A problem on running Red Alert II in local network
The game's LAN system uses the positively ancient IPX network communication protocol, which is no longer supported by modern OSes. However, there is a fan-patch that changes it to the more modern UDP protocol, which works fine. It can be downloaded here:
http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cncstuff/0_files.html#ts_dllDownload that and extract the wsock32.dll file into your game folder.
Note, if you have the game from either The First Decade or the Origin digital download version this isn't all you'll need to do. As anti-piracy measure, Westwood prohibited LAN games if multiple people on the network had the same serial number. The way this is checked is by reading the serial from the game's Windows registry entry. However, The TFD and Origin versions don't set the serial number in the registry as they're supposed to. This means that the game will see both sides as having the same (blank) serial, and you'll get an error message saying you can't play.
This can easily be fixed by simply adding anything at all into that serial number field in the registry. I explained how to do that here:
Thread: Yuri's Revenge Serial number issueNote that the network patch may interfere with online play; if you play online it's advised to remove the wsock32.dll file. For more information on online multiplayer, I advise you check out CnCNnet.
