GTADS Documentation

created: 6:33 PM 3/19/2006
modified: 12:20 PM 3/28/2006

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
    1.1 What is GTADS?
    1.2 How does GTADS Work?
    1.3 Why?
    1.4 Features of GTADS
2. GTADS Client
    2.1 Getting Started
    2.2 Creating an account/Logging On
    2.3 The Chat Screen
    2.4 Friends Lists and IMs
    2.5 Gaming
    2.6 Administrative Client
    2.7 Troubleshooting
3. GTADS Server
    3.1 Getting Started
    3.2 The Config File
    3.3 Message of the Day
    3.4 Friends Lists
    3.5 Logging and Debugging
    3.6 Users
    3.7 GSIPS
    3.8 Troubleshooting

1. Introduction

1.1 What is GTADS?

GTADS is short for Grand Theft Auto Dedicated Server. GTADS was originally written as a chat server/client structure to allow players of GTA1 to play each other without having to deal with the directplay ports over the internet. Right now GTADS plans to support a wide range of LAN based games such as GTA2, Twisted Metal 2, and Doom just to name a few. GTADS is java based a such can be run on a wide variety of operating systems and hardware, and keeps the possibilities of supporting non-Windows games open for the future.

1.2 How does GTADS Work?

GTADS works as a chat network, much like an IRC server and client interact or an instant messenger package does. This part of GTADS allows players to be in a centralized place rather than relying on game forums, ICQ, or another combersome form of finding players. The key to the game play that allows players to face off against each other without having to deal with many game ports is the GTADS proxy, integrated into the client. The proxy acts as an interface between players while providing a pseudo player on each person's machine. This means that while the game is interacting with the local machine is playing a multiplayer session, the local pseudo player is sending and recieving its data through the proxy from the other player. You can think of it better through this text diagram:

(Host) Game <----> Pseudo Player <---> Proxy <------ --------- Internet ---------- ------> Proxy <----> Pseudo Host <----> (Player) Game

This controls the flow of the game, keeping the amount of necessary ports open to a minimum while not altering the game's code or network settings.

1.3 Why?

The purpose of GTADS is to allow many things for gamers, first of all giving them a choice in how they want to play their games online. There is no tie ins with using GTADS, just a choice. Any user is free to host their own own unique server and players may connect to any GTADS server they would prefer. Secondly, it will give many LAN games a second life on the Internet as things like NAT firewalls and routers have become commonplace now making gameplay difficult and cumbersome for people. There are many other reasons I may add here at a later time.

1.4 Features of GTADS

Well there are a bunch of features that GTADS provides at the user and server administrator's dispose, which I will list here:

- Chatroom environment for players to talk and meet
- FriendsLists for users to keep track of when their friends sign on/off
- Instant Message support for sending private messages between users
- Proxy that binds multiple game ports into 1 for simplistic gameplay
- Consistent Join/Host interface for setting up multiplayer sessions
- Server commands for the Admin to use from the client
- Java based Server for running server on multiple OS/Platforms
- Easy to use config file for changing server settings

2. GTADS Client

2.1 Getting Started

The GTADS Client can be easily downloaded from the GTADS Client Download Page in a compact zip file. Once you have completed the download the installation requires unzipping the files to a directory of your choosing. If you do not have a unzipping utility you may download one from Winzip. As of this documentation the current release of the GTADS client is beta release 1.

