Ya Say you would like to Run a Alien Assault Game Server And Youd Like to Run it on a Windows Machine. But you say you Heard it was Impossible, A Bitch to get Working, Or Just Didnt perform. You know what, It's All True.

That is Unless your Me. Or have taken the Time to figure it out for Yourself. My Name is Lord Venger and I run the Alien Assault - Empires of Blood Server.

Tonight is Your Lucky Night for I am going to Give Away My Magic . I am going to Show You My Path to Running a Fast Alien Assault Game Server on Windows.......

This Works on the Following, Your Problems or issue's may Vary. Home Server running Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Visnetic Website v3.19, MySql v4.0.18, Php v4.3.4 Using the Php4isapi.dll file, Fast Cpu, Scsi Drives, And a High Speed Cable Connection.

INSTALLATION

First Have the website, mysql, and php installed and running correctly. I have found with these games you want to Create the empty database First. Installs goes much Smoother. Also you will want the programs MySQL Control Center And the php script Mysql admin. Both will make working with Mysql Much Easier. For Php you will want PhpInfo to Check Php Settings. All are Free Online. The Install is probably the Best I have seen in this type of game. It went Pretty smooth for me and there's Nothing I can add here.

THE ISSUE'S

For Me It wasn't the Install where I had my issues it was in the Scheduler, Yep the Dreaded Scheduler. I found under Windows there is No Practical Way to run the Game Scheduler. Yes, you can keep a minimized / open window with the Scheduler address running all the time But this isnt really a fix. I have a tendencey to Close minimized windows, the updater is Slow, And there's No way to have it Start on Bootup. I just Never found a Way to do This to My Satisfaction.

Included in the Game Package is a Windows Cron Program. I found this Did and Didnt Work for me. It Works Fine as far as Updateing the game Scheduler But for Some Reason I Never Appeared in the Lists. Having a AA Server isnt much good if people dont know it's There. Also the Cron Writes a Log file Each time its run. At 6 Minute updates,Thats a Lot of log files.

This left me high and dry. I Searched high and low. I tried this, I tried that. It either just Didnt work Or Didnt Work Correctly. I Spent Days/Weeks on this Issue. What to do, What to do. And Then I Found It. The Secret, The Holy grail.


MY MAGIC

The Fix for this issue is a Commerical Program that I Stumbled across in My Search. It was Designed for a Completely Different Reason but Has 2 very Unique Properties. The Program is called Secure IE. Http://www.secureie.com

Secure IE is Basically a Parnoid Replacement \ Addon to Internet Exploer. It gives full control over scripts, java, things like that. Thats Useless for Alien Assault. The Grail is When you open a Secure IE window there is a Timer Switch.

And this Timer Switch will Refresh that Screen to whatever time You Set. Plus for Me, I finally started to Appear in the Listings. Hmmm, Ok That works Better then the plain IE window and its automated but its Still a Window And how do I have it Run in the Background and on Bootup. Ahhhhh, Here's Your Iceing

You can Save the Timer Set Browser Window to a File. I foget the name But its Not a EXE or bat file. I think its called a workbook. And not only do you get a file But you Can Run it from Your Windows Scheduler. Just Create a New Task and Point it to the File and Set it to Run in the Background at System Startup.

NOW I had a Windows Server Successfully Running Alien Assault with the Updater working And I was being listed in the Server Page. SWEET......

BUT WHAT ABOUT PERFORMANCE

Well I had a few glitches. The bigger the DB the longer it takes the updater to run and at 6 minute intervals you Know when the updater is running. The game Worked But the performance wasnt really what I was hoping for.

Then in playing with the Php.Ini settings I came across some Must Switches and found a Must Program. You Must Enable Zlib compression in the Php.ini, this is done by 2 settings not far into the Php.ini file.

Then farther down you will see wear they talk of Extensions. You will want to Enable the following Extensions - extension=php_gd2.dll, extension=php_w32api.dll. Finally make sure you Set the Home Directory and Extensions Directory.

The GD2.dll is for Game Graphics and the w32api.dll is just that. The Win32Api for Php (I Think). These are Both a Must. The Other Must is a Php Script called MMCache. This program Creates a cache space for scripts to run in. I Set a 32 meg Cache and pretty much My Whole Game Runs from Cache.

The Performance is like Night and Day. I have a Different Game Server Now. I have Finally achieved what I set out to Build. A Fast, Reliable Windows Alien Assault Game Server. Now I feel like My Bottleneck is the Cable Modem. Am I as Fast as the guy spending money to have a game Hosted on a Commerical Server, Probably Not. But I Run My Server from My BackRoom, I have Total Control, and I offer a Personnal Touch. Stop By, Check US Out....

I guess that about Covers it. This should get you Started and in Return for Me Turning you on to this Most Valued Info. If by Chance You get the Newest version of Secure IE and feel like shooting me a email attachment, Feel Free


LoRDVnGr
Http://OutLands.ws/gameroom/alien_assault

Thanks for the post... Glad to see someone finally got it working on windows well

Actually we provided TWO different cron systems for Windows.

One is called Sinc and it does make log files but they can be disabled with a switch.

The other one is called Icron and it is totally transparent and works as a service. Basically you never know it is there. I will admit that I didn't put the best documentation for using that program with the game. I did test both of them quite a bit back in december of last year. Icronservice is the best one to use.

Install it as a service with:



While the service is installed, start it with:



The <filename> is a text file that contains the Unix style cron inforamtion. There is an example included called startme.txt.



I will add this information to the install.php as the icronservice.exe is a much better way to go and it is free.

The reason for including both is because Icronservice.exe can only be used on Windows NT/2000/XP. Sinc32 can be used on ANY windows operating system. So people running 98/ME who want to play with it on their own computers can do so easily.

Hmmm

Not sure of what your saying. If You signed up 3 months ago how long before you tried to login again. A Day, A Month. What was Your Handle. Did you get a Reply Email with Your Password. While I have been running about 6 months that Doesnt Mean I've been Running the Same Game the Whole Time.

In Getting the Server dialed in I have Played with databases and Lost databases and Upgraded games versions, Changed Settings, Etc, Etc. Hey, Iv'e even rebooted My Server ot taken it Offline to do something a couple hundread times in the last 6 months.

Perhaps you tried to connect during one of those times. As far as My Users go, Well I guess you would have to ask them. I do have some pretty Loyal Users though. When I First Started Running the Game I would give Newbes Millions of Dollars Or Higer Class Ships As the were Playing the Game.

It actually freaked some of them out so I quit. I had One guy tell me he likes my server cause I'm always trying to Improve on it and Not Content to have just a Working Server. Sorry You didnt hit the website, There are Other Servers in the Lists You Know.

I guess I deserved that reply from You, Tochee


LV

Dont remember If I tried that one or not, I know I tried one but didnt see myself in the lists so I moved on in my search and then found SecureIE. Been using it ever since

LV

Umm, looks like its missing a '\' (backslash) after the D: