Simpler PS3 VPN

An addendum to the last post about playing PS3 LAN games over the Internet using a VPN.

In that setup the PS3 was connected to a laptop which was connected via a VPN to the other players. This worked fine, but required two network interfaces. One for the PS3, one for the Internet.

A simpler solution exists. Leave the PS3 and PC connected to the Internet as usual. Create a bridge between the TAP interface and the interface used to connect to the Internet. Follow the other steps in the last post.

This may be slower than the previous setup because the PS3 traffic has to pass through the PC to get to the VPN. It will work though and it takes less setup because you don't need to play with any cables.

Hope you find this usefull. Happy gaming.

RDR - PSN + VPN + LAN = YES

I was looking forward to some Red Dead Redemption this weekend. A five day long weekend and there was even a Triple XP session planned.

Then the PSN went down.

Without the PlayStation Network there is no way to connect with other players over the internet. The only option for multiplayer is a LAN game. A LAN game, however, isn't very convenient if you live a long way from your friends, or don't have a car to transport your TV and PS3.

By creating a Virtual Private Network between players though, you can play a LAN game over the internet. You'll still be able to level up and earn trophies, but you'll only be playing with the people who are part of your VPN.

I'll outline the steps I took to get things setup. Firstly a diagram of how things were connected:

1: Connect the PS3 to the laptop with an ethernet cable.

2: Laptop is connected to the Internet over WiFi to the ADSL router as usual.

3: Download and install n2n. This excellent software will create the VPN. You can read more about it here. I downloaded the Windows version from here.

4: Download OpenVPN, run the installer and select only the "TAP Virtual Ethernet Adapter" option. This will create a virtual network interface which the VPN will use.

5: Create a network bridge between the TAP adapter and the ethernet adapter the PS3 is connected to.

6: Make a list of the IPs you and your friends will be using so you can be sure there are no conflicts. For example:

• My PS3: 192.168.3.1
• My Bridge: 192.168.3.2
• Bob's PS3: 192.168.3.3
• Bob's Bridge: 192.168.3.4
• Sue's PS3: 192.168.3.5
• Sue's Bridge: 192.168.3.6

7: Set the IP of the network bridge.

8: Set your PS3 to use a wired connection and set its IP. Use the IP you set for the bridge as the gateway IP and any other required IPs in the PS3 setup.

Steps everyone does

9[Host Only]: One person in the VPN, the host, needs to run a supernode to handle the VPN connection.

"C:\Program Files\n2n-Win32\bin\supernode" -l 6789

You'll also need to setup a port forwarding rule to allow incoming connections to the supernode. In this example I've used port 6789.

10: Once the host has the supernode running everyone, including the host can connect.

"C:\Program Files\n2n-Win32\bin\edge" -a 192.168.3.2 -c VPNName -k biglongkey -l 127.0.0.1:6789 -m 00:00:00:00:00:00 -r

The -a option should be the IP of your bridge.

The -l option must be the external IP of the host.

The -m option should be the MAC of the bridge.

11: Run your game in LAN mode on your PS3 and have some fun. For Red Dead Redemption you first have to go into single player and then select LAN from the Multiplayer section of the menu. Any game that supports LAN play should work just fine.

I hope this is helpful, drop a comment if you have a question or way of simplifying the process.

It may be possible to get it working with computers with only one network interface and also get DHCP working so you don't need to worry so much about IP conflicts. Depending on how long the PlayStation Network is down for I may do some more tests.

Psychic Has A Whale Of A Time

I suppose it isn't that hard to believe that a psychic would use a whale calf starving to death to grab some publicity. After all they do it when people have been murdered and children have gone missing.

A whale calf was euthanised in New South Wales this week after it was separated from its mother. Several radio news segments I heard in the days leading up to the calf's death mentioned offers of help from psychics. I assume they would use their powers to ask the calf if it knew where it lived or where its mum worked. It's a great example of how psychics will interfere when time is of the essence.

There was a far greater uproar from normal people than there was from the psychics though. People seem to like whales a lot and the thought of one dying upsets a lot of people. There were countless calls to "do something". What options are available though?

• Use a spotter plane to find some more whales and lead the calf to them in the hopes that there is a lactating female in the group that will adopt the calf. Possible but not very probable.
• Feed the calf by hand and release it into the wild at some stage. Also possible but the calf would have no social or survival skills, at best it would just postpone its death.
• Feed the calf and keep it in a tank for the rest of its life. Do we really need more animals in cages to dance for our amusement?

The kindest option, although not the easiest to watch, is to let things take their course. It happens every day where we can't see it and we do nothing. There is no reason to feel guilty now just because it is in range of the television cameras.

Or, if you aren't happy with that you could do what some other folks have done and blame Kevin Rudd for the whole affair.

Facial, No The Other Kind

I saw an interesting product on television this week. The Derma Wand. It makes you look all pretty if you rub it on your face. The technical specs are non-existent on the sites selling the devices. As far as I can ascertain it's basically a vibrator.

It claims to oxygenate your skin, which confuses me because people spend hundreds of dollars on creams and moisturisers containing anti-oxidants. It also has no source for this oxygen, which could be why it is called a wand, because it would have to be magic to actually work as claimed.

It can shrink your pores, get rid of the sags and the wrinkles and the lines. I think a better bet would be to just stop fucking with your face so much. Stop poking at it and smearing so many ointments on it. It's not helping.

If this device does have any effect I'd bet you'd get the exact same benefit from a simple face massage. Plus you have the benefit of not wasting a few hundred bucks.

In this YouTube video a woman mentions that she likes to take it home and give herself some "critical attention every day". So it could actually be a covert way for shy housewives to buy themselves a vibrator.

But then maybe is does work, after all, would an esthatition lie?

Magic Fruit Water

I put this product on my list of things to post about quite a while ago and never got around to it. When I was checking to see if they had added anything new to their scam I was pleased to see that the site no longer exists. You can check it out here via the Wayback Machine.

It's nice to know that there is one less crappy product making bogus claims on the net. A hundred have probably taken its place and I'm sure it won't be long before someone else is pushing the exact same thing.

The product is, or was, water extracted from fruit that contains O¹⁸ instead of O¹⁶. It can sooth razor burn and make you look pretty if you squirt it on your face. Reduce wrinkles and keep you refreshed for longer if you drink it. These claims are demonstrated by scientific research, but for some reason they forgot to show the research on their website.

Also, they claim the product is pure, then they list the impurities it contains, contradiction much?

• Chloride 1.2
• Nitrate 0.05
• Potassium 0.66
• Magnesium 0.05

I guess calling a product 'nearly pure' doesn't sound as good.