He's some things I've gleaned from Elite...

Mods absolutely kill a server...period
Cheaters will lag the server and crash it immediately....
Finding cheaters/modders is a fine art, it helps to have spys...

To answer your 2 questions directly...

BTW general question to other server admins:
- If you have a hacker on your server does it crash when they join, or when they exit manhatten docking ring for the first time?
>> it could crash at any poiny, not just when they launch from manhattan.
- Do you normally ban the last person to join before it crashed?
>> If we're watching it that closely sure, but it's rare.

1 suggestion I have that does seem to have a positive effect on the server (but is damn time consuming). Delete the "ghosts" accouns you have on your server. You know, the ones with a string of letters/numbers that do NOT have a character name right below them that is embedded. Cleaning up those seems to help the server.

Rob "Stinger" Lordier
Moderator - Lancers Reactor
Creator Privateer FAQ
no good deed will ever go unpunished

Thanks for your comments.

I do regularly remove ghost accounts - if nothing else just to make restricted mode more meaningful when I need to lock down.

Get's a bit much when you have to actively patrol the manhatten docking ring area in a Uber Sabre so you can shoot the little sods before they harm anyone then run like hell to the server and try to find them in a random order list of a thousand names under random number headings...

Gotta be an easier way...

Whats you normal maximum allowed player slots? As most DSL UK based servers I've played on haven't lasted long simply as they crash regularly after 10 people joined.

I see from your IP that its a business connection but you have to remember that your capped at 256k up so unless its dedicated PC for the server, its going to be unstable if you the host play on it as well.

Normally 12 slots, I have tried 14 without problems when its full - noone complaining of lag.

Testing reveals the bandwidth caps to be at around 288K up, and 576K down so its a nice fast ADSL as well and have yet to notice any contension effects.

FLServer is hosted on a dedicated server, specs as follows:
- Dual Athlon MP 2000, 2Gig RAM
- OS: Windows 2003 Server

The server does host a load of other stuff as well, but nothing thats CPU instensive, and still leaves nearly a Gig of memory left for FLServer.

Installed FLAdmin now as well.

It have been very stable for quite a while, then suddenly starting crashing lots of after a bunch of m0ngs joined with various hacks etc.

It had been full for most of Saturday then just started crashing every few mins. I did wonder if there was a way to crash the server without being on it by sending broken query packets at it or something.

Anyway seems perfectly stable again now - I did go through a account clearing session yesterday and thats seems to have helped.



Edited by - Sir_Warwick on 02-06-2003 13:07:23

Cheaters and crashes,

Yeah had the crashes too, last sundaymorning (yesterday). I woke up and server was still running with no problems. Then 10 minutes later CRASH. CPU usage (taskmanager) went to 100% and stayed there. Then the screen 'dxdiag blah blah blah DO NOT SEND'. So I restarted my server.

After the restart I decided to join in (with a name no-1 knows I use). After 2 minutes the first players came back in WITH a player LVL27 in newyork. I had never heard of this player before so I changed to my ''Europremium-OP-R8R'' account in NewYork. The first thing he said was ''oy'' and 5 seconds later CRASH again.

So I restarted the server again and the same happened. He got in, 1 minute CRASH. I banned this idoit and server was without crashes for another 12 hours...

Don't know if this was accidential or not. But it was not nice for my players. 3 restarts! in 15 minutes. Damn, I broke a new record (for my server that is).

I noticed there is a difference between crashes also (when the server crashes from a normal cause) all accounts are from the last second of the game (server saves the accounts automatically just before the crash).
When I had these Major crashes last morning, the saves were NOT from the last second but from a save point far before the crash. (last save point).

Greetz,

You should install FLAdmin from the download section here - restarts you server automatically.

Also provides you with a much easier way to find and remove unwanted players via a telnet console - just type kick <player> and they are gone - quite amusing watching it navigate the FLserver UI and players lists for you and remove a player

the only problem is that people with a router can't use that
(which i have) or i not useing it properly lol