Welcome to MetaServerII's News & Information port! METASERVER-II SERVICES: Port 3520 has the "look & feel" of the original METASERVER. It's fully compatible with programs like XNetrekM. Port 3521 is a new and improved format. It incorporates some of the suggestions seen on rec.games.netrek. Port 3522 provides verbose output, giving player lists (when available) as well as all of the information available from the above two ports. Port 3523 is what you are reading now. Port 3524 is the server list posted to rec.games.netrek once per month. It has a complete list of known public servers, with some detailed info about each. Port 3525 is the MetaServerII config file. Server admins may want to look at this to see if/how their server is listed. Port 3530 is the list of RSA public keys. This is only useful for server administrators; you don't need this just to play. You can save a copy of the info with: telnet metaserver.netrek.org > file (replace with one of the numbers above.) EXPLANATION OF "FLAGS": T Means that at some point in the lifetime of the MetaServerII process there were >= 8 players on this server ("T-mode"). D Means that this server hasn't responded since MetaServerII started watching ("always Dead"). R Means that this server supports (and may REQUIRE) RSA validation. The server types are as follows. These are broad categories, indicating a general "feel" of play. B Bronco - standard scam/bronco sources. P Paradise - paradise-style server. S Sturgeon - upgrades and weird weapons, planets, etc. C Chaos - lots of really whacked out mods. H Hockey - works like hockey. F Dogfighting - dogfighting server. I CAN'T SEEM TO GET THE ENTIRE LISTING Try sending it to a file: ("telnet metaserver.netrek.org 3521 > /tmp/mlist; cat /tmp/mlist"). If that doesn't work, I have a short (70 line) program which WILL work. Send mail and I'll forward it. MASS RETRIEVALS: DO NOT run scripts or MS-II clients that automatically read in every port every time. If everybody ran one of these the extra load would be difficult to bear. Ask for all the information you want, but don't load up the network with requests for information you're not interested in (the clients usually get both ports 3520 and 3521, which contains essentially identical information, and the faq from port 3524, which most people don't need to read more than once or twice). Repeat offenders will be added to the "exclude" list, which blocks a host from all access. Currently ALL of richsunN.gatech.edu is blocked for exactly this reason. WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION? Try rec.games.netrek. Use "rn", "readnews", "vnews", "nn", "notes", or whatever else you have to read Usenet news. If you can't quite figure it out, ask someone on your system. There's a Frequently Asked Questions list for rec.games.netrek. I would include it here except that you really ought to be reading the newsgroup anyway. From Jonathan Hardwick's rec.games.netrek .signature: Jonathan H., jch@cs.cmu.edu Keeper Of The Netrek Archives Access for the masses : anonymous FTP to gs69.sp.cs.cmu.edu (128.2.206.167). If you have AFS, look in /afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/jch/netrek. If you have WAIS, use the netrek-ftp database, available on port 6000 of gourd.srv.cs.cmu.edu. Grab all the files you can from this site, and READ THEM. From Tom Holub's FAQ series: "This is a list of all known FTP servers where you can find Netrek client and server code, or anything else. Mail tom@soda.berkeley.edu with any comments. Name Address Comments scam.Berkeley.EDU 128.32.138.1 The original site (now outdated). soda.berkeley.edu 128.32.149.19 INL administrata, FAQ lists. ftp.cis.ksu.edu 129.130.10.80 Mirrors, INL server. pittslug.sug.org 192.58.107.150 Bronco clients, RSA stuff. gs69.sp.cs.cmu.edu 128.2.206.167 Learn to play here! b62103.student.cwru.edu 129.22.242.151 NeXT stuff. ftp.iastate.edu 129.186.140.11 Little bit of everything. iacrs2.unibe.ch 130.92.11.4 Source for IBM rs6k/AIX. sgi.com 192.48.153.1 Silicon Graphics binary. ocf.berkeley.edu 128.32.184.252 Apollo stuff. crissy.berkeley.edu 128.32.156.224 Latest Berkeley client, INL server. cad.ics.uci.edu 128.195.1.42 UDP client. ftp.coe.montana.edu 192.31.215.240 Mirrors. ftp.informatik.uni-rostock.de 139.30.5.23 Galaxy client. ftp.ulowell.edu 129.63.32.1 VMS client. ftp.unh.edu 132.177.128.99 VAX Ultrix client. duke.me.chalmers.se 129.16.50.80 ntpatch source. grind.isca.uiowa.edu 128.255.19.233 Grandfather borg. charon.amdahl.com 129.212.11.1 Andy McFadden's stuff. ftp.chemietechnik.uni-dortmund.de 129.217.174.20 Mirrors gs69.sp.cs.cmu.edu. tbird.cc.iastate.edu 129.186.140.11 Game recorder server mod. melmac.risc.uni-linz.ac.at 140.78.140.60 RSA stuff/ENL archive. jupiterII.cl.msu.edu 35.8.1.236 Sun, sun386i and 486 blessed clients. netcom.com 192.100.81.100 Blessed linux client. nyquist.cs.nott.ac.uk 128.243.22.10 Sparc sound client. ftp.ecst.csuchico.edu 132.241.1.108 Guzzler server source. " USEFUL STUFF ----- Article 7402 (57 more) in rec.games.netrek: From: jjudy@argon.berkeley.edu (Jack W. Judy) I find the following simple command line filters useful to remove the less usefull info of the outstanding MS II. Add them to your .aliases or .login files if you think they're useful. telnet metaserver.ecst.csuchico.edu 3521 | grep "h " | grep -v "Nobody playing" | grep -v "Not responding" telnet metaserver.ecst.csuchico.edu 3522 | egrep '^Server:|^.. .. ...' ****************************************************************************** Netrek T-Shirts Now Available! Very cool black T-shirts with a Fed vs. Rom game (complete with galactic, tactical, player, and message windows) on the front and a large "OGG THIS!" on the back. Screen printed in three colors, red, white, and yellow, these 100% cotton tees are only $11.00. Indicate size L or XL when ordering (XXL add $1.00). Send check or money order to: K & K Enterprises 8831 Milton Morris Drive email kcwinter@uncc.edu Charlotte, NC 28227 NC residents add 6% sales tax. Shipping and handling $4.00 for first shirt, $1.00 for each additional shirt. Allow four to six weeks for delivery. ****************************************************************************** --- End of info ---