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<title>The dopewars metaserver</title>
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<body>
<h1>The dopewars metaserver</h1>
<p>Every dopewars <a href="server.html">server</a> is different, due to their
differing locations and configurations. Thus some centralised system for
listing the currently available servers and displaying some sort of comment
about the games running on them is necessary, to enable client players to
pick the game that most suits them. This is the function of the dopewars
<b>metaserver</b>.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#location">Metaserver location</a></li>
<li><a href="#oldmeta">The "old" metaserver</a></li>
<li><a href="#client">Using the metaserver from the client</a></li>
<li><a href="#server">Using the metaserver from the server</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#wrongip">But it's displaying the wrong name!</a></li>
<li><a href="#dynamicip">But my server has a dynamic IP...</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h2><a id="location">Metaserver location</a></h2>
<p>The metaserver is a <a href="http://www.php.net/">PHP</a> script which lives
at <a href="http://sourceforge.net/">SourceForge</a>. It is accessed by both
dopewars servers and clients via TCP connection to port 80, by standard
HTTP.</p>
<h2><a id="oldmeta">The "old" metaserver</a></h2>
<p>Versions of dopewars prior to 1.5.1 used a different metaserver system,
which is now deprecated. Although the old system will continue to run for some
time, it will eventually be discontinued, so it is recommended that dopewars
servers and clients are upgraded to the latest version.</p>
<h2><a id="client">Using the metaserver from the client</a></h2>
<p>Players who want to use the metaserver to list the currently available
servers should go to
<a href="http://dopewars.sourceforge.net/metaserver.php?getlist=2">this
link</a>, or just follow the "Active servers" link from the main dopewars web
page. It cannot be guaranteed that all the listed servers are functional - they
may, for example, have been registered in error, or a server may have crashed
since being added to the list - but the list is checked daily for service,
and so there is at least a good chance that the servers listed there will
be working.</p>
<p>The metaserver, being an ordinary web page, should work happily on
most machines which have web access. A problem occurs, however, if your
connection to the Web is via an enforced proxy server (i.e. traffic on
port 80 from your machine is blocked by firewall). dopewars can be
configured to connect via a proxy server without too much difficulty; if
your proxy server is at <i>proxy.com</i> on port <i>8080</i> then you should
add the following lines to your dopewars <a href="configfile.html">
configuration file</a>:-<br />
<b>MetaServer.ProxyName="proxy.com"<br />
MetaServer.ProxyPort=8080</b></p>
<h2><a id="server">Using the metaserver from the server</a></h2>
<p>People running servers who <b>do not</b> want their details listed by the
metaserver should disable the metaserver comunication of the server with
the <a href="configfile.html#MetaServerActive">MetaServer.Active=0</a>
configuration file setting, or the <b>-S</b>
<a href="commandline.html#privateserver">command line option</a>. Servers
which <b>do</b> register their details can have their accompanying comment
set with the <a href="configfile.html#MetaServerComment">
MetaServer.Comment</a> configuration file setting.</p>
<p>Each dopewars server notifies the metaserver of its current status, and
sends this data on startup and shutdown, and when players leave or join the
game. See the <a href="server.html">server page</a> for more details.</p>
<p>The server, just like the client, may have trouble connecting to the
metaserver if you are using a web proxy; see the information
<a href="#client">above</a> for fixing this problem.</p>
<h3><a id="wrongip">But it's displaying the wrong name!</a></h3>
<p>Once connected to the metaserver, you may find that it displays the IP
address of your server and not its domain name, or that it gets the domain
name wrong. This is usually because your DNS is not set up to translate
your IP into a domain name, or because you have multiple domain names for
the one IP, and can be remedied by specifying the hostname with the
MetaServer.LocalName variable in your dopewars
<a href="configfile.html">configuration file</a>. For security reasons,
the metaserver will only accept this given name if it in turn maps to your
IP address.</p>
<p>On other occasions, the metaserver will mistakenly display the name
of your web proxy. In this case, you will need to override the hostname
that the metaserver guesses for your machine with one you choose yourself.
This is again done by specifying the hostname with the MetaServer.LocalName
variable. In order to prevent abuse of this facility, you must obtain a
password from the metaserver maintainer to authenticate your chosen hostname.
<a href="mailto:benwebb@users.sf.net">Email</a> the maintainer, giving
the exact hostname you want to use (be aware that this is case-sensitive) and
you will be given a password. Specify this password with the MetaServer.Password
variable in the dopewars configuration file.</p>
<p>For example, if you wish your server to be known as <b>dope-serv.com</b> and
you have emailed the maintainer, receiving the password <b>Dope-Auth</b>, then
add the following to the dopewars configuration file:-<br />
<b>MetaServer.LocalName="dope-serv.com"<br />
MetaServer.Password="Dope-Auth"</b></p>
<p>Restart your dopewars server, or send it a SIGUSR1 signal, for changes
to these variables to take effect.</p>
<h3><a id="dynamicip">But my server has a dynamic IP...</a></h3>
<p>Finally, your server's IP may be resolved happily, but you may have a
connection to the internet which assigns you a dynamic IP. Consider what
happens if your connection is broken before the dopewars server exits; the
metaserver will list the IP of the "old" server, and you will now have no way
of removing that entry when your connection comes back up, as your IP will be
different. In this case, you can
<a href="mailto:benwebb@users.sf.net">email</a> the metaserver
maintainer, and specify a blank MetaServer.LocalName variable. You will again
receive a MetaServer.Password variable (see <a href="#wrongip">above</a>),
which the metaserver will use to identify "your" server; now, when your
internet connection is restored, the server registration with the "new" IP
will automatically replace the "old" one.</p>
<hr />
<ul>
<li><a href="index.html">Main index</a></li>
</ul>
<p>
Last update: <b>15-07-2002</b><br />
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