Hamachi is free virtual private network adapter widely used to play LAN games online. How you can setup Hamachi to correctly work for most of the video games is what we will be focusing on.
There are a lot of things you can do to make Hamachi work perfectly. Among them are network tweaks, configuring it with your OS, reducing ping issues, Class C restriction error, and few others.
Correctly Setup/Configure Hamachi For LAN Games
Step 1|Firewall and Port Forwarding Check
Once you have installed Hamachi, make sure you have correctly configured your firewall and have set port forwarding on your router. In some cases, you may be required to disable firewall for the proper working of Hamachi.
Step 2| Prioritizing Hamachi Network Adapter
-For XP/2000
Go to Start > Control Panel > Network Connections and on the menu click ‘Advanced’ then ‘Advanced Settings’ and put Hamachi at the top of the list.
Restart Your Computer.
-For Vista Users
Go to Start menu > Network, click on the Network and Sharing Center button at the top. Click on “Manage Network Connections” on the left-hand side and then go to Advanced > Advanced Settings. Now put Hamachi at the top of the list.
-For Windows 7
Same (Just put Hamachi at the top of your network connections priority).
Step 3| Configure Gateway and Metrics For Hamachi
From your network connections right click on Hamachi, and go to its properties. Select TCP/IP(v4) and go to ‘Properties’> ‘Advanced’. Now ensure that default gateway is “5.0.0.1”. If it isn’t, then add/edit and set its metric to automatic. Below ‘Default Gateways’ tick ‘Automatic Metric’.
Step 4| Disable TCP/IP(v6) For Vista
If you are using Vista then you need to disable TCP/IP(v6). To do that deselect it in Hamachi properties.
Step 5|Hamachi A Private Network For Vista
If you are using Vista, make sure that Hamachi appears in ‘Network and Sharing Center’ as ‘Private Network’.
Restart Your PC.
Step 6|Create/Join Network
Create or Join a network and check if you can ping each other. If you still can’t ping each other then see the general issues and solutions section below.
Hamachi General Problems and Solutions
Ping/Chat Issue of Hamachi
1. Make sure you have allowed Hamachi through your firewall on both the UDP and TCP ports.
2. Try disabling the firewall if you can’t resolve this issue.
Configuring Router For Hamachi
1. Open Hamachi preferences, select ‘Status’ tab on the left side and click on ‘Detailed Configurations’, if you use a proxy enter it here.
2. Under “Connecting through NAT” tick the UDP port and put a port number, something higher then 45000 usually provides a good connection.
Note: Remember to forward that port for your router.
Can’t See LAN Games But Can Ping
1. Open Hamachi.
2. Let Hamachi connect when it is connected disable your normal internet connections or any other network adapters.
3. Leave Hamachi running and let it try to reconnect.
4. Start the game, and go in LAN games. ALT+TAB to Windows and enable your internet connections. You will now be able to see the LAN games.
Note: Both client as well as Host needs to do this to force the game use Hamachi as primary network adapter.
Lag and High Ping On Hamachi
If your game is lagging on hamachi, there are few things you can do to resolve that:
1. Ensure you aren’t downloading/uploading anything if you are doing then stop it.
2. Get a faster internet connection in case its the connection.
3. If you have a multi-core CPU, open “Task Manager” and click on “Processes” tab. Find hamachi.exe, set affinity and use only CPU0, deselect others.
Hamachi Class C Restriction Error Restricted Aliases
Some games require Class C network addresses for LAN play. In these cases you can do the following to play them on Hamachi.
In order to play these games, you and your friends need to have an IP of the same class. You and your friends need to maintain the same IP class like “a.bb.ccc.4” and “a.bb.ccc.7”.
To keep your and your friend’s IP in the same class just enter your Hamachi IP at his peer VPN alias, adding an extra unit.Then host the game and he should now be able to play with you.
