path: root/README

=========

DESCRIPTION
  This repository contains the source code which was written by Darkelarious to
  limit the effects of GameSpy (GameSpy Industries, Inc.) shutting down their 
  services. Among this service was a so-called "masterserver".
  
  Simply said, 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://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.
  
  Timer & 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".
  
  The processes are all started with a delay. This allows the masterserver some 
  grace time and to receive most beacons (every minute). All time variables in 
  the configuration file are listed in [s]econds.

  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, but in return, you allow other masterservers to query you 
  too, with the same request. If you do not wish this to happen, synchronization 
  can be disabled. 
  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 [citation needed], 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:
   
    screen -dmS "masterserver" ./util/masterserver.pl
  
  Keep in mind that this configuration of database, masterserver and website
  is designed for 333networks. 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!

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.
  
  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).
  
  No servers after downtime: when the masterserver has been off or offline for
  more than three hours, the server list does not update or only updates a 
  limited amount of servers. This is caused by not removing and NOT re-querying
  old servers after they appear unresponsive for more than three hours. Proposed
  solution: after more than three hours downtime/off time, clear the server list
  from the database workbench: ">DELETE FROM SERVERLIST;". Will be fixed in the
  next update/release.

  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 3-4 times per hour!
  If you want to sync with us, please email 333networks on info@333networks.com

COPYING
  Copyright (c) 2005-2015 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.