Printable View
If you use dns, you can move the server to another datacenter without patching the client at all... You just have to update the dns and within 24 hours people will be connecting to the new server. If you don't want people looking up your private info at dns registrars whois info just use fake data; they don't care. Only some hosting companies care that you provide a valid id card...
Okay... I know gzuz answer to that is that he's thinking of small private servers. Maybe something run from home for a few close friends etc. Changing from one "Datacenter" on a dynamic IP to another will make no difference than your ISP changing the IP of the same "Datacenter". :wink:
OTOH, I've never filled in an id card to get a DynIP DNS entry. The whois info leads to the DNS host, and you get a free (maybe, check Ts'n'Cs) record on their Domain. So, for example, I may become bobsobol.dynamicipsrus.org, but the whois comes back to dynamiciprus.org.
Some example DynDNS providers:-
I'm sure you can find more. I've not checked them all out, some are only designed for "web" servers, and create a web-redirector page... that's no good, you need one that maps the DNS record to your IP. You run a little client on your server machine which either checks your WAN IP periodically and lets the DNS server know if it changes.
DNS entries are cached and distributed around the internet, so not everybody who looks up your IP from your domain name will go straight to the host you choose, and updates may not be "instant", or even the same for all users. (depends what DNS server they connect to) It's a bit like pop mail, the records just bounce around, every DNS server passes updates to every other DNS server it knows.
I wasn't talking about dyndns domains... For 10$ you have your personal domain for a year and you need to enter domain registrant information... Which doesn't matter.
To order dedicated servers nowadays you have to send a copy of "someone's" id card.
You are talking about homeservers and I was talking about dedicated servers located in data centers, that's why I got confused. xD
Of course there are free alternatives; I've totally forgot about those xD Then again you can still use the a No-IP domain which updates once every 5 minutes.
e.g. bobosobol.no-ip.org
The No-IP will always point to the correct dns record since the no-ip.org website won't change it's dns records. Just the subdomain records are changed, which are below the no-ip.org record. Thus the clients will ask the no-ip.org dns server which ip the subdomain points to.
Yea, well, I can't see where you would rent a datacenter with Dynamic IP.
Essentially though, I think we both agree that whatever you are doing a domain name is easier than looking up the IP for an unnamed server host and distributing that IP to clients via a page on the web server.
I'm not saying gzuz idea isn't cool, or wouldn't work... (clearly it does work) I'm just still not sure why you would choose to do it that way. What exactly is the advantage?
I never said anything about a datacenter and a dynamic ip. It is possible you want to upgrade or downgrade your server and then the ip will change. Which is only natural because you will get a new server.
Or you find a better and cheaper dedi server company and want to relocate the server. Or even move from your homeserver to a dedicated!! :p
Yeah, we definitely agree on that one @.@. A lot of official games out there use dns.
I am also wondering why anyone would do it like this, but ya it works so no one cares. It doesn't matter how you do it; if it works in the end, gz!!
Oh and bobsobol gz on Moderator rank ^_^ I didn't notice this earlier.
You said "datacenter", the DynIP is the initial premiss in the OP. :wink:Quote:
Originally Posted by gzuz
Oh TY. :blush:
go ahead bob, enter a dynamic dns name into pt server and try to connect. infact. try mine if you wish as your 3 ips. reaverpt.servegame.com. enter that into your ptreg and see what happens.
Clearly, your launcher should GetHostByName() that domain, and should place the response (94.10.67.198) into ptreg.rgx, or follow the client code in Olly and amend the PTReg.rgx reading to process a Domain name into an IP string first.
Or would that not work? And if so, why?Run PTRegHost reaverpt.servegame.comCode:#include <winsock2.h>
#include <ws2tcpip.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
//-----------------------------------------
// Declare and initialize variables
WSADATA wsaData;
int iResult;
DWORD dwError;
int i = 0;
struct hostent *remoteHost;
char *host_name;
struct in_addr addr;
char **pAlias;
// Validate the parameters
if (argc != 2) {
printf("Error. No host name passed as parameter!");
return 1;
}
// Initialize Winsock
iResult = WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(2, 2), &wsaData);
if (iResult != 0) {
printf("WSAStartup failed: %d\n", iResult);
return 1;
}
host_name = argv[1];
remoteHost = gethostbyname(host_name);
if (remoteHost == NULL) {
dwError = WSAGetLastError();
if (dwError != 0) {
if (dwError == WSAHOST_NOT_FOUND) {
printf("Host not found\n");
return 1;
} else if (dwError == WSANO_DATA) {
printf("No data record found\n");
return 1;
} else {
printf("Function failed with error: %ld\n", dwError);
return 1;
}
}
} else {
if (remoteHost->h_addrtype == AF_INET)
{
if (remoteHost->h_addr_list[0] != 0) {
addr.s_addr = *(u_long *) remoteHost->h_addr_list[0];
i=1;
printf("Server%s", inet_ntoa(addr));
}
}
else if (remoteHost->h_addrtype == AF_NETBIOS)
{
printf("NETBIOS address was returned\n");
}
}
return 0;
}
I've stripped everything but error messages and the first suitable IP so that you could pipe output to a file or use redirection in something else... like... Batch file or AutoIt or such.
This code is butchered from MSDN. I need no credit or applause.
It took less than 5 mins to strip out the crap from that MSDN example. It shouldn't take long to work it into a simple C / C++ launcher. If you're looking for another language, you'd have more porting work to go through.
MSDN suggests this for C#and this for VB.netCode:public static void DoGetHostEntry(string hostname)
{
IPHostEntry host;
host = Dns.GetHostEntry(hostname);
Console.WriteLine("GetHostEntry({0}) returns:", hostname);
foreach (IPAddress ip in host.AddressList)
{
Console.WriteLine(" {0}", ip);
}
}
Code:Public Sub DoGetHostEntry(hostName As [String])
DIM host as IPHostEntry = Dns.GetHostEntry(hostname)
Console.WriteLine("GetHostEntry(" + hostname + ") returns: ")
Dim ip As IPAddress() = host.AddressList
Dim index As Integer
For index = 0 To ip.Length - 1
Console.WriteLine(ip(index))
Next index
End Sub