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I've written this FAQ in an attempt to answer the main questions that I keep getting asked about setting up, running and maintaining a dedicated server. This FAQ is going to be far from comprehensive, and in no way is it intended to replace the help files with the game, or server software. It is merely to be a (hopefully) useful resource to those having typical problems with their servers.
1. I'VE STARTED MY SERVER BUT NO ONE CAN SEE IT
Let me say right off the bat, I'm assuming you have some type of firewall in place. If you don't you're asking for trouble and should go and sort that out first. Now, I know this isn't what the game says to do in its help files, however, I have tried this approach on a number of different set-ups and different connections and I know that when you get it right it does work. It may sound like overkill, but if it works go with it, and rather than spend additional time trying to break it (Bug test it) I have just accepted it and go with it.
Firstly if you don't know how to open ports on your particular firewall go away now and learn. I have done this on both modem/router firewalls as well as software firewalls, and they both work equally as well. Oh and one other thing, regardless of the firewall you use, I am not going to answer questions about how to configure particular hardware or software. I'm assuming you can do that yourself.
Now. Open the default game port 7755 on the firewall (In fact opening 7754 - 7757 does help slightly but the minimum is the main port) make this port bi-directional (BOTH IN AND OUT) and configure it to accept UDP and TCP packets.
Secondly do the same for port 18444. This is the one no one seems to tell you about. Again bi-directional and UDP AND TCP packets.
Thus you should have:
7755 - Allow incoming TCP Packets
7755 - Allow Outgoing TCP Packets (OR the one setting allowing Bi-Directional traffic)
7755 - Allow incoming UDP Packets
7755 - Allow Outgoing UDP Packets (OR the one setting allowing Bi-Directional traffic)
(Plus other ports above between 7754 and 7757 if you are opening those too)
18444 - Allow incoming TCP Packets
18444 - Allow Outgoing TCP Packets (OR the one setting allowing Bi-Directional traffic)
18444 - Allow incoming UDP Packets
18444 - Allow Outgoing UDP Packets (OR the one setting allowing Bi-Directional traffic)
With hardware firewalls, I have tried a number of different models, and some work great, some work but not very well, and some, no matter what refuse to let you get it the way you want / need. In the end we dumped those that didn't give us control the way we wanted, and replaced it with one that did.
One final thing, it can take anywhere up to 10-20 minutes for a server to appear on THQ's list of servers (especially new servers) This is because of the way THQ chose to set up the system, and is normal. If you think you have it right, then leave your server running for a while, and then see if eventually it drops in.
2. MY SERVER IS VISIBLE TO PEOPLE ON THE NET BUT I CANT SEE IT / THERE
ARE MORE THAN ONE OF US SHARING THE SAME INTERNET IP AND SO THE SERVER WON'T LET US JOIN
Depending upon your network set-up you may find problems accessing your own server when others can happily get access. The way around this is for all the local players to add a server USING THE LOCAL NETWORK ADDRESS and not
the Internet Ip address.
That is, click add server and enter 192.168.*.*:7755 where *.* is the servers address.
The server should then become visible in your list. Doing it this way you can have a number of players local to the server behind a firewall, all happily playing, and the remaining space on the server can be available to the Internet for others to join. Those of you on a shared IP address bear in mind if one of you gets banned form a server - everyone sharing your IP will automatically become banned too. All the more reason to play nice.
3. WHY IS MY SERVER SO LAGGY?
This can be for a number of reasons but lets start with the obvious.
-Make sure you have disabled all unnecessary programs from the system to free up resources.
-Check the rate that your server is feeding everyone. If necessary adjust it upwards. Bear in mind this will affect the traffic that your server is generating. It's quite easy for a server to chew 100Meg per hour of operation.
-Consider the capabilities of the server and your Internet connection. You may need to reduce the number of players in the game to lift performance, or add/upgrade processor and/or memory to the server to give it extra capacity.
-Network traffic dramatically effects servers network performance. Try and reduce the traffic if possible.
-Different players across the world will obviously get different pings. The closer to the server (less hops) the better the performance. Depending upon how your ISP routes their traffic, some places will get lousy performance whilst others will get great results.
-How many times do I have to tell you - stop trying to run a server off a dialup modem. Only Cable / DSL or better please.
-Modders can dramatically affect performance by flooding the server with rapid-fire mods etc. Likewise when everyone is running around with a rocket launcher the performance suffers. If you don't believe me try running relentless (DM08) on your server.
4. WHAT SOFTWARE / PATCHES SHOULD I USE TO RUN MY SERVER?
This is a personal choice. Each to his / Her own, but generally I recommend the following:
GreenTeam Patch - Fixes the Green Team Vulnerability allowing players to change to the green team and not be seen on the totals screen
AntiCrash Patch - Released to patch a number of server vulnerabilities that are exploited by modders. There are however always new ones they seem to find to exploit, and loading this will only reduce the number of crashes, it won't stop them completely.
