The TCP/IP Internet DOOM FAQ

 From: asre@uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman)

Subject: () Playing Internet DOOM via TCP/IP (94/10/16)

Newsgroups: rec.games.computer.doom.announce,rec.games.computer.doom.help,rec.games.computer.doom.playing

Followup-To: poster

Organization: RGCD Support Team

Approved: doom@mantis.co.uk

                  The TCP/IP Internet DOOM FAQ

                by Scott Coleman (asre@uiuc.edu)

             and Jay Cotton (jay@calc.vet.uga.edu)

                        updated 1/11/95

                           

   Introduction

        id Software's DOOM, DOOM II, and Heretic truly are

   the Killer Apps of the MS-DOS world. The popularity of

   these games is so immense, it has been estimated that

   DOOM is installed on more PCs than OS/2 and Windows NT

   combined. So many copies of these games have been sold

   that the idGuys can commute to work in Ferarris. Interest

   in these games has been so great that they have been

   hacked, reverse-engineered, dissected, and enhanced more

   than any other games in PC history. And now, as more and

   more people become hooked into the Internet, DOOM-engine

   games are rapidly becoming the Killer Apps of the 'net,

   as well. Although the remainder of this document will

   refer exclusively to DOOM, the procedures outlined here

   will work equally well for either DOOM II or Heretic, as

   well.

        DOOM, as released by id, only supports IPX network

   or modem/direct serial link play; TCP/IP networks are not

   supported. As a result, the DOOM documentation doesn't

   include any information about DOOMing across the

   Internet, and obviously DOOMers can't call id for help.

   As a result, the following question is asked at least

   once per week in the DOOM newsgroups: "How do I play DOOM

   over the Internet?" In the pages that follow, we will

   attempt to answer the most frequently asked questions

   about Internet DOOM, including what you need, how to set

   it up, and how to find new fragbait - er, I mean,

   opponents.

        DOOM across the Internet is made possible by a

   freeware program called iFrag. iFrag (formerly called

   iDOOM) uses the UDP protocol (part of the TCP/IP protocol

   suite) to send DOOM game information between multiple

   machines on the Internet. By some strange coincidence,

   the authors of this document are also the creators of

   iFrag, and we have used the program to play Internet DOOM

   sessions with opponents from as far away as Estonia. In

   writing this FAQ, we hope that sharing some of our

   experience will make it easier for you to get connected

   in your own Internet DOOM sessions. NOTE: This tutorial

   will refer specifically to games of DOOM played over the

   Internet via a DIRECT CONNECTION, i.e. no modems are

   involved anywhere in the link. Note that IHHD, SLIP and

   PPP connections all involve modems at some point.

   Although it is possible to connect two DOOM machines

   together across the Internet using a modem link, the

   resulting game will be slow, ranging from the unplayable

   (e.g. a 14.4Kbps PPP connection) to the marginally

   playable (e.g. a 28.8Kbps modem running a Compressed SLIP

   driver). Since these sorts of connections are of only

   marginal utility, this document will focus only on direct

   net connections.

                        The Frag Tracker

        The Frag Tracker is a major new enhancement to the

   Internet DOOMing experience. Based on the premise that

   the ability to play DOOM over the 'net isn't much good

   unless you have other people with whom to play, the Frag

   Tracker serves as a virtual meeting place for Internet

   DOOMers. Frag Tracker support is built right into iFrag -

   its use is completely transparent. People looking for

   games run iFrag in client mode, which automatically

   queries the Frag Tracker for a listing of registered

   games. The type of game (DOOM, DOOM II, or Heretic), the

   names of the players, the game parameters (episode, map,

   skill level, etc.), and other information is displayed on

   the iFrag screen. The player picks a game from this list

   and she is instantly connected to that game. If there are

   no games waiting, or the existing games aren't

   sufficiently interesting, a player can register a new

   iFrag game on the Frag Tracker which others can then

   join.

        

                        Getting Prepared

        Q1: I want to play DOOM over the Internet using

   iFrag. What hardware do I need?

        To successfully play DOOM across the Internet, you

   will need the following hardware:

        * A machine capable of playing DOOM (D'OHH!) 

