Online Play

 

In order for you to be able to play with someone online using Bridge Baron, you both must have the exact same version of the Bridge Baron, for Bridge Baron 14, this is the latest version available, for Bridge Baron 15, this is the latest version available.  You can check your version by going to Help->About, your version number will be in the top portion on the window.  If you don’t have the latest version,  here is what you need to do: Bridge Baron 14 owners click here, Bridge Baron 15 owners, go to File->Check for Bridge Baron 15 Updates.

 

You if you have Bridge Baron 14 you cannot play with someone that has Bridge Baron 15.  The Online Play section of our FAQ only applies when you try to play with someone that is not in your house (local network).  If you are trying to play with someone in your house (local network) and you are having problems, try reading the help file or try using the IPX protocol.  If you still have problems please contact our tech support.

 

This page attempts to help our users overcome the complexities of modern computer networks when they are trying to play through the internet with their friends.  We will try to describe most of the common network configurations that people have in their homes and offices and give you some suggestions.  Please, read this section carefully before contacting our technical support specialists at support@bridgebaron.com, because they will most likely need information about your network and this is the place where you will learn how to obtain this important information.  We will mainly discuss Bridge Baron versions 14 and 15, but most of what you will find here applies to older versions as well.

 

In today’s busy information age the necessity for internet security is greater than ever.  If you have a permanent connection to the internet (cable modem or DSL, etc) it is very likely that you are using some kind of extra protection for your computers.  This for the most part is a good thing, however, when you are attempting to use certain programs (usually games that require internet connections) use might run into some serious problems caused by that very extra layer of protection.  Bridge Baron is a typical example of such an application.

 

Before we start our discussion how to overcome the networking problems, we need to find out what your network configuration is.  Let’s start by finding out whether your IP address is ‘real’ or ‘fake’.  ‘real’ IP address means that other computers (not only on your local network) can see your computer directly, and ‘fake’ IP means that the other computers (not on you local network) do not see your computer directly, but the internet traffic gets rerouted to your computer by a router (who has a ‘real’ IP address).

 

How do you tell if an IP address is ‘real’ or ‘fake’?

An IP address consists of 4 groups of numbers from 0 to 255, separated by periods.  By looking at the first 2 groups of numbers you can tell if the IP is ‘fake’ or ’real’. All ‘fake’ IP start with either:

192.168.*.*,  172.16.*.* or 10.*.*.*

 

Finding out your IP, if you have Windows NT, Window 2000 or later, bring up a MS Command prompt (go to Start->Programs or Start->Programs->Accessories), then in the DOS window type:

ipconfig /all

 

After hitting the “Enter” key, you will see something like:

 

 

 

It is possible that your computer has more than one network adapters, as in the picture above, there we have 2 network adapters: “Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network” and “Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection”.  If you have more than one adapter, generally you would want to use the one that has an IP address associated with it, in this case the “Local Area Connection”.  So if you look closely at the picture above you will see that the “Local Network Adapter” has an IP Address – 192.168.0.97.  And since it starts with 192.168 this is a ‘fake’ IP address.

 

By knowing if your computer has a ‘real’ or a ‘fake’ IP address we’ve almost moved halfway to identifying you network configuration!

 

One thing to keep in mind is that every time you reboot your computer you might get a different IP address.  It will usually be always ‘real’ or always ‘fake’.  If you have a ‘fake’ IP address, it is possible that your router’s ‘real’ IP has changed!  So if you are not absolutely sure that your IP address has not changed since you rebooted your computer, please make sure you double check your IP address before hosting a session with Bridge Baron!

 

If you have a ‘real’ IP address, in most cases you will not have any trouble playing online with your Bridge Baron.

However, if you have a ‘real’ IP and you still have trouble playing online, please click here.

 

If you have a ‘fake’ IP address, it is very likely that you cannot host games, and you might have trouble connecting to other Bridge Barons on the internet.

If you have a ‘fake’ IP and you have problems playing online, please click here.