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Whenever I play a PC game which supports playing multiplayer, say Quake 3, when I put the multiplayer option to 'Internet', the game manages to access the game's server and get the list of games available.

But when I set the option to 'LAN', the game is unable to retrieve the list of games available. But note that if I directly enter the IP address of the LAN server where the game is hosted, I'm able to connect and play.

It's the same problem (list of LAN games not showing up) irrespective of whether the Windows Firewall is on/off and I don't have any antivirus running either. What could be the problem here ? It must be something specific to LAN connections that's causing this. Are the intranet settings out of order ? What could I do to set the settings right ?

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    This problem likely varies from game to game (or publisher to publisher), so your best bet is to check support for that specific game. you may have to change windows firewall settings to allow broadcast discovery using whatever protocol that specific game implements.
    – Frank Thomas
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 11:48
  • It's the same for all the games I play (though admittedly I play only retro games from the early 2000s).
    – Arctic Vowel
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 15:15

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In order for LAN to LAN based games to work in these older games, you have to install the IPX/SPX protocol. This is an ancient protocol that was used when Windows XP was still a big thing. In windows Vista and higher, the IPX/SPX protocol has been disabled because its successor TCP/IP can do it much better.

Some of the older games got patched to search the internal LAN using the TCP/IP protocol. Given that their game already does support the TCP/IP protocol to play over internet, its strange they kept the IPX/SPX protocol for the lan environment though.

If you do not want to install the IPX/SPX protocol on either machine, you can use software like Tungle or Hamachi which are VPN clients. They do install the IPX/SPX protocol when you activate their services which is why even if you are in the same LAN, using one of these services does make it work.

To add the IPX/SPX protocol, do the following (works for windows Vista and 7, not for windows 8):

Go to Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter Settings

Double click your network adapter.

Press Properties
Press Instal...
Choose Protocol and press Add...
Select IPX/SPX protocol and install it.
Reboot the pc.

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  • heck, IPX/SPX was already dying at the time Win2k became popular. Oh those wacky Novell guys.
    – Frank Thomas
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 12:38
  • @FrankThomas Oh yeah, I know that... but I had the same problem as OP when playing CnC3 over the network. Couldn't find local games for some odd reason, and if I used Hamachi, it would work. So did some more digging and reading and someone mentioned IPX/SPX had to be enabled. After installing that, they suddenly found eachother. :)
    – LPChip
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 12:56
  • Thank you (I was half thinking my question wouldn't even be understood!). So there is no way to do this then in Windows 8 ?
    – Arctic Vowel
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 15:11
  • Yes there is, by using services such as Hamachi or Tungle.
    – LPChip
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 15:14

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