS prompt:

C:\path\to\binds\bin>named -u named -g

all errors were removed, but when i played the game and used a packet sniffer, it still went to the same address. therefore either i'm not starting the server properly, or my files are wrong.

would it be possible for you to set up these configuration files for me and give me to download? i'd appreciate it alot. Either that, or post the entire contents of a file up here.