tmetaserver.html - vaccinewars - be a doctor and try to vaccinate the world
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tmetaserver.html (6563B)
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1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2
3 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
4 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
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6 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
7
8 <head>
9 <title>The dopewars metaserver</title>
10 <meta charset="utf-8"/>
11 </head>
12
13 <body>
14 <h1>The dopewars metaserver</h1>
15
16 <p>Every dopewars <a href="server.html">server</a> is different, due to their
17 differing locations and configurations. Thus some centralised system for
18 listing the currently available servers and displaying some sort of comment
19 about the games running on them is necessary, to enable client players to
20 pick the game that most suits them. This is the function of the dopewars
21 <b>metaserver</b>.</p>
22
23 <ul>
24 <li><a href="#location">Metaserver location</a></li>
25 <li><a href="#oldmeta">The "old" metaserver</a></li>
26 <li><a href="#client">Using the metaserver from the client</a></li>
27 <li><a href="#server">Using the metaserver from the server</a>
28 <ul>
29 <li><a href="#wrongip">But it's displaying the wrong name!</a></li>
30 <li><a href="#dynamicip">But my server has a dynamic IP...</a></li>
31 </ul>
32 </li>
33 </ul>
34
35 <h2><a id="location">Metaserver location</a></h2>
36 <p>The metaserver is a <a href="http://www.php.net/">PHP</a> script which lives
37 at <a href="http://sourceforge.net/">SourceForge</a>. It is accessed by both
38 dopewars servers and clients via TCP connection to port 80, by standard
39 HTTP.</p>
40
41 <h2><a id="oldmeta">The "old" metaserver</a></h2>
42 <p>Versions of dopewars prior to 1.5.1 used a different metaserver system,
43 which is now deprecated. Although the old system will continue to run for some
44 time, it will eventually be discontinued, so it is recommended that dopewars
45 servers and clients are upgraded to the latest version.</p>
46
47 <h2><a id="client">Using the metaserver from the client</a></h2>
48 <p>Players who want to use the metaserver to list the currently available
49 servers should go to
50 <a href="https://dopewars.sourceforge.io/metaserver.php?getlist=2">this
51 link</a>, or just follow the "Active servers" link from the main dopewars web
52 page. It cannot be guaranteed that all the listed servers are functional - they
53 may, for example, have been registered in error, or a server may have crashed
54 since being added to the list - but the list is checked daily for service,
55 and so there is at least a good chance that the servers listed there will
56 be working.</p>
57
58 <p>The metaserver, being an ordinary web page, should work happily on
59 most machines which have web access. If you require a proxy to connect to
60 the Web, set the <a href="https://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/c/libcurl-tutorial.html#Environment">https_proxy environment variable</a>.</p>
61
62 <h2><a id="server">Using the metaserver from the server</a></h2>
63 <p>People running servers who <b>do not</b> want their details listed by the
64 metaserver should disable the metaserver comunication of the server with
65 the <a href="configfile.html#MetaServerActive">MetaServer.Active=0</a>
66 configuration file setting, or the <b>-S</b>
67 <a href="commandline.html#privateserver">command line option</a>. Servers
68 which <b>do</b> register their details can have their accompanying comment
69 set with the <a href="configfile.html#MetaServerComment">
70 MetaServer.Comment</a> configuration file setting.</p>
71
72 <p>Each dopewars server notifies the metaserver of its current status, and
73 sends this data on startup and shutdown, and when players leave or join the
74 game. See the <a href="server.html">server page</a> for more details.</p>
75
76 <p>The server, just like the client, may have trouble connecting to the
77 metaserver if you are using a web proxy; see the information
78 <a href="#client">above</a> for fixing this problem.</p>
79
80 <h3><a id="wrongip">But it's displaying the wrong name!</a></h3>
81 <p>Once connected to the metaserver, you may find that it displays the IP
82 address of your server and not its domain name, or that it gets the domain
83 name wrong. This is usually because your DNS is not set up to translate
84 your IP into a domain name, or because you have multiple domain names for
85 the one IP, and can be remedied by specifying the hostname with the
86 MetaServer.LocalName variable in your dopewars
87 <a href="configfile.html">configuration file</a>. For security reasons,
88 the metaserver will only accept this given name if it in turn maps to your
89 IP address.</p>
90
91 <p>On other occasions, the metaserver will mistakenly display the name
92 of your web proxy. In this case, you will need to override the hostname
93 that the metaserver guesses for your machine with one you choose yourself.
94 This is again done by specifying the hostname with the MetaServer.LocalName
95 variable. In order to prevent abuse of this facility, you must obtain a
96 password from the metaserver maintainer to authenticate your chosen hostname.
97 <a href="mailto:benwebb@users.sf.net">Email</a> the maintainer, giving
98 the exact hostname you want to use (be aware that this is case-sensitive) and
99 you will be given a password. Specify this password with the MetaServer.Password
100 variable in the dopewars configuration file.</p>
101
102 <p>For example, if you wish your server to be known as <b>dope-serv.com</b> and
103 you have emailed the maintainer, receiving the password <b>Dope-Auth</b>, then
104 add the following to the dopewars configuration file:-<br />
105 <b>MetaServer.LocalName="dope-serv.com"<br />
106 MetaServer.Password="Dope-Auth"</b></p>
107
108 <p>Restart your dopewars server, or send it a SIGUSR1 signal, for changes
109 to these variables to take effect.</p>
110
111 <h3><a id="dynamicip">But my server has a dynamic IP...</a></h3>
112 <p>Finally, your server's IP may be resolved happily, but you may have a
113 connection to the internet which assigns you a dynamic IP. Consider what
114 happens if your connection is broken before the dopewars server exits; the
115 metaserver will list the IP of the "old" server, and you will now have no way
116 of removing that entry when your connection comes back up, as your IP will be
117 different. In this case, you can
118 <a href="mailto:benwebb@users.sf.net">email</a> the metaserver
119 maintainer, and specify a blank MetaServer.LocalName variable. You will again
120 receive a MetaServer.Password variable (see <a href="#wrongip">above</a>),
121 which the metaserver will use to identify "your" server; now, when your
122 internet connection is restored, the server registration with the "new" IP
123 will automatically replace the "old" one.</p>
124
125 <hr />
126 <ul>
127 <li><a href="index.html">Main index</a></li>
128 </ul>
129 <p>
130 Last update: <b>02-11-2020</b><br />
131 Valid <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer">XHTML 1.1</a>
132 </p>
133 </body>
134 </html>