Could we find an another game server?

[Guest]

..where we could start a game which has the rules we have constituted in this forum. We only need to find one enthusiastic TW2002 admin who is willing to host a game for us Apolytoners.

Further, I have an idea to prevent DL's (dubbies): we require that everybody who are playing must use his Apolyton name in the game. At least he must post to one special thread which is the nic he wants to use.

[Wittlich]

That's actually a good idea Marko. Now, were to find a server laying around...


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After all is said and done, usually more is said than done.

[Urban Ranger]

You can minimise problem of dupes, but cannot totally eliminate it. Some people do have many e-mail accounts - real ones, not Web based. Not counting re-directors, I have five.

Let me assure you that I don't have any DL's on Apolyton. Stop looking at me like that.

[Radagast]

If one (two?) has multiple personalities, does using different account for different personalities constitute a violation of the DL rules?

[Urban Ranger]

It's usually not the server cost but the connection cost that's the killer. I can throw together a box that can support maybe 50 players at no cost to me (I have a lot of junk lying around ) but it'd take me like USD$500 a month for a 128K lease line.

[Urban Ranger]

quote: Originally posted by Radagast on 05-19-2001 10:34 AM If one (two?) has multiple personalities, does using different account for different personalities constitute a violation of the DL rules?

I think we should strictly enforce the rule of "one player, one character in the game."

Say I have 5 characters in a game that other people don't know, then I have access to lots of inside information that I can use to my advantage. Even if I don't do that, I'd be about 5 times as strong as a player with just one character, since I'd have 5 times the turns.

[Radagast]

Yes, but what if my (our) particular personality disorder is such that my (our) personalities don't communicate with each other?

[King Thor]

I could probably setup the server at home, I have a DSL connection that is 1.5mbps down and 256Kbps up. Tw2002 is text based so that should be sufficient speed. However, I wont be able to garuantee uptime and stuff like that. I have an old p75 with 40mb of Ram sitting around that I could turn into a dedicated server and stuff, but the router/firewall for my LAN is my main PC as well. (yes thats why there might be down time) that is on 24 hours a day anyway, but sometimes I manage to crash it.

Another thing that needs to be considered is trust. As the game admin I will probably have access to all sorts of settings and configs that I could theoretically tweak to my advantage. (not that I've ever administered a TW2002 server before, but I've noticed that it is highly configurable).. So either we need complete trust, (and I dont see any reason they should have that), or we need to get a non-layer, or Markg to administer the server.

[Predilect]

quote: Originally posted by King Thor on 05-19-2001 01:47 PM or we need to get a non-layer, or Markg to administer the server.

Non-layer? Most of the people in this forum are studs.. it might be hard to find a non-layer. I agree that trust, in such a case, would be an issue

[Predilect]

quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger on 05-19-2001 10:31 AM You can minimise problem of dupes, but cannot totally eliminate it. Some people do have many e-mail accounts - real ones, not Web based. Not counting re-directors, I have five.

Apolyton also checks IP's. I know from personal experience (hey, i just decided I wanted a different name, ok? stop poking me...)

[Marko Polo]

King Thor, it would be really great if you could host a TW2002 game. It is just that the TW server should also be registered and that costs money. It feels unfair if you should pay that all by yourself. Any easy way to collaborately participate in that?

[King Thor]

oops
[This message has been edited by King Thor (edited May 19, 2001).]

[King Thor]

Well you guys could chip in for the purchase. With around 10 players it like $5 a person.

I will need some time however to configure the p75 to work on my LAN because its sitting in a corner rusting away. Also remember the uptime wont be like that of a dedicated server. I will try to keep the LAN up as much as I can, but sometimes my system crashes, (I've noticed that I every time it has an uptime of around 7 days .. BOOM!).

It doesn't take me more than 5 minutes to bring everything back up. Thats close to more than 99.9% uptime. So I guess thats not too bad. (It might behave differently with a big load)

Let me know what you guys think.

[This message has been edited by King Thor (edited May 19, 2001).]

