Holy Bolt v1.10 B2; Paladin xp factory

[Crystalion]

Host a multiplayer game from one user account.  Alt-tab out, then use the switch user button on the start menu.

Switch to a different user, launch Diablo II, and join a multiplayer game at your own ip address.

You can even transfer items etc as long as you don't have the server character exit the game (then the game ends).

some additional notes for you, since you haven't done it before...

You'll need admin privilege (which you probably have) to create a new user (D2 may need them to be admin as well) in the control panel: User Accounts.

On your start menu the "Log off" button is what he means by "switch user button". Alternately, if you have a modern keyboard, you can use the Windows key to get out of D2 (instead of alt-tab) and you can then hold the Windows key and press L to get to the logout/switch-user dialog.

You won't need to remember your own ip address, as ip 127.0.0.1 is standard for "localhost" and means your own ip.

I want to re-emphasize his warning about not leaving the game with the host (aka server) before you "save and exit game" with the "join"ing game/character. If the host exits, the clients don't save.

As a final note, you might want one account to add the -w for windowed mode to the program startup shortcut, and then set the in-game options for that one to be 640x480 with no frills on the video effects/quality settings. This will reduce the load on your PC and make the game less laggy. You can also turn off the sound in the same way. Additionally you can toggle off your music at the game start menus with ctrl-m. (it is also possible that the -ns option still sets the game to not use sound at all).

I don't have a particularly beefy PC and I play hosted (by myself) often without problem 95%+ of the time. I have even occasionally used three user accounts and played with 3 characters, although that can get rather laggy.

(edit) p.s. it isn't necessary to have 2 CD keys for LAN play. I have 2 keys but haven't tried this on Realm, so I don't know any extra details for making that go right, sorry.