        * A network interface card (NIC). And not just any

        old NIC, mind you - your NIC must be supported by a

        packet driver if you wish to use it to play Internet

        DOOM. Usually this means that your NIC must be an

        ethernet card, although iFrag has been successfully

        played over token ring. We will assume that your PC

        is already equipped with a suitable NIC, although it

        may currently be in use for some other non-TCP/IP

        function (such as a node on a Novell network). As

        long as your NIC is supported by a standard packet

        driver (see below), your machine can be readily

        converted into an iFrag "playstation."

        * A direct connection to the Internet. As noted

        earlier, if there is a modem somewhere in the link

        between your PC and your opponent's PC, this FAQ is

        not for you. Although it is possible to play

        Internet DOOM over a modem link (either by dialing

        up to a UNIX machine and using IHHD or via

        SLIP/PPP), such connection methods are beyond the

        scope of this document.

              

        Q2: OK, I've got all the hardware. What software do

   I need? 

                  

        In addition to the hardware requirements, some

   software is also required to round out your the package.

   Before you can play, you'll need to pick up the

   following:

* The latest version of DOOM.  At the time of this

        writing, the latest version of DOOM is 1.666, DOOM

        II is 1.7a, and Heretic is 1.0. It's always best to

        use the latest version of each game because that is

        what the majority of other iFragers will be using,

        and different versions of each game cannot be used

        in the same network game. Additionally, DOOM

        versions 1.1 and below are incapable of using iFrag.

        * A packet driver written specifically for your NIC.

        The Packet Driver is a standardized interface that

        lets iFrag (and therefore DOOM) "talk" to your NIC.

        * iFrag, the TCP/IP network driver for DOOM.  

        

        * Some basic network diagnostic tools, such as a

        PING or TRACEROUTE program. These are not absolutely

        necessary, but can definitely be useful for

        debugging and testing your setup. 

        Q3: Hold on - I don't have some of this software!

   Where can I get it?

        * To obtain iFrag: Log on to mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu

        via anonymous ftp. Change to directory /asre.

        Download the file IFrag20.ZIP. This is version 2.0

        of iFrag, the latest as of this writing. 

        * Many ethernet cards come with the appropriate

        packet drivers on a utilities diskette packaged with

        the card. If your card does not come with a packet

        driver, there is an excellent collection of freely

        available packet drivers called the Crynwr (nee

        Clarkson) Packet Driver collection. You can obtain

        it via anonymous ftp from oak.oakland.edu. Change to

        the /pub/msdos/pktdrvr subdirectory and download

        PKTD11.ZIP and PKTD11C.ZIP. You need not download

        the files PKTD11A.ZIP and PKTD11B.ZIP; these contain

        source code and example programs for the packet

        drivers - while interesting (especially to

        programmer types), you won't need these in order to

        play iFrag.

        * If you need basic network diagnostic utilities,

        the WATTCP applications are freely available and

        include a PING program. To get them, anonymous ftp

        to dorm.rutgers.edu, change to the

        /pub/msdos/wattcp/ subdirectory, and download the

        file APPS.ZIP.

                  

        Q4: OK, I've got everything, now what do I do to set

   it up? 

        Setting your computer up to use the TCP/IP protocol

   suite via a packet driver is very straightforward. As an

   illustration, I'll be taking you through the steps

   necessary to set up a PC with an SMC ethernet card and

   the IP address 128.192.23.5. You'll of course need to

   substitute your own specific information in place of the

   examples given here. All set? OK, let's get started.

        Step 0: START WITH A CLEAN BOOT!!!!! Set up your

   CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to load as few drivers

   as possible. Some definite things to EXclude are memory

   managers (HIMEM, EMM386, QEMM, etc.) and network drivers

   (e.g. LSL, IPXODI). DOOM doesn't need the former, and the

   latter will probably conflict with the packet driver. We

   recommend that you prepare an alternate configuration

   (using the multiple configuration facility built into MS-

   DOS; see your DOS manual for details) specifically for

   Internet DOOM with a CONFIG.SYS portion containing only a

   FILES=20 line, and an AUTOEXEC.BAT portion containing

   only the line "prompt=$p$g". Be sure to include the line

   which loads your mouse driver (if you play DOOM using a

   mouse).

