Windows Server - Observations, Suggestions, Comments & some Insight

[zeneowyn]

My server has been on the eqemulator.net list since the middle of May, 2012 – so I am past the catastrophic phase of trying to create a server, and now I am into the “tweaking” phase of operation.

First, I would like to thank everyone that has preceded me, there are far too many to name, but I would not be here without them. Secondly, I want to wish good luck to everyone following – be diligent and a “Critical Thinker” and you will successful.

My Build:

Windows Web Server 2008 R2 (64-bit), running on an Intel D975XKBK chipset, a 965 Pentium Extreme Edition processor, and 6Gb of DDR2 800 RAM (yes, overkill for this project, but use it if you got it). At the moment, I have a direct connection to the Internet (i.e. not through a modem or router) but plan to add a linux firewall (hardware/software server combo) soon.

Programs I used are:

• 7x920-64_101118.exe,
• zlib123-dll.zip,
• ActivePerl-5.10.1.1006-MSWin32-x86-291086.msi,
• mysql-5.1.63-win32.msi,
• vcsetup.exe (i.e. Visual Studio Express 2008 ),
• TortoiseSVN-1.7.7.22907-x64-svn-1.7.5.exe,
• HeidiSQL_7.0.0.4152_Setup.exe,
• npp.6.1.2.Installer.exe.

(for download links, please go to
http://www.eqemulator.net/wiki/wikka...rverSetupGuide or http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=32980


My Observations and Suggestions

The latest guides and tutorials are very good – but your interpretation may not be what the author intended. Following is the major areas that I struggled with:

1. If you get the “eqtime.cfg” error in your log file, then you missed “Update Setup #5” in the readme.txt file in the peqdb folder – “Copy eqtime.cfg to the directory where your EQEmu server binaries are found”. Most of the current / popular tutorials neglect to mention this. The file is located in the peqdb directory.
   
2. If you get something like “cannot load zones” error after you login, create your character, and try to enter World – then your maps maybe in the wrong directory. If you follow some of the recent tutorials explicitly, then you will have “C:\eqemu\eqemu-maps\*.maps” (where asterisk represents the map files). But I found the solution in an older tutorial; you need to copy these into the maps directory so it looks like “C:\eqemu\maps\*.map”.
   
3. I had an issue with 2 of the bot files – botpetstatepersists.sql and botadventuring.sql. Both files appear to have a space at the beginning of the file; so my solution was to rename the files (I add an A to the end of the file name), open the file in Notepad ++, select everything but the first character, paste it into a new file, than “Save As” the original file name, including the “.sql” extension. (You will know you have a corrupt file if you open botpetstatepersists.sql and see a space, try to delete the space and it will delete the next character, the “D” from Drop). Regretfully, SVN will not be happy until this is fixed in the original file.
   
4. I used the Thomas Edison approach, basically “I have not failed, I just found 10,000 ways that do not work.” For me, well let’s just say it took more than one but less than 10,000 tries. And yes, I learned a lot every single time. So if you are a newbie, be persistent and diligent, and you will succeed.
   
5. If you find Navicat Lite, please let me know – because I have searched all over the Internet and it is nowhere to be found. I used Notepad ++ and HeidiSQL instead and they were “marvelous”.
   
6. Notepad ++ works with “.sql” extensions, that is to say, you can add, open, edit, and save existing .sql files using Notepad ++.
   
7. But ultimately, I did my configurations using Heidi SQL. For example, when you setup the PEQLoginDB, I opened HeidiSQL, went to the PEQLoginDB database, clicked on the tblloginserveraccounts table then clicked on the “Data” tab. I choose the appropriate record and made the necessary changes (you can add, edit, and delete – just realize that some records are saved immediately and other records require you to click the green “save” check mark at the top).

My Questions

My emulator appears to be running well, but admittedly, I am just starting to do a thorough test and checkout of the program. The Major Issues that I am concerned about:

1). “HTTP World Service disabled”. I have not been able to resolve; is this required / critical? If so, any suggestions on how to resolve? (thanks in advance)
2). My “debug_world” log shows a lot of:

• Received unknown EQApplication packet;
• OPCode OP_unknown;
• First opcode 0x4dd0 did not match; or
• A four digit number (e.g. 0944, 0960, 0976) followed by long string of 2 character numbers (World_Client_Error) 0944 02 26 00 00 cb 27 00 etc

Are these serious and which ones are normal? (thanks, again, in advance)

In closing, thanks again to everyone that has contributed to this Project.

[rullare]

srry for off topic but can u help me create one server? i hope u have skype or something so we can talk when u are helping me. if u are intrested add me: qvika_gilla. i'm intrested in EQ and it should be fun to try it out on my own server^^