Difference between revisions of "Dedicated Server Setup"

Revision as of 22:42, 3 October 2012

Overview

This article covers the bare minimum for server setup. Additional guides are recommmended!

Connectivity

Note:This article details port forwarding in a basic mannor. If your familior, you can skip it.

To get things started, we should talk about what these "external" and "internal" IP addresses are, and how they affect you.

While working in your house/apartment, you will probably have a DHCP server. Most of the time this will be your router. DHCP is a system that allows the router to pass out internal IP addresses to other devices (such as your computer, laptop or tablet) that connect to it. Inside your network, all the devices talk to each other by using these internal addresses. Only devices inside can talk to others with these addresses as they are reserved for use in LAN networks.

Note:You can tell a LAN network ip from a public one as LAN IP's tend to start with 192.168.

If your friend wanted to connect to your NMRiH server, they may see it having the ip 192.168.1.2. This is what you see too, but your friend will screem and kick at why they can't connect. Just like you, your friend will be using these "lan ip address", which corispond to computers/devices on their network. When they try to connect, their router will only search on their network for a device that has the 192.168.1.2 address. In order to solve this problem, this is where external ip addresses come in.

Your router is assigned a public (external) IP address by your ISP's modem so it can comunicate to computers around the word. This public address is also used when someone wants to give you data (websites, game servers, etc.). You can tell your router to pass on information it gets on a port to a computer inside the network. This is done by spesifying the IP of the machine on the network, and what port to send it to. The common term for this is called "Port Forwarding", as it forwards the port to another computer/device. This article won't go into detail about how to do that, but a great place to start is http://www.portforward.com, which will show you how to port forward.

To play on the server you only need to have 27015 (UDP) open/forwarded. The server doesn't use TCP trafic on this port for gameplay and thus is reccomended that you do not forward it.

Note:While port forwarding is a quick way to do this, it can be easily "messed up".

Now remember reading before about DHCP? It will come back to haunt you sadly. Since there is a limited amount of internal IP addresses, the router will try free up internal IP address for use, by removing un used ones. "Unused" ones include computers/deivces that are not on. So if you turn the computer off that hosts the server and another device connects and takes that address, your computer will lose that IP thus breaking the port forwarding you did. In order to prevent this from happening, you will have to set a static IP for the machine (technicaly the machine's ethernet interface).

Since that should now all be clear, you maybe wondering where to get your external/public IP from. There are many sites that show you it - even Google "What is my IP address". After obtaining it, send it to your friends.

Now you maybe wondering why you only need 27015 (UDP) open. Why not 27015 (TCP) with all those other ports as well? The remote console (RCON) for the server runs on 27015 (TCP) and can lead to security issues and Denial of Service attacks (DoS). You should only allow the TCP traffic in if you know what your doing. Other ports shown in other guides are not needed, and thus don't need to be opened.

Setting up a Listen Server

The most common server to use if you just want to play with your friends. Doesn't require a seperate computer and is little to no fuss to setup.

In the options menu for No More Room in Hell go in the Keyboard tab click the Advanced button. Now check the box marked as "Enable developer console". From the main menu, click create server and choose your desired options, then start the server.

After it has finished starting to load (if may "freeze", just be patient) you will have to set sv_lan to 0 in order for your friends to connect. This is done by opening the console with the ~ key. Type in sv_lan 0 and press enter. You can now close the developer console.

If you server is not listed in the server browser, your friend will have to do some work with the developer console. Use this command in the console to connect: "connect XXX.XXX.XX.XXX" without quotes. Where XXX.XXX.XX.XXX is your public IP address.

You should now be done and playing with your friends on your very own listen server!

Server Commands

You can use these commands on listen servers as well as dedicated servers. Enter the command/cvar you want to use, and the value (if it requires one).

sv_votekick_timer 10

While on a listen server, open the developer console with the ~ key.