Lazyban - Allows the servers admins and rcons an easy way to administrate the server. Also makes it possible and easy to kick/ban modders that have Hex edited their names in an attempt to try and avoid being banned.
Server Assist and RFASU - Makes configuring / maintaining and running your server easy, and allows a heap of useful features including banning hex names, automatic restarting, and if your server runs win2k or WinXP the option of allowing voting on your server, to change levels, and kick / ban players.
Before I get pounded with questions about where to get these patches and software, try one of the main resource sites like
http://www.ausfaction.com or
http://www.levels4you.com and you'll find them.
5. I RUN A VOTING SERVER - AND EVERYONE GANGED UP AGAINST ME AND BANNED ME FROM MY OWN SERVER. WHAT DO I DO?
First and foremost let me be the first to point the finger and say hahahahaha. Ok now that I've done that. The easiest way is to shut down the server, edit the banlist.txt file and remove your ip address. I also regularly back up my banlist, so that in a pinch I can just replace the file and be back up and running. Don't feel bad, you haven't lived till you've been banned form your own server. (Snicker snicker)
6. MY SERVER IS RUNNING BUT PEOPLE WONT/DON'T JOIN/STAY
Why do you choose to play on the servers you normally play on? Cause they are fast? They are filled with people? They are well moderated? Now bear in mind that everyone else is looking for similar criteria. If your servers are slow, crashy, full of modders, have no one in them people aren't going to join, or if they do they aren't going to stay long. It takes a long time to build a reputation of a good server, and not much time at all to ruin it. Most of the popular servers have been working for years to build their reputations, and are very protective about how they are run for exactly this reason.
7. WHAT ARE ALL THE ABBREVIATIONS PEOPLE KEEP USING ON THE SERVERS?
Again this isn't going to be anywhere near all of them but these were the main ones I could think of. The main reason for using them is that we are all just too damned lazy or trying to conserve energy for the games.
nic - Nickname / player name.
ns / gs - Nice Shot / Good Shot
nm - Nice Move(s)
np - No Problem
gg - Good Game / Great Game
lol - Laugh Out Loud / Lots of Laughs
rofl - Rolling On Floor Laughing
lmao / lmfao - Laughing My Ass Off / Laughing My F#$%ng Ass Off
ty / thx / tnks - Thank You / Thanks
hmg - Heavy Machine Gun: Preferred weapon of the newb
sbk's - Same Building Kills - Eg: In Sniper City, you
shouldn't kill a person in the same building in deathmatch
amp / powerup - Invulnerability and Extra Weapon Strength Orbs
mod / modder - Modification / Person running a modification to enhance /change their games abilities
newb / nub / noob - Newbie: New player / Inexperienced / Inconsiderate
rcon - Remote Console / Remote Control - allows control of the server remotely / Person holding remote server access
ban - Remove a player and stop his address from joining again
kick - Kick a player out of the server. They can rejoin again.
console - Game control area accepts commands for controlling the game / server
tilde - Wolfs favourite. If you don't know it just message him. He'll explain it. Or he'll tell you to go sit in a corner and beat yourself over the head with a stick/Baton
clan - Group of like minded players / gang / group of friends / posse / pack etc. call it what you will.
baton - Electrified Riot baton ( or the stick) used to beat players into submission.
ftw - Face (ing) The Wall - Usually indicates player is Otherwise occupied. Considered unsportsmanlike like to kill when they are facing wall
wtf - What the F#$k
Spawn Kill(s / er) - Killing someone as they rematerialize into the level / someone who consistently does it. Considered unsportsmanlike like.
caps -Flag captures
frags -Kills
RF -Red Faction (now they are getting obvious)
RSI -What you get from playing RF for way too many hours.
8. WHO DO I GIVE RCON TO? / HOW DO I GET RCON ON SOMEONE ELSE'S SERVER?
This is a big question. Ultimately it's up to you, however, remember the RCON's (People you give RCON to) are the people who are going to set the tone for your server. (also refer in this to Q13) IF there aren't any, your server is either going to get full of modders and people who make the whole experience undesirable, but equally so, if the RCON's choose to be unfair / vicious / etc, a server can be equally as bad. Most server admins generally start off keeping an eye on people, and then as they get to know people, slowly issue RCON out to those they have observed as being fair
and reasonable players.
To answer the second part of this question I can tell you the fastest way to not get RCON on a server is to ASK for it. Everyone's seen every third kid that joins hassle the RCON's to give him or her the password. Let me say I have never seen this approach work, and
in fact just asking on some servers is considered grounds for kicking/banning a player. As I've said above, most admins watch the people on their servers closely, and when they feel that a player is ready to receive RCON, the ADMIN WILL APPROACH THE PLAYER.
