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I need to find my install disks, or maybe just get new ones...

I found another free redirect referenced on Epic's forums, and it does in fact work. It's not nearly as large as the gameservers.net redirect was, and some of our files aren't on it, but it's better than nothing.

Anybody up for games tonight?

Just recently installed Windows 7, and I don't even have any version of UT installed right now. However, I hope to be able to remedy that sometime before Christmas.

Also, I've got a little project going to virtualize the server. We'll see how that turns out.

Please note the new address for the server: ut2004://lja.dlinkddns.com:7777

Anybody up for games this coming holiday week?

I am in game tonight. Any takers?

LJA, your DNS isn't working for some reason. It keeps referencing 192.168.1.64. A private (non-routeable) IP address.

Krogoth wrote:

LJA, your DNS isn't working for some reason. It keeps referencing 192.168.1.64. A private (non-routeable) IP address.

Hmm. I shut it down after I went to bad last night. However, I was able to open the new address from the UT2004 server browser last night (using the Open IP right-click menu option). The server is back up now, so if one of you would care to try again, I'd appreciate it.

In any case, I think I know where this is going. AT&T DSL does its best to hide the external IP from the user, so my router only sees 192.168.1.64. With that in mind, I'll continue to use lja.servegame.com as a backup address unless/until I can determine that the new method will work.

Also, the new redirect seems to be working, but it is definitely slower than the old one was. It took me 20+ minutes to download the required files, so please factor that in before you get ready to play.

Btw, the server is now running on a virtual machine - see specs in the OP.

It seems you might have to update the host record for lja.dlinkddns.com with your external IP address. The current host file is referencing your LAN address instead of the WLAN one. lja.servegame.com DNS shortcut still works though.

Anybody up for for games tonight.

BTW, my Ventrilo server is also running at Krogoth.servegame.com, port 3784.

Unfortunately, I'm not even going to be in the vicinity of my gaming rig until Thursday afternoon. Given family commitments, I might be able to get a few rounds in during the day on Friday, but Saturday is more likely.

Heading in right now.

Anybody up for games tonight?

Anybody up for games tonight?

Hi guys, I will be back in this game again after years of not having the discs....I bought it on Steam the other day.

Fragnificent wrote:

Hi guys, I will be back in this game again after years of not having the discs....I bought it on Steam the other day.

Great! I played it some over the weekend, and still enjoy it. There's so many custom maps out there, I'm still stumbling on a good one here and there that I haven't yet played.

I imagine there will be a few of of us playing later this week, which leads me to my next post...

While looking into possibilities for a better redirect situation (i.e., customized to our server), I checked in at Gameservers.com, and lo and behold, they were having a sale: public game servers based in Chicago and Dallas for $0.75 a slot, monthly, for as long as you keep the server.

I couldn't resist. I ordered a new UT2004 server. It's based in Chicago just like our former public server.

Additionally, since the demise of the old gameservers.net public redirect, Gameservers.com has established their own in-house redirect service. They allow access to it for $5 a month. Not only that, but any custom map file that I upload to the server will be automatically loaded onto the redirect as soon as someone tries to access that file in-game (assuming it isn't already on the redirect). No more need to compress the files into .uz2 format and then manually upload them to the redirect server.

I don't know how long I'm going to keep this server, but we've got it for now. I'm busily uploading all of the custom files that I have on my personal server (most of which were on our old public server), and that process is probably going to take 2-3 days (yes, days). The server has to be stopped during that process. However, I expect to have it ready for games on Thursday.

Krogoth and PerfectCr: you will have admin rights on this server just as you did on the old public server. If you'd rather not have those rights, send me a message or respond here.

The new server address is ut2004://8.9.6.2:7777.

Lucky Jack Aubrey wrote:

While looking into possibilities for a better redirect situation (i.e., customized to our server), I checked in at Gameservers.com, and lo and behold, they were having a sale: public game servers based in Chicago and Dallas for $0.75 a slot, monthly, for as long as you keep the server.

I couldn't resist. I ordered a new UT2004 server. It's based in Chicago just like our former public server.

Additionally, since the demise of the old gameservers.net public redirect, Gameservers.com has established their own in-house redirect service. They allow access to it for $5 a month. Not only that, but any custom map file that I upload to the server will be automatically loaded onto the redirect as soon as someone tries to access that file in-game (assuming it isn't already on the redirect). No more need to compress the files into .uz2 format and then manually upload them to the redirect server.

I don't know how long I'm going to keep this server, but we've got it for now. I'm busily uploading all of the custom files that I have on my personal server (most of which were on our old public server), and that process is probably going to take 2-3 days (yes, days). The server has to be stopped during that process. However, I expect to have it ready for games on Thursday.

Krogoth and PerfectCr: you will have admin rights on this server just as you did on the old public server. If you'd rather not have those rights, send me a message or respond here.

