path: root/README

=========

DESCRIPTION
  This repository contains the source code which was written by Darkelarious to
  soften the effects of GameSpy (GameSpy Industries, Inc.) shutting down their 
  services. Among this service was a so-called "masterserver".
  
  A masterserver is a program that maintains a list of online game servers and 
  presents this list to clients (gamers, players) who request the list of game 
  addresses. The 333networks Masterserver is a software framework that allows 
  gamers/players to browse for online games in the same manner as GameSpy 
  provided this service.
  
  More information about the masterserver and variations on the protocol by
  333networks can be found online at 
        http://333networks.com/masterserver
        http://wiki.333networks.com/index.php/MasterServer

AUTHOR
  Darkelarious
  http://333networks.com
  darkelarious@333networks.com

REQUIREMENTS
  - Postgresql, MySQL or SQLite3
  - Perl 5.10 or above
  - The following CPAN modules:
      DBI
      DBD::Pg / DBD::SQLite / DBD::mysql
      AnyEvent
      AnyEvent::Handle::UDP
      IP::Country::Fast
  - screen (or another terminal multiplexer, optional)

INSTALL

  THE MASTER SERVER IS WRITTEN ON LINUX. IF YOU WANT TO RUN THE SOFTWARE IN 
  MICROSOFT WINDOWS OR APPLE OSX, IT MAY NOT WORK WITHOUT MODIFICATIONS.
  
  This repository consists of Perl modules and is run in terminal. The software
  utilizes UDP and TCP connections to receive and send information about game
  servers. Carefully read through the code and documentation before you start 
  randomly querying other game servers and/or masterservers.
  
  The masterserver stores server addresses in the database. This database must
  be created manually. SQLite3 users should not forget to chmod the database 
  file with read/write access. The tables to be created can be found in the 
  "data/database" folder in the tables-Pg/SQLite/mysql.sql file. Choose your 
  prefered database driver and created the tables as described below.
  
CONFIGURATION

  The 333networks masterserver comes with options. These options are found in
  configuration file "data/masterserver-config.pl". Comments in this file give
  a brief description. Below, the configuration is discussed in further detail.
  
  Masterserver HOST information
  
  Fill in your contact details here to be able to synchronize with other 
  masterservers. Though the synchronization process also works without your 
  contact details, it is preferred and appreciated if you allow other
  masterservers to synchronize with you too. In addition, third parties may
  want to retrieve the status of your masterserver. When remote servers query
  for your contact information, they can see who hosts this masterserver, which
  build you are running and which games you currently support. This is highly
  recommended and much appreciated.
  
  Database login information
  
  The masterserver supports different database types. In the module 
  "lib/MasterServer/Databases" you can see which types are currently supporting
  out of the box. To choose a database type, specify the "dblogin" variable:
  
  # Postgresql
  dblogin => ['dbi:Pg:dbname=databasename', 'user', 'password'],
 
  # SQLite
  dblogin => ["dbi:SQLite:dbname=$ROOT/data/databasename.db",'',''], 

  # MySQL
  dblogin => ["dbi:mysql:database=databasename;host=localhost;port=3306",
                                                            'user','password'],
  
  Keep in mind that the database needs to be created manually. That means that 
  you first have to create your postgres/mysql user and grant permissions as
  described in the proprietary manuals that come with your database 
  installation. After that, you have to insert the tables manually, which are 
  provided in the "data/database" folder. The masterserver script requires
  read-and-write permissions on the SQLite database file.
  
  Logging
  
  All events are logged by default. Every new beacon, database transaction or 
  serverlist request is recorded in the logfile. For debugging purposes, this is
  very useful, but for regular use, the logfile will grow big very fast. With
  the "suppress" option, log messages can be suppressed from being logged. This
  option takes the message type, separated by spaces. To suppress a message
  type, use the identifier between brackets. Example: 
    
    [2015-05-19 17:31:47] [load] > Connected to the Postgres database.
  
  In this message, the timestamp of the message is shown first, followed by the
  identifier "Success". To suppress this type of message, the following
  parameter can be set:
  
    suppress => " load "
    suppress => " load beacon secure hostname "
  
  More message types can be suppressed, where the types are separated by spaces 
  as shown in the second example. If you want to log a lot of events, you could 
  consider rotating the logs every day, week, month or year. The 'log_rotate' 
  allows you to store events in different files with specified interval.
  
  Network settings
  
  The masterserver uses UDP and TCP networking. The default port numbers are 
  27900 for server beacons (UDP) and 28900 for serverlists (TCP). Home-hosters
  have to open those firewall ports.
  Not all games request data in the same format. Until we established how the
  request for a different datatype are made, we also provide the ability to
  send data in the alternate (byte) form manually. More games can be added,
  separated by spaces.
  
  Supported Games & Secure/Validate
  
  All GameSpy protocol games communicate according to a protocol that requires
  servers and clients to authenticate each other. As far as 333networks are 
  concerned, the authentication ciphers (keys) are confidential and intellectual
  property of the individual game companies. 
  
