A short summary:
There are two ways playing over the net:
Play By Email (PBEM) - you play your turn, a file is saved in your EmailOut folder, you send it to the next player, he/she places it in EmailIn folder, plays his/her turn, sends it to the next player etc. The obvious downside is, you can't fight other players in Tactical Combat (you'll have to put up with Fast Combat), which makes it very unpredictable. Also, it can take a long time - weeks and months. On the other hand, people don't need to be in front of their computers at the same time and you can play so with a crappy internet connection. You can find detailed information about it here.Playing Online - all players are in front of their computers and in the same game at the same time. One player "hosts" a game (his/her computer is set up as a server to wich all other players connect to), gives others his/her IP address, and other players enter the IP address in the game and "join". The advantage is that you can play a whole game in one shot, and fight other players in Tactical Combat, which is one of the most fun parts of the game. Unfortunately I couldn't find any detailed guides to setting it up, but it should be easy.However, the bad thing with online games is that since the game is old, there are few active players left and it will be hard to find even just one player to be able to play at the time that suits you. Your best bet is to get yourself AIM, ICQ and/or MSN (communication programs) and a whole bunch of contacts (some you can find here), and then plan the games in advance. You will need patience, as a lot of the contacts are inactive and active players will be difficult to find. Once a game is finally set up, however, it is terribly fun.[This message has been edited by Vantek (edited 07-20-2006 @ 04:55 PM).]