General questions, and 1 tough problem...

Sun May 02, 2004 8:50 pm by drhoads

Hi All,

I just started playing FreeLancer about 2 days ago, and I got it over 1 year ago.. Man.. I wish I had started much earlier.. Dang Morrowind... DOH!!!

This game is a ton of fun... Not as complex or SIM as I would like, but it is still a blast, and there is nothing better out there... IW2 is too dang hard, has no MP, and no Trade Model... but great flight physics and concept.. just that dang single track shield POS... Anyway.. I digress.. :-P

I am having sooo much fun, that I decided to set up a server (in the hopes that people will join) So.. I poked some holes in my Firewall.. Had some flashbacks to TradeWars 2002, and thought it was good to go.. after 8 hours of nobody joining, I decided to check on things.. I notice that my server does not show up in the global list, only as LAN... However, I can direct connect to it via IP.

Here is my IP: 68.80.22.245

I am hoping that FL is just hiding the IP one from me since it sees the same game on the LAN? I was just wondering if anyone could look for it for me and let me know if you see it? It is that IP, or by the name " Eternity TradeWars (24/7)" With the spaces in front show it shows up at the top.. (I know.. I am cheap) I would really appreciate it if you let me know if it is there....

I was also wondering... after reading the boards.. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I was just going to let it run (Iam real busy) but I see that people are already hacking and cheating and stuff.. Is there a good way for me to find cheaters.. (if anyone ever plays on my server..) :-P

What are some other good ideas you guys think I should do for my server.

It is a PC dedicated soley to FL... Just had an extra one sitting around running SETI packets before.. :-P

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks!! :-)

-- Dr. Hoads

Mon May 03, 2004 11:06 am by WAN_SOLO

There are not already hackers out there.....there are loads of these idiots! If you really want to have a server, you have to be running Freelancer server operator (made by Joe Boomz) and then there are several other anti cheat programs available to d/l from TLR. However if you don't really have much time available I would advise finding a good server or two and stick with those as it seems that the better servers are better because the admins are on and available all the time. The cheaters/modders/hackers are all over the place and have to be banned often, FL accounts get corrupted on occasion and have to be restored from a backup, and there are always other issues.
It really can be a lot of work to have a successful server. It is far easier to just locate a good one and stick with it.

Tue May 11, 2004 11:24 am by Earendil

Certainly for me Morrowind is what I play when I don't play FL. Of course with my server I get little chance to play either.

Wan's got the right of it about the admin of a server, the software needed and the sheer amount of cheats and cheaters out there.

As for the server setup itself it's been said around here many times. A couple of things though, the running of flserver (the executable that IS a FL server) requires only ONE INCOMING UDP port opened (the setup is sometimes called a tunnel or a virtual server) in your gateway (mistakenly called a router by the rest of the world, it does more than just route). This is the port other players (clients) are FLing in on from mostly the FL global server list. You do not need to open even a single INCOMING port to be on the FL global server. Of course if you are on the same 'puter or are in another 'puter on the same LAN (the Local Area Network on the home side of the gateway) all you will see is your server listed as a LAN server, always. If you get fancy you could firewall on just your gaming 'puter all OUTGOING ports to just your server's LAN address and THEN you would see your server as an Internet server because it went all the way out to the FL global server list and got the info on your server. If the info got to the list. If it is not on the FL global server list it most likely is a DirectX problem. Insure, by uninstalling/reinstalling if necessary, you have DirectX v9.0b installed correctly.

The assumption above is that with most gateways, their firewall portions are designed to firewall INCOMING packets and ports only.

As for players playing on a new server, it takes DAYS for players to notice and log on. It will take MONTHS to get a good, constant amount of players. Boston has been up a year and we have a good community.

---------------
Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
See server rules and server news for more info.

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