  If you have a configuration file with keys, you can simply import this list
  at the bottom of the configuration file as shown there. If you do not have the
  correct ciphers, you can choose to bypass the secure/validate challenge. This
  also allows hackers and opportunists to provide fake data or request the data
  without authorization. See option "require_secure_beacons".
  
  If you use the proper authentication ciphers, keep in mind that some games, 
  like Deus Ex, have more than one cipher, or do not support the challenge at 
  all. Other games may have been modified to counter the vulnerability against
  long queries. Some UT server have been observed to respond with "Orange" 
  instead of the correct response. Both situations can be in- or excluded in
  the "ignore_key" options.
  
  Enable settings
  
  There are three methods to add server addresses to the list: by receiving a
  direct beacon, by validating a pending server and by synchronization. Some of
  these functions can be disabled from the configuration.
  
  Direct beacons can be processed by adding them to the database directly after
  they validated. When validation is not an option (because missing ciphers), 
  the masterserver can query the addresses individually, to determine whether
  they are valid game servers. Change with "beacon_checker_enabled".
  
  Query UCC Applets
  
  In addition, other UCC masterserver applets can be queried for more server
  addresses. This should not be done without permission of the UCC applet
  hosts, it's impolite to do so without asking. The new servers are added to
  the "pending" list, where they wait to be queried individually as described
  above. If "beacon_checker_enabled" is disabled, this function will NOT work 
  properly. Enable/Disable with "master_applet_enabled".
  
  Synchronization settings  
  
  Synchronization between masterservers allows you to receive the list from 
  other masterservers. In return and to make this communication two-way, the
  masterserver sends uplinks to all other masterservers that are specified in
  your list. Your masterserver is then queried in the same way as if it were an
  ordinary game server. This also shares the information that you provided
  earlier in the HOST information section. If you do not wish this to happen, 
  you should disable synchronization entirely. 
  Newly received servers are added to the "pending" list as described above. 
  Change with "sync_enabled". Please note that this will not prevent others 
  from obtaining the server lists. Attempting to disable this is hypocrite and 
  ambiguous, as "regular" clients do the same to get the serverlist.
  
RUNNING

  After all CPAN modules have been installed and all options have been reviewed
  in the configuration file, the masterserver can be started with the following 
  command from within the root directory of this folder:
   
    screen -dmS "masterserver" ./util/masterserver.pl
  
  You can also choose to run the masterserver with ./util/masterserver without
  the use of a terminal multiplexer, for example for debugging purposes or a
  dry-run to test if your settings are properly configured.
  
  The masterserver works great in combination with one of the MasterServer 
  Interface websites. This allows you to keep an eye on your masterserver and
  allows others to view directly which games you support, how many servers are
  available and more.
  
  The provided configuration is optimized for generic use. Keep in mind that the
  masterserver in this form was originally designed for use with other 
  333networks functions. If you want to set up your own system for any
  game other than Unreal Tournament, you may want to look at other repositories
  on 333networks HOW this is achieved. See also http://git.333networks.com
  
  333networks is not responsible for your masterserver querying (or spamming)
  game servers and/or masterservers. Your configuration is YOUR responsibility!

TOOLS

  In the "util/tools" folder, a few handy tools are included. In general, it is
  not necessary to use these tools. While debugging and writing new features for
  the masterserver, these scripts have been very handy. Therefore, they are
  included in the repository. Poor documentation is included in the scripts and
  required files themselves.

KNOWN ISSUES
  There are a few known issues that will be resolved in future versions. The
  following issues are listed and do not need to be reported.
  
  Only Postgresql works. When any other database type is selected, the script
  either crashes, generates a lot of errors or does not process any game
  servers. This is the result of attempting to unify the database type functions
  that failed. Sadly, many of the reference functions and time functions are not 
  compatible with each other. An update where this is fixed will follow.
  
  Slow database: currently, database requests are blocking. On slow hardware,
  these requests may take enough time to miss/deny incoming beacons and list
  requests. No solution available in this version. Proposed solution: AnyEvent's
  asynchronous database driver(s). The current configuration for 333networks and
  affiliated servers do not suffer from this problem.

  No servers found after syncing with 333networks or others: the syncing 
  protocol also requires authentication. We do not want authorized people mass-
  spamming our masterservers with sync request to determine whether the server
  is online (yes, this actually happens -- use the \about\ query for that!) or
  to keep the list unnecessary updated. Sync requests should not be executed 
  more than 1-2 times per hour!
  If you want to sync with us, please email 333networks on info@333networks.com

COPYING
  Copyright (c) 2005-2016 Darkelarious & 333networks.com

  Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
  a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
  "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
  without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
  distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
  permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
  the following conditions:

  The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
  in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

  THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
  EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
  MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
  CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
  TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
  SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
  
  All Unreal Tournament related materials are based on Epic Games' Unreal 
  Tournament. UNREAL (c)1999 Epic Megagames, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 
  Distributed by GT Interactive Software, Inc. under license. UNREAL and the 
  UNREAL logo are registered trademarks of Epic Megagames, Inc.