        Step 1: Set up the packet driver. If you do not

   already have a suitable packet driver installed on your

   machine, now is the time to install one. Start by

   determining your ethernet card's IRQ setting, it's base

   I/O port setting, and it's memory address setting (if

   any). You should be able to determine this by looking at

   the card itself and consulting the user manual. You'll

   need some if not all of this information, depending upon

   which packet driver you use and/or type of hardware you

   have (for example, some IBM computers with the

   MicroChannel bus can determine the settings on the card

   automatically without you having to supply them on the

   packet driver command line). Unzip the appropriate driver

   from Crynwr Packet Driver collection archive. In our

   example, the packet driver is called SMC_WD.COM. By

   looking at the jumpers on the card and consulting the

   manual, I determined that the card has been set to IRQ 7,

   Base I/O port address 300h, and the base memory address

   is at segment d800h. For this example, I have chosen to

   use interrupt 60h for the packet driver. Packet drivers

   typically operate on an interrupt in the range of 60h to

   80h inclusive; since nothing else in my sample system

   happens to be using the first available interrupt (INT

   60h), I chose that. Thus, to load my packet driver, I use

   the command line

        SMC_WD 0x60 0x7 0x300 0xd800

   where 0x60 is the packet driver interrupt, 0x7 is the IRQ

   setting on the card, 0x300 is the I/O port base address,

   and 0xd800 is the memory base address (NOTE: all numbers

   are in C-style HEX notation). Don't worry if you don't

   understand what all this stuff means - as long as you use

   the correct numbers, your packet driver should work.

   NOTE: If your PC is currently part of a Novell network

   (e.g. Netware, Netware Lite, Personal Netware) the

   parameters you need can be found in a file called

   NET.CFG, usually located in your \NOVELL, \NWLITE or

   \NWCLIENT subdirectories (along with all the other

   drivers needed by Novell). Add the proper command line to

   the AUTOEXEC.BAT for your iFrag configuration so that the

   packet driver will be loaded automatically whenever you

   boot using the iFrag partition.

        When successfully loaded, the packet driver should

   give a sign on message and report the ethernet address of

   your NIC when you load it. Chances are that if your NIC

   has been functioning properly for other tasks (e.g. as a

   node on a Novell network) then you'll have no problems

   here. If not, or if there are any error or warning

   messages, something is wrong. One possibility is that one

   of the settings on your NIC is in conflict with those of

   another expansion card in your system. No two cards can

   have the same IRQ, I/O port, or memory address settings,

   nor can the memory areas of two cards overlap. Whatever

   the cause, you'll need to find and correct the problem

   before continuing.

        Step 2: Set up a new directory where iFrag and all

   its configuration files will be kept. You can name this

   directory anything you like (I suggest c:\iFrag). UnZIP

   the idoom20.zip file into this new directory, and make it

   the default (chdir to it). We will refer to this

   directory as the "iFrag directory."

        Step 3: Set up your WATTCP.CFG file. Your WATTCP.CFG

   file contains important parameters used by the WATTCP

   TCP/IP kernel built into iFrag. These values MUST be

   entered correctly if you wish to make a connection with

   another DOOM PC. In preparation for this, you'll need

   several bits of information. Contact the network

   administrator for your site and find out the IP address

   for your machine, the IP address for your gateway or

   router, the IP address of at least one Domain Name Server

   local to your site, and your netmask value. The three IP

   addresses will each consist of four groups of digits

   separated by periods. In our example, the machine's IP

   address is 128.192.23.5, the gateway is 128.192.23.1, the

   netmask is 255.255.255.0, and the nameserver address is

   128.192.44.67. NOTE: it is important to use the numeric

   IP addresses, not the actual host names. NOTE: If you

   have other Internet programs currently installed on your

   machine, such as a Gopher client or the Trumpet

   newsreader, you can probably find the information you

   need in the configuration files used for those programs.

   If the application is based on the Waterloo TCP package,

   it will have it's own WATTCP.CFG, in which case you can

   simply copy it over to your iFrag directory. When you

   have collected all this information, use your favorite

   ASCII text editor to edit the WATTCP.CFG file in your

   iFrag directory. Edit or add the lines beginning with

   my_ip=, gateway=, nameserver=, and netmask=. On our

   example machine, the WATTCP.CFG file looks like this:

   my_ip=128.192.23.5

   gateway=128.192.23.1

   netmask=255.255.255.0

   nameserver=128.192.44.67

        Save the changed file and exit back to DOS.

        Some sites run what is called a BOOTP server. If

   yours is such a site, you can put "BOOTP" on the "my_ip="

   line and leave the other lines out. iFrag can contact the

   BOOTP server and determine all the settings it needs to

   communicate with other machines on the Internet. If your

   site is not running a BOOTP server, then your task is a

   little more difficult (but not impossible!)

