Sniper's Paradise!
Frequently Asked Server Admin Questions
Q...I'm setting up a cable modem server. Your recommendation is a maxclient of 5000. Why would 5000 be better than 2600?
Wouldn't 2600 support more users on the 128kbps upload limit? and offer less lag when my local cable circuit is temporarily maxed out by other cable users?
A...If a player were to connect to a server with no restrictions at all from either end of the connection they would draw up to 7000 according to EPIC, as a player not counting map downloads etc. A telephone modem player connects at 2600 via Unreal automatic settings on the player side. A cable modem player tries to connect at 20,000 via the Unreal automatic settings on the player side but is restricted on the server side. You can actually see or feel the difference in the game play between 2600 and 5000. It is choppy, delayed or lagged feeling on the player side at 2600, but everybody is equally feeling the pain.
Because lagging is caused by bad bandwidth. Lowering the MaxClient Rate too low is causing bad Bandwidth on purpose. At 5000 the cable and T1 players are happier and have a slight advantage overthe telephone modem players. The game is a little smoother less choppy but a regular T1 player who plays on T1 servers will still complain and notice the slower connection than he is used too. Lowering the connection rate to 3000 or 4000 will give you more players but a noticeably worse connection. Players will not stay on a server with a noticeably worse connection, they will move on the one of the other 1100 Unreal servers that are now running. I run a 6 Player cable server set at 5000 and I get complaints from some players but it stays full. If I set it to 8 Players and lower the connection rate it goes empty except for telephone modem players. 5 or 6 happy players are better than 8 annoyed players or an empty server
Q...I have been trying to run a server using a cable modem. I keep the maxclient rate at 5000 and limit players to 6 per your advise.
Some nights the play is just fine. Others it is awfull. Bad enough that I don't run the server. The pings just go through the roof. I have used pingplotter to see where the problem is. And it seems to be at my ISPs' link to ALTER.NET. I did this by pinging my server from my laptop which was connected to a dial up account. And then pinging the laptop from the server. The pings are fine on each end but go to crap in the middle. The range seems to hang in 150-500 range pinging from the dial up. And 50 to 500 from the server. I also noticed that after a system outage last week I can no longer ping my server, or anything else within the ISP. I get a "destination unreachable" response.
Does that mean the ISP has blocked the ability to ping? Is this possibly related to my bad ping situation? Is this life in the fast lane with a cable modem?
A...Welcome to cable server hell, Yep, some nights when cable internet traffic is heavy the playing sucks. Sometimes I just shut the server down and play on someone else's server or leave mine up and don't play . As far as the cable co. blocking the Ping, I am not that informed, but it doesn't seem likely . Sometimes I have to completely shut down all the power to the cable modem,the hub and the computers for a few minutes after a cable outage so that it will reconnect properly. Then turn on the cable modem first, then the hub, and finally the computers, in that order
Followup...I was reading some of your FAQ's and noticed a question about pings being blocked by an ISP. This is easy to do (and something we do where I work). Basically, the ping is allowed to exit the client but is absorbed by the router on the return (the echo packet). I say absorbed because no feedback is given on whether the packet reached its destination or not (thus no error message leaves the intruder guessing whether or not an address actually exists). This aids in the prevention of hackers doing a ping search on your network to find a point of attack. It's easy for an ISP to do and with all the denial of service attacks lately they may be taking a lead on this.
For someone who wants to test their vulnerability, I'd recommend sending them to Gibson Research at http://grc.com/ There's an executable you can download to have GR examine the ports of entry into your system. Having a router swallow the ICMP packets returns a test result of "Stealth mode" - meaning the testing system couldn't tell if there was an address or not - it couldn't verify that we were even there! heh heh - neat utility.
Q...How do you play Unreal on a computer with a dedicated server? I tried loading Unreal again and playing but I get lag (probably cuz I have Unreal going twice? One for the server and one to play.)
A...If you want to play in the game and you only have one computer then you will have to run a non-dedicated (listen) server
Q...Is there any way to add more than 30 or 31 maps to the cycle. I tried editing the file manually but that didn't seem to work. I'm also trying to figure out if there is a way you can make more than 1 custom map cycle. I have about 3 customized rotations I'd like to ba able to use through out the day...and would like to just select which one I want from the web interface.
A...Got this straight from EPIC the official limit is 32 maps per ini. Maybe in future patches they may consider upping this number. But for now the ini will only allow 32.