[Urban Ranger]

There are a number of technical issues I can think of:

• Most ADSL connections don't have 256K upstream
• Your machine might not be accessable from outside, i.e. your ISP might have some kind of firewall for DSL subscribers
• If you use an ADSL, it probably runs on DHCP, i.e., your computer would have a differenct IP within a range - I would guess a class B subnet. That means you have to find out that IP everytime it crashes or reboots, and post that here before we can get on the server again.
• While it's quite usual to have a few computers sharing a common DSL connection by using a 4-way router, I think the router can only handle outbound traffic, not inbound. In other words, your router can handle traffic that is initiated by one of your computers, but not traffic that is initiated by outside computers. This has something to do with the fact that, ultimately, you have only one IP, and therefore one socket for each of the well-known ports.

It's a great idea, KT, however you might have to put the TW2002 game on your main computer for the setup to work.

[King Thor]

There are a number of technical issues I can think of:Most ADSL connections don't have 256K upstream

Not exactly wrong, I dont know about most getting 256K up or not, but I do get it. I'm less than 2000 ft from the CO, with connection provided by telocity. I repeat its 1.5Mbps down, and 256Kbps up.

Your machine might not be accessable from outside, i.e. your ISP might have some kind of firewall for DSL subscribers

Wrong. Telocity encourages and allows you to host your own Webpage from your own computer. I access my computer remotely all the time. There is no such system. They CANNOT setup a system that doesn't allow anything on anyones system to not be a server. When you run any file sharing client, it has to act as a server too.(to make the p2p connection) They have to allow it.. What you are talking about is the way Cable companies monitor routing load to your system, and if they suspect you are running a Server get you to stop or cut your service. The reason they do that is your bandwith in cable is shared with your neighborhood, with DSL my bandwith is fixed all the way to the CO. So they really dont care what I'm running. (samething with LANs as far as cable and DSL are concerned).

If you use an ADSL, it probably runs on DHCP, i.e., your computer would have a differenct IP within a range - I would guess a class B subnet. That means you have to find out that IP everytime it crashes or reboots, and post that here before we can get on the server again.

Wrong again. Yes it does run on a DHCP, but that doesn't mean my IP isn't static. I do have a static IP. 64.192.162.41. Telocity is one of the few DSL subscribers that give a static IP and that was the primary reason I signed up with them.

Infact, http://home.telocity.com/pages/request_srvcs.html
this URL allows me to configure my domain name to reach my IP directly (since its static). I'm planning to get a domain name so that access my comp for anything becomes easier.

While it's quite usual to have a few computers sharing a common DSL connection by using a 4-way router, I think the router can only handle outbound traffic, not inbound. In other words, your router can handle traffic that is initiated by one of your computers, but not traffic that is initiated by outside computers. This has something to do with the fact that, ultimately, you have only one IP, and therefore one socket for each of the well-known ports.

I'm not using one of those Linksys router/firewalls. I have my DSL computer connecting straight into my comp, and I've configured my computer to act as the router firewall (ie, its a software router not a hardware one, so those limitations dont apply). I will have to look into how I can setup the p75 as a server though, I will probably have to configure IP forwarding to handle that. But I dont think its impossible, most companies have one machine act as the firewall/router and then another machine as a webserver (ofcourse the HTTP ports will remain open), and another as an FTP server (with FTP ports open). Its to do with configuring IP forwarding. Haven't quite tested or tried that yet, but I think I can figure it out.

It's a great idea, KT, however you might have to put the TW2002 game on your main computer for the setup to work.

True, I might, but most probably I think I'll be able to get the p75 to run as a server. Tell you guys what. I'll go pull out my p75 later this week, and hook it up to the LAN and try to configure it as a webserver. If I can get it to work as a webserver, I can get it to work as a TW2002 server.


Either way, I could always run the server as a service on my main box. Sure it will take up some RAM and slow me down a bit, but I dont mind trying, if it gets annoying we'll think of something else.

In the end fellas, I think its doable one way or the other, point is do we want to do it. I think Wittlich might have dedicated access of some sort himself because he is always on, on ICQ.
[This message has been edited by King Thor (edited May 20, 2001).]