tmetaserver.html - vaccinewars - be a doctor and try to vaccinate the world
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     9 The dopewars metaserver
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The dopewars metaserver

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Every dopewars server 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 metaserver.

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Metaserver location

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The metaserver is a PHP script which lives
    37 at SourceForge. It is accessed by both
    38 dopewars servers and clients via TCP connection to port 80, by standard
    39 HTTP.

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The "old" metaserver

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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.

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Using the metaserver from the client

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Players who want to use the metaserver to list the currently available
    49 servers should go to
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    51 link, 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.

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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 https_proxy environment variable.

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Using the metaserver from the server

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People running servers who do not want their details listed by the
    64 metaserver should disable the metaserver comunication of the server with
    65 the MetaServer.Active=0
    66 configuration file setting, or the -S
    67 command line option. Servers
    68 which do register their details can have their accompanying comment
    69 set with the 
    70 MetaServer.Comment configuration file setting.

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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 server page for more details.

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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 above for fixing this problem.

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But it's displaying the wrong name!

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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 configuration file. For security reasons,
    88 the metaserver will only accept this given name if it in turn maps to your
    89 IP address.

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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 Email 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.

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For example, if you wish your server to be known as dope-serv.com and
   103 you have emailed the maintainer, receiving the password Dope-Auth, then
   104 add the following to the dopewars configuration file:-

   105 MetaServer.LocalName="dope-serv.com"

   106 MetaServer.Password="Dope-Auth"

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Restart your dopewars server, or send it a SIGUSR1 signal, for changes
   109 to these variables to take effect.

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But my server has a dynamic IP...

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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 email the metaserver
   119 maintainer, and specify a blank MetaServer.LocalName variable. You will again
   120 receive a MetaServer.Password variable (see above),
   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.

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   130   Last update: 02-11-2020

   131   Valid XHTML 1.1
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