Gamenet Server

Ghaleon · Post by **Ghaleon** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:43 pm

I dont know if you guys are familiar with this at all, but several years ago there was a company called WorldNet in Ohio that ran a server called Gamenet which several different BBS's connected to to play games like MajorMUD, TeleArena, etc. I would really like to get one of these types of systems running but have no idea how they did it. I'm guessing they used WG's rlogin, but I'm not exactly sure.

Here is some more research I did on it
http://forum.randm.ca/index.php?act=Pri ... er&f=3&t=6
I found a link to download gamesrv but im not sure if its even in development anymore according to their site. Anyone know if its possible to get this to work with games like majormud, etc?

Malakai · Post by **Malakai** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:49 pm

They used vircom's DMA client and server to do this. The DMA server was only released on DOS versions of mbbs and wg2, not the nt one, but there was a client for NT. I have the client registered to me, but have not been able to get on any dma servers. Been waiting like 4 or 5 months for Joe to get his DMA server up but have pretty much given up on that and put up my own little mbbs system connected to my NT system. The main problem is you have to create a new account on the mbbs system and log in each time, while the dma server/client put you right in to the game you wanted to play.

You may be able to talk vircom in to selling you a dma server still, but they quoted me like $600 last time I talked to them. It should be free.

Ghaleon · Post by **Ghaleon** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 5:16 pm

vircom is actually still around though eh? unlike metro and several others?

Malakai · Post by **Malakai** » Thu Sep 28, 2006 11:56 pm

Well, the company is still around, because they do radius server stuff, but as far as supporting major tcp/ip or dma server, they occasionally will sell them privately via email and such. IMO, they are a bunch of greedy bastards, selling that which should be free in these nickel and dime bbs days, but that's just me. How many people do you know still running major bbs and wg dos - ya know what I mean.

ccs · Post by **ccs** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 9:56 am

Malakai wrote:They used vircom's DMA client and server to do this. The DMA server was only released on DOS versions of mbbs and wg2, not the nt one, but there was a client for NT. I have the client registered to me, but have not been able to get on any dma servers. Been waiting like 4 or 5 months for Joe to get his DMA server up but have pretty much given up on that and put up my own little mbbs system connected to my NT system. The main problem is you have to create a new account on the mbbs system and log in each time, while the dma server/client put you right in to the game you wanted to play.

You may be able to talk vircom in to selling you a dma server still, but they quoted me like $600 last time I talked to them. It should be free.

Umm sorry about the delay. My DMA server is up and running, but only my bbs is connectiong to it as of now. I have tw2002, Wilderlands Mud, Galatic Empire and and few other Games running on it now. If you would still like to access it, email me again and I will send you the connect info this weekend.

Joe

Malakai · Post by **Malakai** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 1:06 pm

I forgot to also say that, if you want to run MajorMud on a DMA server, according to the docs, you have to buy a DMA server code, because it won't work with a normal activation code. Not sure if they've changed this in new versions or what though. I guess you'd have to e-mail them.

Ghaleon · Post by **Ghaleon** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 2:09 pm

getting info from metro is like pulling teeth. they need to just sell majormud off to the highest bidder.

Ghaleon · Post by **Ghaleon** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 2:09 pm

Umm sorry about the delay. My DMA server is up and running, but only my bbs is connectiong to it as of now. I have tw2002, Wilderlands Mud, Galatic Empire and and few other Games running on it now. If you would still like to access it, email me again and I will send you the connect info this weekend.

course im interested. I just dont know how to set that up on my end. Lemme know what I need to do.

Ghaleon · Post by **Ghaleon** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 2:13 pm

Quoted from a Vircom Rep

I apologize for the delay. We actually do not sell a DMA Server for
Worldgroup/NT. What we do have is a DMA Server for Worldgroup Dos and a DMA
Client for Worldgroup/NT. You would need to purchase both and would need to
get a Worldgroup/DOS system running for the DMA Server. The cost is $500
each product, and unfortunately we have no support staff here that is
skilled in this solution. In other words, you are unable to get support, the
software would be sold as-is.

we have no support staff here that is skilled in this solution.

gotta love that.

Malakai · Post by **Malakai** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 2:29 pm

It would be worth it, if one big bbs just wanted to host a huge gamenet server for many bbses to join, if you (or some one else) had a bunch of mbbs/wg2 mods and a system, but that would also require a lot of bandwidth, if it caught on. I'd love to see a bunch of boards hooked up with swords of chaos and majormud, even t-lord, ge, mutants, crossroads of the elements, and trade wars.

