Hi,
I just tried to play this game in LAN with my bro, but I didn't find a button for that, and the other buttons didn't let us play either. Is there a way to do that? An unofficial patch, maybe?

Hello, several older games seem to have similar problems to the one by Zanulix.
I foud a (somewhat hacked) solution:

The problem occurs in many older Games using DirectPlay: Total Annihilation, Seven Kingdoms 2 (posted the same solution over there), Age of Empires 2 to name a few.

Solution:
Create a directory C:\windows\'system.
Copy the files dpwsockx.dll and dpmodemx.dll from c:\windows\sysWoW64 to c:\windows\system.

Explanation:
Since DirectX 9, DirectPlay is deprecated. On 64-bit systems, older games use the files in the 32-bit emulation layer, located in c:\windows\sysWoW64 (sounds strange, the name means "Windows(32) emulation on Windows(64)"). The problem: these games (or, I presume, the old directplayx.dll in this directory) assumed all windows files to be in c:\windows\system. Since the files above cannot be found, no net connection is possible. Copying the files to the location assumed by the game fixes this issue.

i am trying to play TA over lan too. i downloaded the game from gog onto two computers, start multiplayer, tcp/ip directplay, i confirm the firewall popups (so something is actually happening), leave the ip blank for the computer which creates the game and enter the ip of this computer on the other. but the other one doesnt see the game.

i tried copying the two mentioned dlls to windows/system, but no difference. i also deactivated the firewalls on both computers, no change.

how can i troubleshoot this further?

the computer ping each other perfectly, also playing starcraft 1 over lan works.

Are you using WLAN? I never managed to get it running with WLAN... it works fine with cabel LAN though. As an alternative you could use Gameranger to play.

how can this be possible? i thought these protocols are on a layer where physical implementation of the network makes no difference. yes, i am on wlan and cant change that easily.

i tried gameranger and it works. i think gog should offer a service like that itself, saves us all a lot of reading.

vote here:
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/gogs_own_vpn_client_to_facilitate_multiplayer_between_members

Here is a set of instructions for getting multi-player to work on LAN (without using a game service like game ranger). It took me quite a bit of time to figure this one out!

I tested this on:
- 32 bit windows XP
- 64 bit windows 7
- 64 bit windows 8.1
(I was able to see and launch games between any combination of the above)

The installation steps are:
--------------------------------------
1) Download and install TA from gog.com. I prefer to customize the install options to use the original folder location "C:\CAVEDOG\TOTALA" because some of the expansion installers like TAUCP seem to understand that better than the default folder name from the gog installer.

2) Download ipxwrapper-0.5.0 from http://www.solemnwarning.net/ipxwrapper/

3) Unzip the ipxwrapper files into the total annihilation folder (example: "C:\CAVEDOG\TOTALA")

4) If you have a 32 bit OS, run the file "directplay-win32.reg" as administrator.

or

If you have a 64 bit OS, run the file "directplay-win64.reg" as administrator.

5) Complete the installation above on at least two machines.

6) Start the game on the host machine. Pick "IPX Connection for DirectPlay". Leave the search address blank, and create a new multi-player game.

7) Start the game on a second machine. Again pick "Pick "IPX Connection for DirectPlay". Leave the search address blank, and you should see the game from the host machine. Join the game and play as normal.

I was not able to get the "TCPIP Connection for DirectPlay" working. It appears to work well on XP only, not on Window7 or Window8.1. I was unable to see games from other machines unless the host machine was an XP box. Even then the game would not launch properly. So my conclusion was to use the IPX connection instead, it works much better with a newer OS or a combination of new and old OS's.

By the way, I tested with the TAUCP unit pack installed as well.

Enjoy! Let others know if it works for you. I didn't see many success stories when I hunted the internet for solutions on this issue!

I never had any issues playing TA GoG version over lan. Even with PlayOnLinux it works.
All you have to do is deactivating your firewall or make an exception for TA. Start a server via TCP and others may join using the ip adress from the host.
Already played hours over lan with friends on different machines and OS.