        If you know your machine's IP address, but you can't

   determine the other values, you can often get away with

   some educated guesswork. For instance, the gateway for a

   subnet usually has an IP address ending in .1, as is the

   case with our example. Thus, if your IP address is

   xxx.yyy.zzz.www, try setting your gateway's IP address to

   xxx.yyy.zzz.1. As for the subnet mask, a common value for

   this parameter is 255.255.255.0. In some cases, the

   gateway value can be something like xxx.yyy.1.1 with a

   corresponding netmask value of 255.255.0.0 - if one

   doesn't work, it can't hurt to try the other. Finally, if

   you don't know your nameserver's IP address, you can

   probably get by without it for the purposes of DOOM

   playing. Since you'll be specifying IP addresses for all

   of your opponents' machines, a nameserver lookup won't be

   necessary to resolve their addresses. 

        Step 4: Test your TCP/IP setup. Reboot your machine

   and select your new iFrag configuration. Next, use your

   network diagnostic programs to test the connection. For

   example, if you are using the WATTCP application suite

   mentioned earlier, unzip the TCPINFO and PING programs

   from the WATTCP apps archive into your iFrag directory.

   At the DOS prompt, type:

             TCPINFO    

   and press the <Enter> key. If your WATTCP.CFG values are

   set up correctly, and if your packet driver and net

   connection are functional, you'll see a couple of screens

   of information about your system, including your ethernet

   address and the parameters you specified in the

   WATTCP.CFG file. 

        If everything looks OK, the next step is to use the

   PING program to attempt to establish contact with your

   subnet gateway. At the DOS prompt, type

        PING <yourgateway's.numeric.ip.address>

   and press the <Enter> key. After a brief delay, you

   should see a message telling you that the host is

   responding, as well as the round trip time for PING's

   test packets. If you see the "Timeout" error message,

   then something is wrong with your setup; if your PC is

   unable to reach your gateway, it will be unable to reach

   the rest of the Internet as well, since all network

   packets which are sent to nodes outside of your local

   area network must pass through your gateway. For our

   sample system, we would type:

             ping 128.192.23.1

   If your gateway PING was successful, try PINGing your

   Domain Name Server (at the IP address you specified in

   WATTCP.CFG) as well as some well-known site on the

   internet (e.g. the Frag Tracker, which is at IP address

   128.174.134.150). These will test your machine's ability

   to connect with other machines outside of your subnet as

   well as those outside of your site. All of these PINGs

   should result in a "host responding" message with a round

   trip time. If any of these attempts fails, recheck your

   entries in WATTCP.CFG and/or get some help from your

   network administrator. Examples for our test system:

ping 128.192.44.67

   and

        ping 128.174.134.150

        Step 5: Set up your iFrag.CFG. Again using your

   preferred ASCII text editor, modify the iFrag.CFG file in

   your iFrag directory so that all entries are correct for

   your system. You will need to specify the paths to your

   game and patch WAD directories, your chosen nickname (the

   name by which other iFrag players will know you), the

   number of lines you want on your video display (25 or

   50), whether or not you want stealth (no sound) mode,

   etc. As an example, let's suppose Joe Ayedume has chosen

   the nickname FragLord, and that he has installed DOOM,

   DOOM II, and Heretic into their standard directories on

   his hard disk. The iFrag.CFG file for Joe's system will

   look something like this:

   ;

   ; Sample iFrag Configuration File

   ;

   ; stealth 

   nick=FragLord

   tracker=128.174.134.150,6666

   doom=c:\doom

   doom2=c:\doom2

   heretic=c:\heretic

   doompwads=c:\doom\wads

   doom2pwads=c:\doom2\wads

   hereticpwads=c:\heretic\wads

   videolines=50

        Edit your iFrag.CFG file to reflect your nickname as

   well as the locations of your games and PWADs. If you

   don't have one of the games installed, just leave the

   corresponding entries blank. Save the changed file back

   to disk.

             Put Me in, Coach - I'm Ready to Play! 