Is it worth it, money-wise though? Would you have to charge for access? All legitimate questions...

And to answer your other question on how to connect to a DMA server, you also have to have a DMA client. If you're running NT, then there was only one solution: Vircom's ICODMA Client. Since they say each product is $500, then I think that's probably a lot more than it was when it came out. I luckily had a dos activation code for it and it works on the nt version.

If I were you, I would just use a cracked version of the NT client. There's no way I would feel badly about that with vircom. There are no cracked dma servers that I can tell. So, you'd have to buy that.

Toyduck · Post by **Toyduck** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 2:59 pm

Malakai wrote:
Is it worth it, money-wise though? Would you have to charge for access? All legitimate questions...

What type of bandwith would we be talking about? That (for me anyway) would be the part I might be concerned about, the monthly recurring costs.. bandwith isn't cheap in my part of the woods..

..but the intial one time cost of the software could be accomadated.

Toyduck

Malakai · Post by **Malakai** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 3:27 pm

Let's just say technically that there are 150 people playing at once. I'm not saying a bbs game server will ever reach that point again. Maybe it will - maybe it won't. Each connection is 38.4k. 38.4K X 140 users is appx 5.76MEG upload that gamenet server would need.

Again, this is technically. Some things that you have to consider is that, from my experience at least, ISP upload bandwidth is max upload bandwidth, not some thing that is always occuring. So, it fluxuates.

Another thing to consider is that players probably aren't taking up their full 38.4 speeds. They're probably averaging between 14.4 and 28.8 while scripting and probably between 9600 baud and 14.4 while manually playing. If a person is downloading or uploading files, then they will take up more bandwidth than playing.

I'm not exactly sure how much you could squeeze out of the bandwidth. but if quicksilver is handling 70 users at t1 (1.5mbps upload) connection, then you might as well use some thing like that for scale. 3mbps upload for 140, etc..

Ghaleon · Post by **Ghaleon** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:20 pm

Malakai wrote:Each connection is 38.4k.

I don't think you would EVER need that kinda bandwidth. I was running a BBS with about 50+ users for a while on cable (and we know cable uploads arent worth jack) and there were no lag issues.

Malakai · Post by **Malakai** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:27 pm

That's worldgroup's max connection speed. Like I said, I don't know how much bandwidth you're really using, playing a text mud. You have so many variables, like pauses/delays before/after typing, internet lag on their (The visitors/players) side, people taking breaks.

What I do know though is that if you had 50 users on a cable connection with no lag, then you were lucky. I have in the past and occasionally now logged on several cable and dsl boards, and they are some times laggy with little or no people on-line.

Ghaleon wrote: You sure about that? I was running a BBS with about 50+ users for a while on cable (and we know cable uploads arent worth jack) and there were no lag issues.

Ghaleon · Post by **Ghaleon** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:31 pm

What kinda processor where they running it on? Usually my lag issues in the past were more related to my processor speed than anything else.

Malakai · Post by **Malakai** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:37 pm

I'm not sure what cpu they're running on, but I've noticed quite a bit of lag on joe's board (sorry, joe, don't mean to talk about ya lol), rob swindell's synchronet board in the past (haven't been on there in a long time) and even rick's dos board... the latter is probably because he's running wg2 in winnt...

Toyduck · Post by **Toyduck** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 11:54 pm

Malakai wrote:
I'm not exactly sure how much you could squeeze out of the bandwidth. but if quicksilver is handling 70 users at t1 (1.5mbps upload) connection, then you might as well use some thing like that for scale. 3mbps upload for 140, etc..

OK, well I have 1.5 up/down on my cable now (business connection), however my BBS is on my DSL which is 500k both ways. So I could get within the ballpark if I changed the connection used. Right now I'm running a Athlon 64 for a CPU under Win 2000, which seems much better than my older PIV.

Toyduck

ccs · Post by **ccs** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:20 am

Malakai wrote:I'm not sure what cpu they're running on, but I've noticed quite a bit of lag on joe's board (sorry, joe, don't mean to talk about ya lol), rob swindell's synchronet board in the past (haven't been on there in a long time) and even rick's dos board... the latter is probably because he's running wg2 in winnt...

