Creating a Counter-Strike 1.6 Public Server for Friends (Alternative)

Sourced from Google —

Counter-Strike 1.6 is still a very popular game among the teens and freshly adults, but the public servers has been either outdated, or have been closed by the officials. These days people are having difficulties while setting up their own private server to enjoying a game night with friends on Counter Strike 1.6 due to a bug officially accepted by the steamCMD and still remained unresolved.

To cope with the issue, I have originated a new idea with a simple networking concept.

Requirements:

1. A Linux Server with Public IP.
2. Compute should be at least 2 Gib with 2 Cores and 2 Sockets.

We will be leveraging the concept of LAN with a VPN setup on Public server.

You can install the OpenVPN server on your public server with the given script below:

wget https://git.io/vpn -O openvpn-install.sh

Once downloaded, run the following the commands in the same directory where the file has been downloaded.

chmod +x openvpn-install.sh
sudo ./openvpn-install.sh

Let it go with the default settings:

Welcome to this OpenVPN road warrior installer!

Which protocol should OpenVPN use?
   1) UDP (recommended)
   2) TCP
Protocol [1]: 1

What port should OpenVPN listen to?
Port [1194]: 

Select a DNS server for the clients:
   1) Current system resolvers
   2) Google
   3) 1.1.1.1
   4) OpenDNS
   5) Quad9
   6) AdGuard
DNS server [1]: 2

Enter a name for the first client:
Name [client]: iphone

OpenVPN installation is ready to begin.
Press any key to continue...

To create multiple users: Run the script as many times as you want!

Once, the server is running, check the status with the following command:

sudo systemctl status openvpn-server

It gives you a file with the extension .ovpn which will be used by you or yours friends to connect with the server. Make one for each.

Once you are done with setting up the server and copying the contents of the file which you have shared with your friends, you need to make your friends download and install openVPN client for Windows:

OpenVPN Client Connect For Windows | OpenVPN

Once, downloaded, import the file and connect to the server — Here comes the concept we have thought of:

OpenVPN leases a private IP to every individual connecting to it so it makes a private network and acts as a router to you. So, connecting and playing with your friends, regardless of their physical location, you all get connected to the same router which means, you now can connect with them locally. But, make sure to select the server as near as possible to your physical location, else the latency will kill the joy!

Make sure to open 27015 UDP port on inbound traffic for your server, that’s where the CS1.6 servers serves the incoming requests.

Once, you all connected and port is opened, make a CS server locally and ask your mates to connect with your private IP leased by the OpenVPN, it should be on a new NIC, virtually created with the name “tun” short for tunneling. That must be starting with 10.x.x.x/x

If any issue comes up, you can email me :))

Thanks for reading ❤