I am attempting to play 'Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun' on a LAN. The game requires IPX/SPX protocol to run - I've verified that, along with the fact that the game will not play network games over TCP/IP.

My setup is this:

Computer 1: wireless network card, Windows XP, IPX/SPX installed and set as follows: Internal network number - 00000066 Frame type - Ethernet 802.2 Network number - 00000000
1.1GHz AMD processor
256MB RAM

Computer 2: wireless network card (identical to the one in Computer 1), Windows XP (same version), IPX/SPX installed and set as follows: Internal network number - 99999999 Frame type - Ethernet 802.2 Network number - 00000000
800MHz Intel processor
512MB RAM

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The wireless network cards are Linksys Wireless-G PCI Adapter

Both computers are set to either connect to the internet via an infrastructure-mode setup through a router, or an ad-hoc network that connects only these two computers. Computer 1 can see and access shared files on Computer 2 in either case. Computer 2 can see Computer 1, but instead of shared files, it sees the task scheduler....

Within the game, it needs the following: network number, MAC Address (which I found and selected on both computers properly), and Socket Number (it allows a 5-digit number here, but I have no idea what it is or if it's necessary. I did, however, try putting the same number in for both computers, and this did not work).

I enter the LAN menu for the game on both computers, but they do not see each other.

I also disabled the QoS Packet Scheduler service for the network connections on both computers, following the advice I found on another site - this had no effect.

The full name for the IPX/SPX protocol is:
NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBIOS Compatible Transport Protocol

Either computer will run the game in single-player mode with no problems whatsoever, and have yet to suffer any lag.

I cannot provide the game's system requirements to run, as they are not stated in the manual, nor are they provided elsewhere that I can find.

Note - On Computer 1, the game was installed from the 'Command & Conquer: The First Decade' anthology DVD with all of the updates provided by the developers (Westwood, a great company which was sadly purchased by EA). On Computer 2, the game was installed via the 'Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun' CD's.
I would have been able to image the DVD to the 1st PC and use the DVD to install to the 2nd PC, but PC 2 has no DVD drive, which forced me to resort to the older CD's. I did, however, update the game fully via the auto-update feature to compensate - the anthology DVD already includes these updates.


**Please, no comments on how one computer has more RAM while the other has a faster Processor and 'why don't I put the best all in one computer?'
The RAM is of a different type in each computer, and I have no money to upgrade anything at the moment, so hardware will have to stay as it is.

Well... I wish I could help, I only wish Westwood did some work *networking* on the old games before releasing The First Decade

Heh, thanks anyways.

BTW, I forgot to mention - we can't simply play through the Westwood servers even though they are still up, since I had to install both copies of Tiberian Sun using the same ID key because my original key is long since missing.

Okay, this is now officially solved.

IPX/SPX doesn't allow 00000000 or 11111111 as a network number - and that's what I had.
I also told the Windows XP firewall to let the programs through, and set all of the numbers to match each other while not conflicting with the protocol limits...

Geh, I wish it was TCP/IP. That would be so much simpler.

Oh well, I fixed it.

w00t.