New method for connecting Dreamcast!

Online games, how to get online, and anything involving Dreamcast online can be discussed here.

Moderator: pcwzrd13

User avatar
pcwzrd13
Seen Any Sailors?
Posts: 7041
Contact:

Re: New method for connecting Dreamcast!

Post#21 » Fri Oct 28, 2011 7:04 pm

I'd love to try this out but those parts are expensive! Cheapest price for the Netopia R2000 is $150 and a phone line simulator would cost $100+. You got one great deal on yours!
PSO Characters:
Teal'c - lvl 119 HUcast - GC# 11666
Alto - lvl 39 FOnewm - GC# 12964

YouTube Channel : Dreamcast Live

User avatar
madmax2069
drunken sailor
Posts: 163

Re: New method for connecting Dreamcast!

Post#22 » Fri Oct 28, 2011 7:11 pm

pcwzrd13 wrote:I'd love to try this out but those parts are expensive! Cheapest price for the Netopia R2000 is $150 and a phone line simulator would cost $100+. You got one great deal on yours!

Yeah, i have been trying to look around at times in hopes of finding one cheap, so far i have only found ones that you would have to basicly give your right or left testicle for.

User avatar
brourke228
Game Server Admin
Posts: 705

Re: New method for connecting Dreamcast!

Post#23 » Sat Oct 29, 2011 6:00 pm

I just updated STEP 2 of this guide because the Netopia ftp/tftp server doesn't appear to work anymore for upgrading the R2020/R2000 firmware. I included a section which shows how to workaround this using Tftpd to install the latest firmware from your PC over your LAN.

I also found the latest firmware for the Netopia router's internal 56k modems. I attached this to the to the original post and wrote how to update this firmware as well if anyone is interested. I haven't noticed any change in performance using the latest modem firmware compared to the version I was running earlier, but if you just want the latest software on everything then you can install this as well.

If anyone has any other questions feel free to ask.
Regards,
brourke228


Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

masterhacker11
noob
Posts: 1

Re: New method for connecting Dreamcast!

Post#24 » Thu Jan 26, 2012 11:48 pm

This method worked for me. Just another video showing how it all comes together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxu775mIt7w

User avatar
Lakster37
shadow
Posts: 10
Contact:

Re: New method for connecting Dreamcast!

Post#25 » Sun Jan 29, 2012 11:15 am

I've been planning on getting a Dreamcast for a few weeks, primarily to do some old-school online play, and I have to say, this article is great! Found a Netopia R2020 on eBay for $25 plus shipping so I went ahead and bought it even though I don't have a DC yet. There's still two left at the time of this posting here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/330643155188?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

I do have one question, not related to the DC, but to the Saturn. From this topic I saw that you apparently CAN connect to the internet on the Saturn Netlink using this method (to email send files), but you can't use it to direct-dial other users to play games "online"? From other articles, I saw a lot of discussion about the primary reason that an Analog - Broadband conversion to play Netlink games wouldn't work was because of the latency involved, and that the Netlink wasn't made to work with much latency at all (since it was based on direct analog play). So I guess my question is, would you "theoretically" be able to Netlink connect with other people using this method if it weren't for that lag, or is it not even possible even baring that? And if so, is there any other similar method of analog - broadband (and back to analog) conversion that would theoretically work if not for the lag?

Neohound
Gold Lion
Posts: 1612

Re: New method for connecting Dreamcast!

Post#26 » Sun Jan 29, 2012 11:28 am

Lackster, that's an amazing price you got the router for.

If you want a Dreamcast then check these out. Looks like a pretty good deal :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Sega-D ... 2049wt_901

User avatar
brourke228
Game Server Admin
Posts: 705

Re: New method for connecting Dreamcast!

Post#27 » Sun Jan 29, 2012 2:30 pm

Lackster, unlike the browser, the games on saturn don't actually use the internet. They do direct dial from one saturn to another with no internet intermediary. It is just a stright phone line from one saturn to another over a phone network. In that sense, you can use a phone line simulator to link two sega saturns for local play. However the netopia router would not be involved. The Netopia is for connecting a dial up modem to the internet through your broadband network.

The only possible way of getting saturn games to play over the internet I imagine is to use some sort of voip phone service with a phone adapter hardware device which can accept modem/fax calls to connect saturn to the voip service. The phone adapter would also need to be able to provide a dial tone for saturn. You might be able to fake the dial-tone though by splicing a headphone jack into the phone line and playing a dial-tone noise on your computer, or possibly rig something up to a phone line simulator. That said, at lot of voip codecs don't even support modems/faxes. I don't think skype's does. If you were able to get around all that though, then it would theoretically be possible. As far as lag goes, I have no idea.

Good luck with getting your Dreamcast!
Regards,
brourke228


Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

User avatar
Lakster37
shadow
Posts: 10
Contact:

Re: New method for connecting Dreamcast!

Post#28 » Thu Feb 16, 2012 12:41 pm

Well, I finally got everything together to give it a try and I got to the point where the dreamcast dials the netopia router through the phone line simulator (teltone tls-2) - it even makes all the cool "dial-up" internet noises, but it won't connect. I got the error message "Unable to contact host. Could not look up its name." I'll be trying to mess around with some stuff to see if I can get it to work, but if you can give me any help that'd be great.

I should mention, at the moment I'm trying to use my laptop as a sort of wireless "bridge" because my router's a good distance away from where I have my Dreamcast set up. It worked well with connecting my Gamecube to the net, but I'll eventually probably just try connecting directly to the router to see if that's the issue.

User avatar
brourke228
Game Server Admin
Posts: 705

Re: New method for connecting Dreamcast!

Post#29 » Thu Feb 16, 2012 12:56 pm

If the call is initialized, but there is no internet on Dreamcast I would say this is most-likely as a result of you sharing internet from your laptop. Your laptop is probably using an NAT connection to the netopia router, which means that it is not on the same subnet as the rest of your network. You could probably still get it to work with your setup, but you will have to change the ip address of your netopia router to match the subnet of the network created by ICS from your laptop. I'm guessing your laptop has one ethernet port in addition to its wireless. If that's the case just go to start>run>type "cmd", then in the command prompt type "ipconfig". You want to use the same subnet that your LAN network adapter ip address is assigned to for the netopia router (just change the last number in the ip address to something different for the netopia router). You also need to set the default gateway of the netopia to your laptop's LAN network adapter ip address. You may need to change the primary dns as well, but see if that works.
Regards,
brourke228


Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

User avatar
Lakster37
shadow
Posts: 10
Contact:

Re: New method for connecting Dreamcast!

Post#30 » Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:34 pm

Sorry, I'm a little confused about what you just said about changing the IP for the netopia. You're right, my laptop has one ethernet port (connected with Netopia router) and connected to the main router wirelessly. I bridged those connections together and assigned it a static IP of 192.168.1.36 (Default Gateway is 192.168.1.1). I assigned my Netopia to an IP of 192.168.1.92. Do I need to use something different? I just tried changing the default gateway and primary dns on Netopia to that of the laptop (192.168.1.36) but its still doing the same thing.

  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Online”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users