Spending hours and hours during the day playing Diablo and other old games, is an activity that enchants both young and certainly veterans. However, there is nothing worse than having a high latency that can reach intolerable peaks. The action of creating a virtual LAN between players specifically dedicated to these games is a solution. Hamachi has been, and still is, one of the most popular options, although there is more than one alternative that will allow us to adjust more to what we need and have.
Hamachi: benefits and inconveniences
This solution allows us to create an account for free. It entitles you to the assignment of an IP address, which will identify the device from which you are connecting to the virtual network. The free account manages to create a virtual LAN that can have up to five participants . In short, you can access as many other virtual networks as you want and access an instant messaging service between users of Hamachi LANs.
Not only do you manage to create a virtual network to join game sessions, but also perform any other activity as if all users were connected to a local network. You can share all kinds of files and resources, without having to make major adjustments to the configuration. The best of all this is that nobody is required to be connected locally.
The security of the connection and the effective communication that Hamachi virtual networks provide us have made it a recurring solution. Over time, there have been experiences of users not so satisfied that they manifest common problems such as latency peaks that can reach 100 ms, even in those networks that are created through free accounts (max. 5 users).
Alternatives to Hamachi to mount secure and functional virtual LANs
Freelan
It is a completely free open source software and available on several platforms. This solution works on both Windows, Linux and Mac OSX. It is focused on the security and privacy of the users who choose it. Not only does it allow essential settings, but it also gives you much more control if you are a more advanced user.
One of the aspects that highlights freelan is the transparency with which it is executed once installed and configured. The software runs in the background like any other service in that phase, allowing the user to perform their activities normally. You can configure the virtual network according to the Client-Server , Peer-to-Peer ( Peer-to-Peer ) or Hybrid (Hybrid) topology. In any case, you will have a detail of configuration examples.
SoftEther VPN
It is another free and multi-platform software. In addition to working on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX; The VPN server can also do it in FreeBSD and Solaris. In addition to a simple installation and configuration process, it has several powerful features such as the ability to cross firewalls with multiple restrictions using the SSL / TLS VPN protocol.
Not only can you use SoftEther at a particular level, but you can also do it at a corporate level. There are companies that opt for the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) , which allows employees to use their personal equipment for work. This software can be configured for this purpose and easily connect to the corporate VPN.
Private communication is guaranteed through 256-bit AES encryption and 4096-bit RSA. Any user who needs to access a VPN through SoftEther, can also do it from Android phones, iPhone and iPad.
Radmin VPN
Despite being only compatible with Windows 10, Radmin is positioned as another free and functional alternative to Hamachi. It provides a secure VPN tunnel with fully encrypted communication between users and the information that traffics through it. As well as the solutions already mentioned, Radmin VPN responds for both personal and corporate use. Provides a connection speed of up to 100 Mbps.
OpenVPN: a versatile and cross-platform solution
OpenVPN is the popular protocol for the creation of virtual private networks. With OpenVPN we can create a virtual private network that encompasses all players in the same local network. This protocol makes use of SSL / TLS security to provide security for communications, it uses both a control channel that uses TLS, and a data channel with AES-256-GCM for maximum security. In addition, authentication can be done with the typical username / password, or we can also configure a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) with digital certificates.
WireGuard: a fast, reliable and easy to configure VPN
WireGuard VPN is a completely free software application that will allow us to establish VPN tunnels easily and quickly, it is designed with the aim of providing better performance than any other VPN (and it does). WireGuard uses the most modern cryptography by default, such as ChaCha20 for symmetric encryption, authenticated with Poly1305 , using an AEAD construct. It also uses Curve25519 for ECDH, BLAKE2 for hashing, SipHash24 for hashtable keys, and HKDF for key derivation.
Other features of this software is that it is not necessary to manage the connections or worry about the state of the same, in addition, it allows tunneling L3 to place the clients in a new subnet. It uses the UDP transport layer protocol, it is compatible with IPv4 and IPv6 networks, and it is able to traverse NAT and firewalls easily because it uses a single communication port. WireGuard is currently cross-platform, it is compatible with Windows, Linux, MacOS, FreeBSD, Android and iOS operating systems. Finally, it allows roaming, so if you change from public IP (when switching from 4G network to fixed fiber network or vice versa) the connection will be reestablished quickly and automatically without having to intervene.
Regardless of the solution we choose, it is clear that it is not necessary to pay money to cover our personal or corporate needs that can be covered by a virtual LAN solution. It is increasingly within the reach of our hands, to take full advantage of our network connectivity.
