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<h1><i>Freelancer</i> Server ReadMe</h1>
<h2>Menu Items</h2>
<p>&nbsp;The table below describes the menu items for the <i>Freelancer</i> server.</p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#87C3E0" width="100%" id="AutoNumber1">
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center"><b>Menu</b></td>
<td width="50%" align="center"><b>Description</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">File | Exit</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">Saves the character data for every connected
player and forces them to log off. Then shuts down the server and exits.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">Edit | Copy, Edit | Select All, Edit |
Find..., Edit | Find Next</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">Performs the normal editing commands when in
Console view.<p>Disabled when in Status Summary view.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">Edit | Accounts...</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">Displays the Account Management dialog.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">&nbsp;Edit | Message of the Day...</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">Displays the dialog for editing the server's
current news, also called the message of the day.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">View | Status Bar</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">Toggles the visible state of the status bar
at the bottom of the server's window.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">View | Status Summary</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">Switches the server display to the Status
Summary view. </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">View | Console</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">Switches the server display to the Console
view.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">Chat | Chat With Universe</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">Displays the dialog for sending chat messages
to everyone on the server.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">Chat | Chat With Star System</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">Displays the dialog for chatting with the
players in a given star system.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">Chat | Chat With Player</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">Displays the dialog for sending a private
message to a given player.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h2>Dialogs</h2>
<p>&nbsp;Below is information about each of the dialogs the server
can display while running. For information about the main server configuration
dialog box, see the game manual.</p>
<h3><a name="Account Management">Account Management</a></h3>
<p>&nbsp;The Account Management dialog allows you to delete
characters, force characters to log off, and delete and/or ban accounts from
your server. It displays the list of accounts on your server and each of the
characters for those accounts. All of these operations can be performed while
the server is running. </p>
<p>&nbsp;See the <a href="#Managing Accounts">Managing Accounts</a>
section below for more information about managing the accounts on your server.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To close the dialog, click the <b>OK</b> button.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To delete a character, select the character name and click
the <b>Delete Character</b> button.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To delete an account, select the account name and click
the <b>Delete Account</b> button.</p>
<p>&nbsp;<a name="To ban an account">To ban an account</a>, select
the account name and click the <b>Edit Account</b> button. In the dialog that pops
up, set the check on the &quot;banned&quot; checkbox and click the <b>OK</b> button.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To remove the ban on an account, select the account name
and click the <b>Edit Account</b> button. In the dialog that pops up, unset the check
on the &quot;banned&quot; checkbox and click the <b>OK</b> button.</p>
<p>&nbsp;<a name="To force a player to log off of your server">To
force a player to log off of your server</a>, select the account name for the
character you want to kick off, click the <b>Edit Account</b> button, and then click the
<b>Kick Account From Server</b> button. Click the <b>OK</b> button to close the dialog.</p>
<p>&nbsp;NOTE: If your server allows new accounts, it is better to
ban an account than to delete it. If the account is deleted, the same player's
account will be created when they connect to your server again (but without the
characters they had when the account was deleted). Banning the account without
deleting it prevents the player from logging into you server until you remove
the ban.</p>
<h3>Message of the Day</h3>
<p>&nbsp;This dialog allows you to examine and modify the news
about your server. This news is displayed to players on your server in their
character selection screen. The news you enter for your server is saved and used
each time the server is launched until you change it again.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To change the news for your server, type the news you want
and click the <b>OK</b> button. Any players currently connected and on the Character
Selection screen will see the news.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To close the dialog without changing the news, click the
<b>Cancel</b> button.</p>
<h3>Universe Chat</h3>
<p>&nbsp;This dialog allows you to send chat messages to all of the
players connected to your server.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To send a message to the universe, type the message you
want to send in the single-line box at the bottom, and then press ENTER.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To close the dialog, click the <b>Close</b> button.</p>
<h3>System Chat</h3>
<p>&nbsp;This dialog allows you to monitor the chat traffic in the
star systems on your server, and allows you to send chat messages to entire
systems.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To monitor the chat messages in a system, select the Chat
| Chat With Star System menu item, then select the desired star system from
those listed and click the <b>OK</b> button. A System Chat dialog will then appear.
