I don't really know what I'm looking to do. I'm hoping someone out there can translate my layman speak into the actual terms I am looking for so I can start searching Google for instructions.

I want to find a way to run all my data through my VPS so that if I host a game server where people directly connect to my ip address, I can give them my VPS' address and it will route traffic back to me.

This way they connect to that ip address and not to my home address. In fact, by doing this they shouldn't be able to see my ip address at all.

I know how to sort of run an http proxy through the server but that's fine for incomming data but not for hosting a server.

On my home network I have to set myself as the DMZ host or correctly forward the ports required for the game before it will work. I assume I have to do something similar in order for this to work.

Is this possible using something like iptables? Maybe if I use iptables to set up forwarding rules for the incomming ports that the game (or whatever) uses to send it to my home ip address (using the same ports) and then somehow set up my computer so it sends all network traffic back through the VPS, somehow?

This isn't exactly necessary but rather for educational purposes...although it occurs to me that this can be a little bit useful and safer, especially if you play direct ip games with random players on the internet.

Sorry for the convoluted question. I am not knowledgeable to be concise so the best I could be was to try and be comprehensive.

Thank you for your time

You are asking to set up a basic forwarding rule for a firewall.

You can use a hardware firewall to do this, or you can use iptables.

So, if your setup is something like: Cable modem -> Iptables firewall -> switch -> your computer

Your iptables firewall would need something like:

to forward port 80 requests to the firewall to your internal computer instead.

Hi,

That isn't quite what I had in mind.

My network path would look like this:

Internet > Remote Virtual Private Server (ie running in Chicago) > iptables? proxy? ??? > Home Modem/Router (ie running in New York) > firewall rules > My Computer

I want to create a proxy between me and the other player. I realize this will increase latency so this isn't something I would use to play a FPS, but there are plenty of other games that this should work fine for. I'm trying to route my traffic through a remote VPS running some flavour of Linux...probably Ubuntu. Maybe Centos or Debian.

a gre tunnel is what you want. i just made a thread about it.

you can give out the remote ip, and all traffic comes to you.
you can send traffic out on the gre interface and it goes out on that ip.
incoming traffic has the correct source ip (not the forwarding server ip).

its very easy to set up as well (on linux)


you can find a nice tutorial on buyvm.nets wiki page

Just to maybe make a note. A vpn is a way that is supposed to connect computers without others being able to connect to. You might want that.

Since your question asks about ip then you may have to use dynamic dns to make it easier.


But, yes. It may be possible to have others connect to your server on a vpn. They tend to slow down connections unless you have an advanced hardware vpn. A lot of encryption overhead.

you can also encrypt a gre tunnel using ipsec