FAQ

Welcome to Virtual Net Cafe - Help

Instructions for setting up and using the Steam Account Manager.

Some Definitions and Abbreviations

Term	Meaning
YASAMM vnetcafe.exe program client	All these are abbreviations used to mean vNetCafe Steam Account Manager
Game Launcher	The component in the YASAMM that starts Steam and launches a specific game.
Local Database	The encrypted Steam Account information stored on your computer.
Local Account	A locally stored YASAMM account. Many YASAMM accounts may be stored on your computer. Each YASAMM account may contain many Steam Accounts.
Peer-to-Peer P2P
ISP	Internet Service Provider - like Internude or bugpond etc
TCP/IP	The standard protocol used on the Internet. (The protocol defines data type, structure and communication rules etc.)

Step 1. Is everything ready for this ...

To proceed you will need to have downloaded or obtained a copy of vnetcafe.exe and have placed it on your PC. (To find out how to do this go to How do I get started).

You normally may need to have added a Steam account: to find out how to do this go to Set up the Steam Account Manager.

Locate the icon (circled in red in the image) which should be on your desktop.
Double click it.
Login to one of your local YASAMM accounts ...

Step 2. A quick overview of the Internet and IP Addressing

IP Addressing

An IP address is basically a number between 0 - 4294967295, but it is usually shown as something like this 118.127.17.112
To be found on the net, all computer users must have an individual address (or IP Address).
Each address must be different from any other user's address (unique).
If addresses were not unique, then messages could be sent to the wrong user.
Your ISP will assign you a unique IP address.
Your ISP will change your address from time to time and this is known as a Dynamic addressing (dynamic IP address).
You can get a "static IP address" from your ISP, this means it will "never" change - but you usually have to pay more for the. If your IP address doesn't change, then it is called a static IP address (and you will normally pay extra for this).
Static addresses are used for places/users that we don't want to see change - like the IP address of our favourite game servers or forums etc.
Most Internet users just Request information from "known" places on the internet (usually servers). So they don't need others to know their address.
When a user Requests information from from a server, the user's IP address is stored in the Request. This allows the Server to send the Response (answer) back to you.
Your IP address changing from time to time, will not interfere with this process. But swapping a server's - will!

Step 2. How to configure IP Based Peer-to-Peer

Associated Toolbar buttons

Here is a quick overview of the Toobar buttons that relate to IP based Peer-to-Peer (P2P). The buttons are in order of usual use but in setting up we will be working backwards.

Start/Stop Listen Server. This icon will show the state of your YASAMM Listen Server along with the ability to start and stop it. More later.
Web based Peer-to-Peer. This will be a future enhancement and will require web site registration. (also know as "Hole Punching P2P".)
IP based Peer-to-Peer. This is ideally suited for a LAN environment but will work on the net. In the internet environment the setup will usually require setting up a "Port Forward" on your Firewall.
Configuration Options. This needs to be set up if you wish to use Peer-to-Peer.

Do this ..

Press the "Configuration Option" button ...

Step 2a. The TCP/IP and Security Options.

This needs to be done .. LAN vs Internet - setup Firewall/Router

Explanation of buttons etc.
Explanation of pages etc.
... in progress ...

Note: This works well with LANS but may be hard for people who don't know how or cannot configuter their Firewall/Router