Am i missing something, or is there no way to choose to play online with friends using a player's connection to host?

Every time my friends and I want to play L4D together online it connects to a dedicated server in america when ever we start the game. Correct me if im wrong, but not everyone lives in the US, im in Australia and this dedicated server crap means that me and my friends have to play with .5 second lagg and red ping which makes normal difficulty a challenge, let alone expert difficulty.

There have been a few instances where we get green/ orange ping, but for the most part it will always connect us to a dedicated server in America which is very frustrating since if there was just an option to let te player who started the lobby host (rainbow six vegas style) we would be able to enjoy playing co-op through the campaigns without crippling lagg.

If there is a way to use the players host please let me know thanks.

No you can change the setting in the game options to host locally. Right under the game settings, if you're lobby leader.

is that for the PC or 360, because i have the 360 version and when i host a game theres no game options option. all there is is edit game settings (which lets u change the difficulty and the level), choose character, invite friends, permissions, and start the game. Theres no place to select what kind of server u want.

Maybe you should have bought the PC version. And why the fuck would you want to host a game? So your friend can enjoy 200 ping?

"Maybe you should have bought the PC version. And why the fuck would you want to host a game? So your friend can enjoy 200 ping?"

You can do it on the 360 also. I know this for a fact because I rented it there to play with a few people, and a friend of mine says he always hosts his own games because it takes so long to find dedicated servers.