        All right! iFrag is now installed and ready for

   fragging! Now all I need are some more players to sink my

   rockets into. From my iFrag directory, I start iFrag by

   typing

   iFrag

   and pressing the <ENTER> key. The iFrag client-mode

   screen comes up, and iFrag contacts the Internet Frag

   Tracker to see which games are waiting for players at the

   moment. Once iFrag has successfully contacted the Frag

   Tracker and downloaded the list of available games, a

   pop-up dialog box appears on the screen. Using the PgUp

   and PgDn keys, I can view a summary of each available

   game. This game summary includes the type of game (DOOM,

   DOOM II, or Heretic), the nicknames of all the players

   currently in the game, a brief description/comment, as

   well as the current game settings (skill, episode, map,

   etc.). I notice that my friend (who is known only as

   "ArchVile") is currently hosting a game of Heretic. Since

   it's been a while since I have turned him into a chicken,

   I press the <ENTER> key to select his game. iFrag

   immediately contacts ArchVile's machine and I join the

   game.

        ArchVile is running iFrag in server mode. This makes

   ArchVile the coordinator for this particular game - he is

   the "boss," and gets to decide which game will be played

   (DOOM, DOOM II, or Heretic as in this case) as well as

   which parameters to set (such as episode, map, skill

   level, which PWADs to use, and so forth). ArchVile also

   decides who may be allowed to join the game and when the

   game will begin. Although the other players in the game

   may voice their opinions, only the server has the ability

   to actually make changes to the game settings. In a sense

   it's just like watching TV - although there may be four

   people watching, only one person can have the remote

   control.

        Now that I have successfully joined a game, the

   iFrag chat mode screen appears. This screen is divided

   into several sections: the credits, the output window,

   the status bar, and the input line. At the top of the

   screen is the name of the program, its version number,

   and the copyright notice. The large area beginning with

   the second screen line is the output window. Here is

   where iFrag will display all status messages as well as

   the chat text entered by the other players. Below the

   output window is the status bar, where the current game

   settings are displayed. Below the status bar is the input

   line where all the text I type on my keyboard will

   appear. Finally, the bottom line of the screen lists

   significant contributors to iFrag. During this phase of

   the game setup, all players who have connected thus far

   can type messages to each other using iFrag's built-in

   chat facility. To send a message to the other players in

   the game, I simply type a message on the keyboard. My

   keystrokes appear in the input line at the bottom of the

   screen, and when I press <ENTER>, the text will be echoed

   to the screens of all players (along with my nickname to

   indicate that I sent the message). The server itself will

   also send messages. Messages from the server will begin

   with three asterisks ("***") to distinguish them from

   messages typed by other players.

        In addition to sending text messages, iFrag's chat

   facility also understands several commands, each

   beginning with a slash '/' character. Some examples of

   iFrag chat mode commands are /who, /quit, and /help.

        When my iFrag client connects to the iFrag server,

   it automatically receives the game parameters which will

   be used during this session. These game settings are

   displayed on the status bar in an abbreviated form to

   ensure that they will all fit within the available space.

        The server announces my arrival, and ArchVile greets

   me by typing "re" (short for "re Hi," i.e. "Hi again"). I

   reply with a "re" of my own. Gazing down at my status

   bar, I notice that he has selected E1M8 as the default

   episode and map for our game. I remind him that we've

   been playing that one a lot lately, and suggest that we

   play something else. "How about hl9.wad?" he asks,

   referring to the PWAD (user-written level) which is a

   Heretic DEATHMATCH level based on the famous DOOM

   "Ledges" PWAD. I agree, and he issues the commands and

   "/map 1" and "/pwads hl9.wad" to incorporate the new

   level. Our status lines are immediately updated to

   reflect these changes.

    

        Once all players have joined the game and all

   parameters have been set, ArchVile presses the F10 key.

   The iFrag server signals the clients that the game is

   beginning, the chat facility is shut down, and iFrag sets

   up the connections which will be used for the actual

   game. Once these network links are established between

   all the machines, the message "Prepare to meet your

   DOOM!" is displayed, and iFrag launches the appropriate

   game. We see the usual Heretic startup information, and

   then there we are, in HL9.WAD, crystal wands charged and

   ready! 