The system channel chat messages in that system will appear in the top box. You
can have more than one System Chat dialog open at a time, allowing you to
monitor more than one system. When selecting a star system, only those systems
that currently contain online players will be listed.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To send chat messages to a system, in a system chat
dialog, type your message in the single-line box at the bottom, and then press
ENTER.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To close a system chat dialog, click the <b>Close</b> button.</p>
<h3>Player Chat</h3>
<p>&nbsp;This dialog allows you to send a private chat message to
an online player.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To open a Player Chat dialog, select the Chat | Chat With
Player menu item, and then select the desired player from those listed and click
the <b>OK</b> button. A Player Chat dialog will appear. You can have more than one
Player Chat dialog open at a time.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To send a private chat message to a player, open a Player
Chat dialog for the player you wish to send the message to, and then enter your
message in the single-line box at the bottom and press ENTER.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To close a Private Chat dialog, click the <b>Close</b> button.</p>
<h2>Views</h2>
<p>&nbsp;The server displays information in one of two views: the Status Summary view and the
Console view.</p>
<h3>Status Summary</h3>
<p>&nbsp;The Status Summary view is the default and is most likely
the only view you will ever use. It displays the current load on your server ,
and some other statistics about your server.</p>
<p>&nbsp;The server load is a measure of how long it takes your
computer to process a single simulation step. It is displayed numerically in
milliseconds and graphically as a colored bar. A lower value is better. If your
computer is processing each simulation frame faster than the ideal rate, the
load bar will be less than half its full height and will be colored green. In
this situation, your computer has more CPU cycles than it needs to run the
server and will provide the best game experience it can. If your
computer is processing each simulation frame slightly slower than the ideal
rate, the load bar will be over half its full height and colored yellow. In this
situation your computer can still provide a good game experience, but you may
start to experience some lag on connected clients. If your computer is
processing each simulation frame must slower than the ideal rate, the load bar
will be near the top and will be colored red. In this situation your server is
providing a poor game experience; you will definitely see lag on connected
clients.</p>
<p>&nbsp;The server load varies with how many players are connected
and what those players are doing. In general, the more players you have on your
server and the wider apart they are spread across the universe, the higher the
load will be on your server. If you find that you are consistently running in
the yellow or red on your server, you can limit the number of players that can
be connected to your server at once. For information on how to limit the number
of players, see the game manual's section on running a
game server.</p>
<p>&nbsp;The table below explains each one of the displayed
statistics. Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are since the server was last
started.</p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" bordercolor="#87C3E0" width="100%" id="AutoNumber2">
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center" bordercolor="#87C3E0"><b>Statistic</b></td>
<td width="50%" align="center"><b>Description</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">Player Count</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">The number of players currently connected to
your server.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">Total Logins</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">The total number of players that have logged
onto your server.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">Total Logouts</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">The total number of players that have logged
off of your server.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">Failed Logins</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">The total number of players that have failed
to log onto your server.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">Aborted Missions</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">The total number of missions that have been
aborted by players on your server.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%" align="center">Player Deaths</td>
<td width="50%" align="center">The total number of times a player has died
on your server.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h3>Console</h3>
<p>&nbsp;The Console view displays information useful only when
debugging server issues. As the server runs it generates messages about what is
doing, including errors it may find and notification of exceptional conditions.
These are displayed in the Console view.</p>
<p>&nbsp;When in Console view, the Edit menu is active, and you can
select and copy sections from the console to the clipboard.</p>
<h2>Maintenance</h2>
<p>&nbsp;As people play on your server, you will accumulate account
and character information. If you intend your server to be a persistent place
for <i>Freelancer</i> players to come play, you will need to spend a little time
maintaining it. This section covers typical maintenance tasks for the <i>Freelancer</i>
server.</p>
<h3><a name="Managing Accounts">Managing Accounts</a></h3>
<p>&nbsp;Each time a player who has never connected to your server
connects to it, a new account will be created for that player. You can prevent
new accounts from being created on your server by un-checking the Allow New
Players checkbox in the server configuration dialog.</p>
<p>&nbsp;If you wish to prevent a player from logging onto your
server, you can <a href="#To ban an account">ban that player</a>. You can ban a
player that is currently online, at which point the player will be immediately
logged off.</p>
<p>&nbsp;If you don't want to ban the player, you can just
<a href="#To force a player to log off of your server">kick the player off of
your server</a>. Of course, the player can just turn around and log back in
unless you ban their account.</p>
<p>&nbsp;Player accounts can be manipulated in the Account
Management dialog. See the section on the <a href="#Account Management">Account
Management</a> dialog for more information.</p>
<p>&nbsp;If a character or account is currently online when
it is deleted, the player is automatically logged off.</p>
<p>&nbsp;NOTE: Accounts are tied to the build number of the server
on which they run. Therefore, your character files will not work on a server
with a different build number.</p>
<h3>Backing up Your Accounts</h3>
<p>&nbsp;The accounts for your server are stored in the My Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder of your documents folder. If you are
running Windows 2000/XP, this means that different users on the same computer
can run their own servers with different sets of accounts.</p>
<p>&nbsp;You can back up the accounts for your server by backing up
the entire My Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder in your documents folder. You must back up the
entire directory.</p>
<h3>Moving Your Accounts</h3>
<p>&nbsp;You can move the entire set of accounts from one server to another by
replacing the My Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder on the destination server
with the contents of the same folder from the source server. Copying of
individual accounts to another server is not supported.</p>
<p>&nbsp;To move your accounts from server A to server B:</p>
<ol>
<li>Delete the My Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder in your &quot;My
Documents&quot; folder on server B.</li>
<li>Copy the My Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder (and all it
sub-folders) from your &quot;My Documents&quot; folder on server A to the My
Games\Freelancer\Accts\Multiplayer folder in your &quot;My Documents&quot; folder on
server B.</li>
<li>Once you have moved these accounts from A to B, do not attempt to run servers on both machines at the same time.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Tips for Firewalls and Routers</h2>
<p>&nbsp;<i>Freelancer</i> uses the DirectPlay protocol for client/server
communications. Therefore, the game client should work through most Network Address Translation (NAT)
routers and works with the Windows 2000/XP Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
feature without requiring a configuration change. Special steps (<a href="#Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on Win98/Me">described
below</a>) are required when using ICS on Windows 98/Me.</p>
<p>&nbsp;DirectPlay can coordinate with a Universal Plug and Play
(UPnP) NAT/ICS to open the proper ports for running a <i>Freelancer</i> server.
