Steam and Games Network Protocol

[Bluejay0]

I would like to know what kind of protocols the games use in Steam. SMTP or what ever it uses. Planetside 2 and Counterstrike and many other games would be nice to know the kind it uses

[tom564]

I would say TCP and UDP, SMTP is used for sending emails. 

[smokincola]

I'd say TCP/IP for multiplayer server connections but......

 

"All the content on the new system is sent via HTTP; this is more firewall-friendly than the current system, and will automatically take advantage of web-caching proxies installed at ISPs."

 

Apparently the games are downloading using good ole HTTP.

[Bluejay0]

WHats the HTTP number for steam download?

[tom564]

Ports are dynamically selected i would guess. You sent the GET request to a steam server on port 80 and then the file is sent over a TCP session to a dynamic port.  The ports that steam uses can be found here https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8571-GLVN-8711

[Blade of Grass]

ah no, most games use UDP. It's faster since it doesn't send confirmation packets, and the servers just want the latest info from the clients.

[tom564]

ah no, most games use UDP. It's faster since it doesn't send confirmation packets, and the servers just want the latest info from the clients.

Downloads use TCP. 

[Blade of Grass]

Downloads use TCP. 

I'm talking about actual online games. Like when you're playing.

[tom564]

I'm talking about actual online games. Like when you're playing.

Sorry i thought you where saying no to my previous post where i was talking about the method used for downloading games. 

[Blade of Grass]

Sorry i thought you where saying no to my previous post where i was talking about the method used for downloading games. 

It was @ the op, lol

[Bluejay0]

I've rerouted my server protocol management and set myself for priority one. I'll see what next. Thanks guys!

[WALK3R]

All games use UDP for Online games due to its speed. TCP was slow in the 90's

[tom564]

Looking at my vast 3com networking experience, I would say that the games tunnel traffic through ICMP. This provides speed and reliability. 

AFAIK Many firewalls will block  or limit ICMP making it not suitable for game traffic, the only time that i believe it is used is in the server browser for checking latency to the server. UDP is suitable for game traffic for the most part as if a few packets are lost the game will still go on with a few details missing. 

[LAwLz]

Downloads use TCP. 

Not necessarily. For example torrents use UDP. Steam uses HTTP and TCP though.

And like some other people have said, UDP is used while in games, for voice chat and so on. OP you will have to Google which ports certain games uses because everyone uses different ports.

 

 

Looking at my vast 3com networking experience, I would say that the games tunnel traffic through ICMP. This provides speed and reliability. 

Ehhh... Are you sure you mean ICMP? Also, what do you mean by "tunnel through ICMP"? ICMP is not a tunneling protocol such as GRE or IPsec. What you are saying doesn't make any sense. ICMP is used for control messages, such as ping.

[LAwLz]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICMP_tunnel

I see. Didn't know that was possible. Why the hell would they use that instead of simply using HTTP and TCP though (which is what they are doing)? ICMP tunnel sounds like a huge waste because the idea is that you can't detect the traffic, right? But it doesn't provide any encryption so all you need to do is inspect the packets (which I would most certainly do if I noticed that thousands of ICMP packets was being sent and received, I would think it was a DOS attack) and you would see what is being sent.

I don't really see how it's more reliable than HTTP over TCP either to be honest.

[Blade of Grass]

Ehhh... Are you sure you mean ICMP? Also, what do you mean by "tunnel through ICMP"? ICMP is not a tunneling protocol such as GRE or IPsec. What you are saying doesn't make any sense. ICMP is used for control messages, such as ping.

You can tunnel through almost anything.

I liked a quote from Little Brother

"You put the SMTP inside a chat "tunnel". You could then put the chat back into an SMTP tunnel if you wanted to be really weird, tunneling the tunnel in another tunnel."