Asking the RCON's for the password is not going to generally get you very far, considering most admins don't allow RCON's to issue the password out. FYI if an RCON does give it out, usually the person receiving it, and the RCON that gave it out get automatically banned from the server. Hence why they don't issue it. It's not that they enjoy holding it back, it's that they are there to do a job, and have to follow the admins wishes in completing that job. If you want RCON wait and conduct yourself in a manner worthy of holding it. Until then just either enjoy playing the game, or start up your own server.
9. WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP GETTING KICKED FROM MY SERVER?
Assuming that you're not doing it yourself (had to qualify there). There are a number of reasons this can happen.
-If a players connection times out the server will automatically drop that player, giving a broken reliable connection error. This is common and is due to routing, network traffic, and hops between the player and the server.
-If a player is kicked at a level change, more often than not it will be when changing to a custom map. If the player doesn't have the map the server will auto kick them.
-If a player hasn't got a level and tries to join, it will start connecting them and then kick them when it determines they don't have the map.
-There is a server-scanning tool that some modders use, that also kicks people out of a server when it hits their address. This causes the player usually to be dropped back at the operating system for no apparent reason.
10. I KEEP GETTING MODDERS - HOW DO I STOP IT?
Modders are like cancer. There is very little you can do to prevent it hitting you, they are everywhere, and increasingly they are a painful experience we are all exposed to and have to try and get along as best we can. Like cancer, you can't really stop them, they just keep coming back in new ways, but there are some preventative things you can do.
Firstly, modders LOVE new servers, mainly because they have no one in the servers' banlist so it's like opening a new playground for them.
Second, there are a heap of mod servers running that the responsible (if there is such a thing) modders are welcome to inhabit and do their worst. Those who have some respect for other players generally stick in these rooms.
Thirdly, the only real thing you can do if maintain your policies on modders and have your RCON's moderate the room according to them. If that means warnings / kicking / banning etc establishing the rules and getting the word around is the only real prevention. Unfortunately there is no cure.
11. I WANT TO LOAD MODS / DISABLE WEAPONS / INCREASE GEOLIMITS. HOW DO I DO IT?
This is a fairly complex issue. You can probably tell form the previous question how I feel about modders, and whilst I have loaded mods in the past to determine how it was done and research ways around it (I swear I didn't inhale) I don't run mods, or condone their use. Given that we are talking about Servers here, going into how to mod your game is inappropriate in this forum, and there are plenty of other resources available to tell you how to do it. Hence I'm not going to go into it here, or answer questions about it.
12. WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VERSION 1.2 and VERSION 1.3 WHICH SHOULD I RUN?
Again this could be a very long answer, but the quick response is ver 1.2 is the more popular but mod prone version, ver 1.3 was the fix to the mod problem, but ultimately failed because it took so long to be released, and also because it ultimately failed to stop modders. It is still possible to mod in ver 1.3 although the process is much harder. And no I'm not going into how to do it. Another problem is the fact that most people never converted to 1.3 and thus the number of players is severely limited. Servers running the other version from your own game come up as those that are incompatible version. To give you an idea, imagine having only those servers that are listed as incompatible version to play on and all the 1.2 servers barred from you. Hence why most servers put up with/deal with modders and run 1.2. Ultimately you can run whichever you want to run (and even swap between the two) but in an online world where traffic is king, bear in mind that most of the players are in ver 1.2
13. WHAT RULES SHOULD I FOLLOW FOR BANNING / KICKING ON MY SERVER / OTHERS SERVERS?
Its up to you for your servers. Consider what you'd like to be fair when establishing the rules. Now make your RCON's aware of them. You can do as you wish on your own server. If you are RCON for someone else's server, it's a case of working within the guidelines set, however no one likes a grumpy unreasonable RCON. One last thing, most RCON's are extremely aware of maintain a servers reputation, and of course of being courteous to the other RCON's and the admin. After all you don't want to step on toes now do you.
So I hope that answers most peoples questions and those it doesn't, you'll just have to answer yourself now wont you. After all it wouldn't be as much fun if someone gave you all the answers now would it? Good Luck with getting it up and running, and as I'm sure I said before there are probably going to be additions that people have to this FAQ as well as corrections. I am only a Bunyip after all, so feel free to add anything I have missed or screwed up. Believe me Bunyips are generally thick skinned and capable of coping their mistakes (Even if they do occasionally deny they made any).
Good Gaming, Enjoy, Play Nice, and I'll be hiding under a rock or in a swamp somewhere if anyone's looking for me.
Bunyip oOo ^._.^ oOo
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