My BBS is on a T-1. I'm running WG2.0. I'm not sure how fast the BBS computer is but I think the lag that you see is due to the fact that the DMA server that hosts most of my games is at my house on a cable modem about 16 miles from the BBS. The main BBS has no lag as far as I know. What were you doing when you had lag?

Joe

Malakai · Post by **Malakai** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 2:17 pm

It's the main bbs. I just logged on there a minute ago, and it wasn't too bad, but was slightly delayed. Some times, it's a bit worse though. I always compare one bbs to another when I get laggy, to make sure it's not on my end.

btw: I haven't received that connection info last weekend. Did it not go through? I believe all I need is a password and the exact module/page names of which ones I need to connect to, according to the ICODMA client documentation.

dspain · Post by **dspain** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:31 am

Malakai wrote:I forgot to also say that, if you want to run MajorMud on a DMA server, according to the docs, you have to buy a DMA server code, because it won't work with a normal activation code. Not sure if they've changed this in new versions or what though. I guess you'd have to e-mail them.

yep, wccdma.sys

dspain · Post by **dspain** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:33 am

Ghaleon wrote:getting info from metro is like pulling teeth. they need to just sell majormud off to the highest bidder.

too many people have development rights to it, theres actually a website in canada that was leaking off the source code, they switch the name everytime metro shuts em down but somehow they always seem to get the current version last majormud source i seen was 1.11o

GM came along right after their myspace site was shut down

dspain · Post by **dspain** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:34 am

Malakai wrote:Let's just say technically that there are 150 people playing at once. I'm not saying a bbs game server will ever reach that point again. Maybe it will - maybe it won't. Each connection is 38.4k. 38.4K X 140 users is appx 5.76MEG upload that gamenet server would need.

Again, this is technically. Some things that you have to consider is that, from my experience at least, ISP upload bandwidth is max upload bandwidth, not some thing that is always occuring. So, it fluxuates.

Another thing to consider is that players probably aren't taking up their full 38.4 speeds. They're probably averaging between 14.4 and 28.8 while scripting and probably between 9600 baud and 14.4 while manually playing. If a person is downloading or uploading files, then they will take up more bandwidth than playing.

I'm not exactly sure how much you could squeeze out of the bandwidth. but if quicksilver is handling 70 users at t1 (1.5mbps upload) connection, then you might as well use some thing like that for scale. 3mbps upload for 140, etc..

set your polling mode to like 9600 in hardware setup.
actually can you still do that anymore like you could in 2.0?
been a while since i tinkered with it.

dspain · Post by **dspain** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:36 am

Ghaleon wrote:
Malakai wrote:Each connection is 38.4k.
I don't think you would EVER need that kinda bandwidth. I was running a BBS with about 50+ users for a while on cable (and we know cable uploads arent worth jack) and there were no lag issues.

i agree telearena bbs had 32 users online when i got to georgia and moved it back to the main pc, it was doing that with a p2/350
no lag with 2 versions of Ta, arcticglobals, and 2 versions of t-lord

dspain · Post by **dspain** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:38 am

Malakai wrote:I'm not sure what cpu they're running on, but I've noticed quite a bit of lag on joe's board (sorry, joe, don't mean to talk about ya lol), rob swindell's synchronet board in the past (haven't been on there in a long time) and even rick's dos board... the latter is probably because he's running wg2 in winnt...

yeah rick was running mbbs under nt, rob swindell's nbbs yes i have gotten bad lag spikes but seems his one under linux is a smooth ride.
cvs.synchro.net or try rob.synchro.net

vert.synchro.net is a revolving hostname

Malakai · Post by **Malakai** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 5:11 pm

Is it possible to use Synchronet or some other rlogin server to collect what information is being sent through the icodma client? Since synchronet is open source, it'd probably be easy to make a dma client for it as well. Maybe even a synchronet dma server, where you wouldn't have to go through the whole login, menus, etc - just go straight to a door game from worldgroup.

Malakai · Post by **Malakai** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 6:07 pm

Joe, please take me off of your dma and newsgroups server list. I'm not sure what's up with newsgroups and dma, but I haven't received any newsgroups in like a month and never received the email about the dma server. I don't have the time to mess with it any more.

ccs · Post by **ccs** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 8:49 pm

Malakai wrote:Joe, please take me off of your dma and newsgroups server list. I'm not sure what's up with newsgroups and dma, but I haven't received any newsgroups in like a month and never received the email about the dma server. I don't have the time to mess with it any more.

OK...

you can do it by sending email with the word unsubscribe in the message subject.

Joe