However, if you have a hardware NAT or router that is not , you will most likely need to
configure it in order to run a <i>Freelancer</i> server behind it. See the section
below on the <a href="#Ports Used By Freelancer and the Freelancer Server">ports
used by <i>Freelancer</i></a> for more information.</p>
<p>&nbsp;If you are running a firewall, you may need to configure
it in order to play <i>Freelancer</i> on the Internet. If you are able to
play other games that use the DirectPlay protocol through your firewall, you
should be able to play <i>Freelancer</i> as well. For more detailed information, see
the section below on the
<a href="#Ports Used By Freelancer and the Freelancer Server">ports used by
<i>Freelancer</i></a>.</p>
<h3><a name="Ports Used By Freelancer and the Freelancer Server">Ports Used By
<i>Freelancer</i> and the
<i>Freelancer </i>Server</a></h3>
<p>&nbsp;<i>Freelancer</i> uses the standard DirectPlay8 UDP ports 2300<30>2400.
Ports are allocated starting at 2300, working toward 2400. Port 2300 is only
used when connecting to the global server.</p>
<p>&nbsp;This port range is used by both the game client and game
server. The game server uses it to connect to the list server and to accept
incoming connections from game clients. The game client uses it to connect to
both the list server and the game servers.</p>
<h3><a name="Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on Win98/Me">Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) on Win98/Me</a></h3>
<p>
&nbsp;Windows98 ICS is not Universal Plug &amp;
Play (UPnP) compliant. This prevents <i>Freelancer</i> servers from negotiating
with ICS to open the proper ports.&nbsp;If you want to host <i>Freelancer</i> games
behind a Windows98 ICS system, you
have to configure your ICS to allow the <i>Freelancer</i> server to be accessed from
the Internet.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;We have provided an INF file
that contains special configuration instructions for <i>Freelancer</i><EFBFBD>s server with
Windows98 ICS.&nbsp;This file is located in the Extras folder where you installed
<i>Freelancer</i> and is called Win98ICS.inf. This file must be installed on the
machine that serves as the ICS host (i.e. the machine with the real Internet
connection).&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&nbsp;If you are simply running a <i>Freelancer</i> server on your ICS host machine, you can use this file as-is. If
you are running a <i>Freelancer</i> server on another machine on your network, or you<6F>ve
chosen a specific port with the /P option, you will need to edit this file
before installing it.&nbsp;When you<6F>re happy with the contents of this file,
right-click on it and choose <b>Install</b>.&nbsp;You must reboot the ICS machine for the changes to take
effect.&nbsp;This should properly configure your ICS to work with <i>Freelancer</i>.</p>
<h3>Simple Fix for Most NAT/ICS/Firewall Issues</h3>
<p>
&nbsp;Many NAT, ICS, and firewall
issues can be resolved by simply opening up ports 2300<30>2400 on your NAT/ICS
server or firewall. If you just want to run a single server on your NAT/ICS
network, this should work well for you.</p>
<h3>
How to Control the Port Number that the <i>Freelancer </i>Server Uses</h3>
<p>
&nbsp;The <i>Freelancer</i> server normally
picks its own port (in the range of 2302<30>2400) when hosting a game.&nbsp;This works
well in most cases.&nbsp;However, there are situations where you may want to control the port choice for the server.&nbsp;These situations are
usually caused by running more than one DirectPlay game on your network at a
time.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;You can control the port
selection with the /P command line option to the FLServer.exe program. For
example, if you wanted to have the server host on port 1234, you would use the
following command line FLServer.exe /P1234. You can easily modify the provided
shortcut to FLServer.exe to include this option.&nbsp;Simply edit the Target
line and add your own /Pxxx after the FLServer.exe text.</p>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<p>
<font face="Times New Roman"><EFBFBD> 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Digital Anvil, DirectX, <i>Freelancer</i>, the Microsoft logo, the
Microsoft Games Studio logo, the .Net logo, Windows, and Windows NT are either
registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United
States and/or other countries.</font></p>
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