The new server address is ut2004://8.9.6.2:7777.

I'm new to hosted servers idea, but was wondering, would it make sense to have fatpipe custom servers run out of someone's house? My parents (I don't live there but it's within a few miles of my place) have like30 Mbit cable and I think its got a 4 or 8 Mbit upload speed. Its sick. I could host something there....

Fragnificent wrote:

I'm new to hosted servers idea, but was wondering, would it make sense to have fatpipe custom servers run out of someone's house? My parents (I don't live there but it's within a few miles of my place) have like30 Mbit cable and I think its got a 4 or 8 Mbit upload speed. Its sick. I could host something there....

I've hosted a UT2004 server out of my house on-and-off since 2005, and with much less bandwidth than you mention. Honestly, it has worked fine for the small handful of players that normally participate. However, if you want to get up around 10-12 players, the relatively limited bandwidth I have would have resulted in some nasty pings.

There are advantages to paying a service like Gameservers.com, however. Industrial grade bandwidth is one of course, but there's also regular backups, elimination of any related hardware costs or maintenance (hard to measure, admittedly) and no need to use your own electricity. Plus, it's kinda cool to tinker with a remote server.

I should note that administering a game server can also be a time consuming affair, regardless of where you host it. I spent countless hours back in the day downloading custom maps, testing them out, resolving problems, and uploading to the redirect server. Most of that should no longer be a factor for UT2004, but certainly it could be for a newer game. I didn't do much admin work on UT3 (Krogoth did most of that), but I understand that it's actually more of a pain to admin than UT2004.

NEW IP ADDRESS: ut2004://8.9.16.127:7777

I just patch-up the server with map voting lists. They should be all working. There is still more work to do. We are still missing the mutators and some maps that were on the old server.

BTW, LJA is the redirect working?

Haven't really tried it yet. Supposedly, the first time someone tries to download a map (or StaticMesh, or Texture, etc) that isn't on the redirect, they will get the normal slow download direct from the server. However, supposedly the file will be automatically copied to the redirect at that point.

Lucky Jack Aubrey wrote:

Haven't really tried it yet. Supposedly, the first time someone tries to download a map (or StaticMesh, or Texture, etc) that isn't on the redirect, they will get the normal slow download direct from the server. However, supposedly the file will be automatically copied to the redirect at that point.

Hmmmmm, I thought you had to input the redirect's URL into UT2004.ini file. I suppose Gameservers have implemented their own solution.

Supposedly they have. Since I'm paying them for it, I assume it works, but I'll check the .ini file nevertheless.

Btw, I found my stash of custom map packs, and I will be uploading files for the rest of this evening. I just finished uploading the VCTF Map Pack. Right now, the VCTF-BloodGulch variants are going up the pipe. After that, I intend to upload the Torlan Map Pack and the UCMP 1 & 2 map packs. I'll try to figure out what else needs to be loaded tomorrow morning, and hopefully be ready for some rounds tomorrow afternoon or evening.

Anybody up for some rounds?

That's interesting about the Duke Nukem voices. I guess I should try putting a line in the ut2004.ini file on the server to designate the Nukem voices as a server package (which will force any client that connects to download the package file, if it doesn't already have it). Of course, you could install the package locally, and that should solve your problem. I'll look into it on the server side, though.

As for the Hellbender sounds, man I don't know about that. My guess is that the .uax sound files are not 100% compatible with the Mac OS, but that's just a WAG. I know squat about Macs.

I don't have a line on any headsets. Mine is several years old, I don't even remember how much it cost, and I haven't looked at new ones in a LONG time. The only counsel I can give you is to be conscious of whether or not the thing looks comfortable to wear.

Up for some games LJA?

I have the server stopped while I upload another big batch of files. Good Lord, I had forgotten the sheer volume of custom maps we had loaded on that old server.

I'll bring the server back up when I'm done, and then post here.

I am transferring my VCTF collection onto the server.

I also got Jailbreak, Christmas stuff here as well.

Krogoth wrote:

I also got Jailbreak, Christmas stuff here as well.

The Jailbreak pack is part of what I'm uploading right now. I've got the Christmas stuff, too, but I figured that could wait.

It would probably be best to wait before you upload anything else. I've got well over 100 files queued up right now, and we might have some conflicts.

PerfectCr wrote:

Heh, my UT2004 folder was 13GB at it's peak! I don't have them all on my mac so I'll probably be doing a lot of redirect downloading! I did find and install the Duke Voice pack so we'll see if it works next time I connect!

Don't forget that the .ogg (music) files aren't available via redirect. You have to have the packages. PM me with your email, and I'll send you a screenshot of the Music directory, so you figure out which .ogg files you're missing.

OK, server's back up. I'm just reorganizing some of the map lists.