        After dining heartily on Chicken Flambe' (courtesy

   of a Morph Ovum, a Phoenix Rod, and a Tome of Power), I

   decide to fire up my own game with a little scenario I

   call "Carnage-DOOM." From the DOS prompt, I type 

   iFrag -server

   and press <ENTER>. Since I like this particular scenario

   quite a bit, I created a standard DOOM response file

   called "carnage.rsp" containing the parameters -doom2, -

   warp 1, -deathmatch, -nomonsters, and -skill 5. I use

   iFrag's /load command to load the response file by typing

   /load carnage.rsp, and my status bar is updated with the

   new settings. After a few moments, NoOne, Caitiff, and

   FragMastr join my game. After exchanging a few

   jocularities, I confirm that everyone is ready to begin

   and then I press the F10 key. DOOM II loads, and I grab

   the rocket launcher for the first of many fabulously fun

   frags.

        That's all there is to it! Gone are the days of long

   command lines with 4 IP addresses and tons of other

   parameters, setting up games via email, and other

   frustrations. Now getting into a game of Internet DOOM is

   as easy as getting fragged with a BFG-9000!

                   Oh Oh - It's Not Working!

             OK, so you've done everything, just like I've

   shown you, but you're still having problems. The

   following are some suggestions to try in case of trouble.

        Q: The music starts up fine, but all I see is a BSOD

   (Black Screen of Death).

        Q: My machine displays "sending network start info"

   or "listening for network start info" and then locks up. 

        A: This problem can have several causes. Perhaps one

   of the other players' machines is slower than the others,

   or has a fragmented disk and takes a longer time to load

   DOOM at startup. Or perhaps some packets were lost -

   iFrag uses UDP (User Datagram Protocol) packets to

   exchange game information between all machines in the

   game. UDP packets are not guaranteed to reach their

   destination, and there is no mechanism for the sender to

   even be informed that what it sent never made to the

   destination machine. iFrag is designed to compensate for

   these lost packets to the extent possible, and

   occasionally this detection and correction takes a few

   extra seconds. You should always wait for at least 30 -

   45 seconds for the other DOOM engines to sync up before

   you abort the setup. 

         Pointers and Tips for More Fragging Enjoyment 

        We'd like to leave you with a few experiences and

   opinions about Internet deathmatches.

        First, try not to use the "pause" key. Do NOT use

   the pause key just so you can type a message. DO use the

   pause key if you have to answer the phone; either find a

   hiding place to hole up, or if you are fragged, just stay

   dead (don't hit the spacebar) until your call is

   completed. It's inconsiderate to make everyone else wait

   on you. Do NOT release the pause after someone else

   pauses.  It's hard to yell at someone over an IP

   connection. It's really annoying to play against people

   who like to pause just when they're about to be shot. 

   Argh!

        Second, DO type messages. A pause at the beginning

   of the game is OK just to see if the other player is

   there.  If you notice a sudden increase in game speed,

   another player may have aborted or crashed. You might end

   up playing by yourself if you are not alert... If you can

   monitor network traffic (I have a repeater nearby that

   gets very busy when I play), notice the difference

   between the amount of traffic when connected and

   disconnected. 

        Third, Be patient. It sometimes takes 30-60 seconds

   for the connection to complete. The first phase, finding

   a node, should be immediate. As mentioned above, if you

   cannot find a node, something is wrong. The second phase,

   looking/sending network start info, may take 30 seconds,

   longer if one of the players has a slow or fragmented

   hard disk (this is the phase where DOOM loads the info it

   needs to play from the WAD file(s)).  The third phase,

   sometimes a blank screen just before the game loads, may

   take another 15-30 seconds.  After finding a node, please

   don't abort until you have waiting a sufficient time for

   a connect. Also, if your connection doesn't work the

   first time, try again immediately! If it failed on your

   end, chances are it failed on the other end, also, and

   your partner will be back in iFrag trying to connect and

   wondering where you are.

        Forth, Internet games will self abort sometimes with

   errors. Don't panic, just restart iFrag. Sometimes one of

   the computers will lock up - again, just restart. If you

   get tired of restarting (this doesn't happen much), just

   walk away! It's just a game!

        Last, hope for a fast connection. This isn't always

   a problem, but when the connection is slow, the game

   sucks! There's nothing you can do about it. Sometimes the

   game will speed up and slow down throughout the match. 

   Such is the Internet. Re-connection will not help. Every

   packet that is sent back and forth picks a new path;

   sometimes it's a fast path, and sometimes not.

                        A Final Thought

        Fragging your friends across the Internet with DOOM,

   DOOM II, and Heretic can be VERY addictive. Have fun, but

   don't lose your "real" life just to play a game!