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sacredvitae
Mar 2, 2001, 02:57 AM
Has anyone used the BBP with @home service and gotten online. I tired a few times and failed. I am probably just missing something stupid. I was thinking it could be the Identification of the computer, but where would I put that in? Any help would be greatly appreciated

Mik
Mar 2, 2001, 07:38 AM
I have mine working with @home. I have it running through a Linksys BEFSR41 router though (to share cable with my PC) so I setup my BBA with my internal network settings. I have my router configured manually as well, ignoring DHCP everywhere. You might want to try manual settings too. If you'd like specifics on how I got it working, let me know.

sacredvitae
Mar 2, 2001, 07:59 AM
Yeah specifics might be helpful. I currently don't have a router, but that doesn't mean i can't go get one. Is it best to just ignore DHCP. It would be great to finally get this thing working.

QVirus89
Mar 2, 2001, 08:24 AM
Ooooh details. Could you send me some on how you got it to work? I use a Netgear router to split the cable to 3 computers and the TV. I don't have a BBA yet, but I plan on getting one, and might as well be prepared. And call me stupid and slap me silly, but what's DHCP? (You got it to work with @Home? i thought it was posted somewhere that @Home didn't work with the BBA. Hm.)

Mik
Mar 2, 2001, 08:29 AM
I primarily have my rig configured manually since my ISP's DHCP servers go down really frequently. Instead of waiting for the connection to auto-configure itself, setting it up manually skipped that problem spot.

To figure out your settings, connect with your cable modem to your isp with your pc, jump to a command prompt and type "ipconfig /all". Write down your host name, DNS servers, IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway. Then hook up your modem to your DC and load up the broadband passport. Go to the options screen and enter in all that data in the appropriate fields. You might not need the host name, I can't remember for sure right now. For the pop3/smtp mail servers, just entering "mail" (without quotes) will probably work since @home should have that alias set to point to your specific mail server. Enter your email username and password if you want too. You probably won't use the bbp mail client too much though since it's highly buggy. Then, save the settings with or without your email password, turn off your DC, and boot up PSO. Now when you try to go online it should say something along the lines of "PSO will now attempt to connect to the online servers using the Broadband Adapter." Select OK and proceed from there as you normally would. If that still doesn't work, let me know what PSO says when you try to run it with the bba.

QVirus89
Mar 2, 2001, 08:36 AM
Thanks for the info. I'll try that, as soon as I can get my hands on a BBA. I wish Sega wasn't so stingy about it until.. what, May 1? They refuse to let others sell it. Though I still don't know what DHCP means, and probably won't for a looong time.

Mik
Mar 2, 2001, 08:37 AM
DHCP is a protocol that sets all your internet settings for you automatically every time you connect to your isp. If you have it disabled, you have to specify all the settings yourself.

To get the BBA to work with PSO running through my Linksys router with DHCP disabled, I used the following settings for my DC:

IP: 192.168.1.3
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1

I can't recall right now, but I think the rest of the settings are external so I won't mention them. I have all my external ports blocked and PSO has no problems. Actually, I have an Apache webserver running on my PC internally hosting some PSO backup saves I've made. If my character gets wiped, I can just access the page with BBP and download the save to my vmu or to any other vmu. I prefer that backup method to emailing the vmu to my DC email address.

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Mik on 2001-03-02 05:38 ]</font>

NeoAez
Mar 2, 2001, 10:47 AM
Mik,
How did you get the dreamcast to send the files to your server. I have webspace and the option of converting one of my 5 systems over to a personal webserver. Any help would be appreciated.

sacredvitae
Mar 2, 2001, 06:29 PM
Thanks for the help MIK, I will try that as soon as I get home from work today.

Anonymous
Mar 2, 2001, 10:14 PM
and PSO has no problems. Actually, I have an Apache webserver running on my PC internally hosting some PSO backup saves I've made. If my character gets wiped, I can just access the page with BBP and download the save to my vmu or to any other vmu. I prefer that backup method to emailing the vmu to my DC email address.

<font size=1>[ This message was edited by: Mik on 2001-03-02 05:38 ]</font>


How did you backup your PSO saves to your web server? DreamPassport 3.0 (JPN) doesn't allow you to email/attach/browse files from the VMU that are uncopyable. However, with Planetweb 2.0, it allows you to attach the PSO sys file (but it doesn't support BBA).

help.. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/icon_smile.gif

Mik
Mar 3, 2001, 04:44 AM
My burn of BBP is quite buggy. I can't tell if it's intended to behave that way or not. Whenever I try to access my vmu with it the screen goes all white. I can still guess my relative position in the menu and transfer files that way but for now I've been using the Planet Web Browser 2.0 disc to email the saves. That means whenever I want to transfer a file from my vmu to my PC I have to turn the DC off, swap in the modem, power up, and email the save. PSO save data can be made copyable but only after creating a VMI file for the VMS on a PC and downloading the VMS by loading the VMI in your DC browser. Then, up until PSO overwrites that data, the file is unprotected from copying.

For people who have memory cards with multiple banks (or just use multiple vmus), if you backup your character to another bank then you can actually use those two banks interchangeably during the game. So, once you've backed up your character once using the email method, you can then update your backups on the other banks whenever you want. Just load up your actual game in PSO, switch banks, and save. I haven't tried doing this online since it would most likely corrupt the save on the first bank. It works great for a quick backup offline though.

Mik
Mar 3, 2001, 04:58 AM
To download DC saves from the web, you need a VMS (the actual save data), and a VMI (a file that gives your DC information about the VMS). You also need to have a web server configured to handle those two file types. I'm using Apache since it's easy to configure and manage, fast, and it's free. To add support for VMI/VMS files in Apache add the following lines in confmime.types :

application/x-dreamcast-vms-info vmi
application/x-dreamcast-vms vms

To create a VMI file for my saves, I've been using a nice command line program called dci_vmi. There's a similar online version available at http://virtuamunstaz.de/vmi.jsp .

Anyway, when all that's done, just put your VMI and VMS files in Apache's htdocs dir with an index if you want and load up the page on your DC. Remember to download the VMI. If you've setup everything properly, the VMS should automatically download after the VMI. You might want to save to a different bank/vmu other than the one your original save is stored on just in case you mess up the first time.

Nivek7
Mar 3, 2001, 10:47 AM
What are all of you using to configure the BBA in the first place? What Dreamcast software that will store your BBA settings internally in your dreamcast? Using the BBA is my only option for online play and so far its still just a door stop because I cant make it work. I ordered the Import version of PSO but it will still be a couple weeks before that arrives. Is there something else? Thanks.
Nivek 7