Q...I must be a bit slow, but I can't seem to be able to use the console commands from inside the web admin! Only from inside the game...What am I doing wrong?
A...You are trying to type in console commands from the Server console in the Remote Admin Website, I tried that at first just to see if it works, but there is no reason to type any commands. All the commands you will need are located throughout the website:
You can change maps, changes game types, kick players, ban players, set the time limits, frag limits, player count, passwords, mutators, edit the map list, bots, skill level of bots, change the server name, admin name, MOTD all by clicking and entering a few keystrokes. They will not take affect until you click on the restart level
Q...I see other servers with 12 to 20 some players in the their games and they don't have any lag, yet I am running a cable modem server and I can only run 6 players without any lag, at 7 players the lag sets in and everybody complains,what's up?
A...The "other servers" are most likely on a T1 connection which allows them alot of bandwidth (more bandwidth= more players). The problem with a cable modem is that the "Cable Co." has limited the modem upstream bandwidth, (limited bandwidth=limited players) so no matter how much tweaking you do, you will never be able to overcome this restriction. But try these tweaks to start with. First you need to go to your *.ini file you use to run your server, either Unreal.ini or server.ini, etc. and set the internet maxclient rate to 5000 or even 4000,(See Configuring your .ini) but I wouldn't go any less than that
*Taken from the Unreal Release notes from Epic...The Unreal server uses up at least 28.8Kbits per second of outgoing bandwidth per player (on Internet), so if you run the server on a machine connected by a 28.8K modem, you'll only be able to support one client with decent performance. Dedicated servers that support many players generally require the outgoing bandwidth of a T1 line or better.
Another big consideration is your CPU speed and memory size "size does matter :-)"
*Taken from the Unreal Release notes from Epic...The game is also very sensitive to CPU speed, memory bandwidth, and cache performance. Thus, it runs far better on leading-edge processors such as Pentium II's than it does on older ones such as non-MMX Pentiums...We find that a 400 MHz Pentium II can usually handle about 16 players with decent performance. The performance varies with level complexity and other machine speed factors, so your mileage may differ. Note that there is no absolute maximum player limit in the
game; performance simply degrades as the number of players grows huge...For best performance, we recommend having 64 megabytes of memory per running level. For example, for running 4 simultaneous levels, 256 megabytes is ideal.
Q... What is the difference between launching a server from the dedicated mode and launching it from the commandline using UCC.exe?
A...First, launching time, when you launch from within Unreal as a dedicated server, you have to get the CD and insert it into the CD drive, then you have to start Unreal, wait for it to come up and then launch the dedicated server...for a UCC server, if you have set up a batch file (*.bat) with commandline entries and even placed a shortcut Icon on your desktop screen all you have to do is double click the Icon and within 18 seconds (on my computer, P2-350 w/128megs RAM) the server is up and running. Now if you like running different types of games (ie...DM, TEAM ,etc) you have to change the setup on the dedicated server everytime you switch types, with UCC you can store different *.bat files and just chosse to appropriate Icon and click-click you have launched a different game, if you have the CPU power and internet connection speed available you can even click on a couple of different Icons and launch multiple servers
Added note*(Jack Porter@Epic)...Ucc is slightly faster because it doesn't have to process a Windows message loop. Also you can really mess with the performance of an unreal.exe -server server by bringing up the log window and moving it around with the mouse. That locks the process up in the Windows message loop and the server can't process its clients.
Q...How do you disconnect from / quit your own listen server?
A...Game | Exit :-) The only other way is to start a new game...Jack Porter@Epic
Q...In Unreal, how do we measure packet loss?
A...stat net will show you...Jack Porter@Epic...***see AdvancedServer TNT
Q...Is there any place I can get the consol command list??
A...Recently updated: http://unreal.epicgames.com/UConsole.html...Jack Porter@Epic
Q...I would like to know if anyone could help me with remote admin console commands for switching from Deathmatch to Coop.
A...OK, heres how to do it via the console....
admin servertravel SpireVillage.unr?game=UnrealShare.CoopGame
Thats for an Coop game obviously. You can throw any mutators in there with '?mutator=' the game types are:
UnrealShare.DeathMatchGame
UnrealShare.TeamGame (Team DM)
UnrealShare.CoopGame
UnrealShare.KingoftheHill
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