Privado is a free VPN service which has proven to be a plug-n-play and relatively low latency solution for most common connection issues you may encounter. We have tested Privado deeply and can assure our users that as long as the VPN is used purely for playing C&C:Online supported games that there won’t be increased security risks nor any hidden or sketchy payments.
Privado provides a total of 10GB free data every month after which the speed is just slowed but still plenty enough to play C&C (given that you activated your account via the E-mail) and if you use Privado only for playing the supported games there is no chance that you will exhaust said volume. That means you will have to make sure that there is NOTHING draining your data in the background. This includes but is not limited to streaming video content of any form including screenshares on Discord, background downloads, streaming massive amounts of high-quality music and other content.
In general, we recommend the following: correctly activating Privado’s Smart Route to erase the chance of accidentally yeeting your data volume out of the window or if Smart Route is not active to not stream video content or start downloads while being connected to the VPN. Also this will fix Spotify skipping around a thousand songs a minute if theres a VPN running
This being said now get to the actual guide:
Step 1: Go to https://Privado.com/ and download Privado for your OS which will most likely be Windows. Note: You do not need the browser extension nor R.O.B.E.R.T so you can skip these steps in the download. (for Chinese users or users where that website is blocked, we do have a workaround to make Privado work for you)
Step 2: Run the installer and Log in with your user account you previously created on https://Privado.com/ (make sure to activate your account using the E-mail to receive 10GB of free Data).
Step 3: After the Installation is complete and you are logged into your Privado client (should you encounter any errors while installing Privado please message Cervanthes#3136 (me) with as many details as possible) you will see a small window with a big on/off button.
Step 4: Click the big on/off button and wait for Privado to connect. The window will visibly change and tell you that you are connected. You do not need to pick a location or change the client settings in any way.
Step 5: Now that you are connected, please open the game in which you are facing connection problems and navigate to the settings menu.
Step 6a: For KW, TW and RA3 will the setting menu have a "Network" tab, open that one and in the IP menu please select the IP that starts with the number 10.
Step 6b: For Generals and ZeroHour are the Network settings included in the main settings menu just click the drop down menu for "Online IP" and select the IP starting with 10 (should you not be able to change the IP e.g. the menu is greyed out or the IP auto resets to a different one please message Cervanthes#3136 (me) giving details about your game version and if you have any modifications applied to your game)
Step 7: Now that you have changed your IP navigate back to Multiplayer and try to log into the servers Note that this might take one or three tries after changing your IP
Step 8: Confirm that you are able to connect to the multiplayer if that goes well we will now set up windscribe in a way that you cant accidentally yeet your data away
**Step 9: Open your Privado client and click the settings tab (cogwheel on the bottom left)
Step 10: Click the button that looks like a split path labelled "SmartRoute"
Step 11: Click the option called "SmartRoute" and tick the box that allows the process
Step 12: Change the mode to "Tunnel"
Step 13: Under the option "Applications" are you now going to add the Command and conquer games and C&C:Online/Gentool (their .exe)
Step 14: This change will only have these appllications use your VPN connection so that nothing else is draining your Data
Stage 15: Log back into Multiplayer and Welcome back Commander!
Note: Should you still face issues Connecting even with Windscribe please message @cervanthes Note²: For any Questions, Suggestions, or just a simple chit chat Ping or message @cervanthes as well Note³: We are in no way Sponsored nor Supported from Privado and gain nothing from "advertising" their product, you can always try out a different VPN Provider but we cannot provide support for other services except Privado.
affter public demand have i decided to put in a very simplfied explanation here
The games are P2P (peer to peer) that means that the game will connect the PCs of all players in the lobby directly to each other, for that to work the game will need a specific kind of IP which is a translatable/working Ipv4 adress due to CG-NAT and DS-Lite do many costumers not have that kinda IP anymore and either need to Open a lot of Ports and set up DMZ in their routers or use a VPN to force a IP like that so the games can build a actual using connection. if you simplify it a lot its basically that the game talk in a specific langauge and some people can understand that language and others need a interpreter the interpreter in this case is the VPN.
Yes it can happen that one day you need the VPN and one day you wont this is because most IP these days are dynamic so they basically change everytime you restart your stuff.
the alternative solution is to call your ISP and request a static Ipv4 but this rarely is a option for most of our users so we recommend the VPN.