Every computer on the network has what is called an IP address, and to connect to that computer you also need a Port number...
Think of the computers being a row of houses along the street.
- The street is the network connecting the houses.
- Each house has a street number (The IP address) (eg: 10.45.89.239 or 103.1.59.100)
- Each house has 2 (or more) doors, front and back, that you use to get into the house (The Port numbers) (anywhere from 1 -65536, there are a lot of reserved numbers))
So if you want to talk to the people (the game server) inside a house you must have a street address (IP), to go to.. and a door (Port) to knock on. The people inside, if they are expecting you, will open the door and you can go inside. If you knock on the wrong door (wrong port number), but right house, they won't answer.
Very simple...
The server format is 123.456.789.123
:21000
123.456.789.123 -> the IP address
21000 -> the Port number (This is the default for IL2)
: -> IP/Port seperator
You just have to find the servers IP address and 'fill in the spaces'...
Software like Hyperlobby Client (HL) does this automatically for you, and most game servers are linked to the HL server so you have to install HL client which then automatically takes you to the game server listing - Read the HL manual first.