Once the zipfiles are unpacked into a directory of your choosing you may either run the jar file directly as you would an exe file or you may invoke the direct java command (provided to you by Client.bat if using Microsoft Windows). Please note that the Java virtual machine is required to run any GTADS software and can be obtained from Sun's website. If you are on a non windows based machine (Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OSX) and the client.jar file fails to run directly. You may open up a terminal window, switch to the directory containing the GTADS client and type the following:

java -jar client.jar (With console output)
or
javaw -jar client.jar (Without console output)

2.2 Creating an account/Logging On

If you are a first time user to GTADS two things will need to figured out upon loading up the client, the server desired to log on to, and the username/password combination to gain access. As of this documentation there is only 1 public server running GTADS at rez.fastping.net. If the default provided servers aren't what you want you may type in the hostname/ip address of any other server. GTADS connects to port 7000 as default, however if a server is run on a different port you can specify it by separating the port by a ":". For example:

192.168.1.105:5000 <-- connecting to a server on port 5000
172.16.18.4 <-- connecting to a server on the default port 7000

In order to keep a server on the client list each time GTADS is loaded you may, as of this current release, alter a file named server.dat. The servers.dat keeps a list of ips and host names and makes for quick connecting if a server is logged on to frequently. Any text editor will be suitable for editing the file and the format is as follows.

Hostname1 <--- Top of List
Hostname 2:7001
Hostname 3
Hostname 4:69 <---Bottom of List

Once a server is picked a username and password will need to be created. It is important to note that some servers may not have open account creations through the client and may use website authentication or another creative means. If the server has a website, consult it to check for any guidelines for creating an account. The server we are going to use for an example, rez.fastping.net, has open account creation. Your login screen should look as follows:

Clicking on the New User button will load up the account creation dialog. Make sure the relevant server is selected before clicking New User.

New User Screen

We add the desired username, password, and confirm the password. When satisified we press Ok. This action will cause the client to make a brief connection to the server and attempt to create the account. If all goes well you will recieve a success dialog window as below:

If for whatever reason, such as the server rejecting account creations, or there existing the same name that is tried to be created a dialog box such as below will be shown.

If this occurs you may try to create a different account, if many attempts fail you should contact the server administrator.

2.3 The Chat Screen

After creating an account or using an existing user, the login process, if successful, will leave you in the main chat screen area. As of the current release, the default chatroom is #GTADS. The Chat Screen is GTADS's main program screen, from there you can launch all the other client's functions such as joining, hosting a game, sending and receiving IMs, and using the variety of GTADS commands.

The chat screen consists of the Main Chat Box, Chat Text Field for sending messages, User List on the far right, and the Dashboard at the top. The Main Chat Box displays most system messages, as well as user chat messages in the current chatroom. The Chat Text Field can be used to send chat messages in the current chatroom, and send commands to the server. The Users List keeps track of who is in the current chatroom, updating who leaves and who joins. The Dashboard keeps an active tally of how many users are on the server and how many games are being played a the moment.

List of Commands:

/ join [room] - Joins a specified chatroom. The chatroom must be alpha numeric and start with a #
/part - Leaves the current chatroom
/skick (Admins Only) - Boots a user off of the server
/quit - Disconnects from the server (Server invoked)
/motd - Displays the Message of the Day
/uptime {user} - Displays the connection time of a specified user of if no user is specified the server itself
/showconfig (Admins Only) - Displays the attributes set on the server
/setconfig [key,value] (Admins Only) - Alters or creates a attribute on the server
/rmord (Admins Only) - Reloads the message of the day from file

2.4 FriendsList and IMs

No chat network would be complete without a friends or buddy list to keep track of if a user is on or not and private messaging. GTADS comes complete with these features built in. The friendslists can be loaded up by going to File -> Show Friends List and will appear as below:

The Friends list only displays the users who are online in the list. A user can be added to the friends list by simply clicking on the + Friend button.

A dialog button will appear allowing the user to type in the name of the user. A more integrated system will be implemented soon. After adding the desired username, the list gets updated on the server and you are now tracking that user from the friendslist. If that user is already on at the time you added their name, their name will appear. It is server optional the have permanant friends list that are saved to file and reloaded on a server restart. To remove a friend from the friends list you may press the - Friend button and just like adding a friend, just specify the name of the user.

Instant Messaging can be implemented through many ways. You may IM people on your Friends list by double clicking their name, you may double click on the user list in the chatroom to send a private message to anyone in the current chatroom. You can also go to, on the menu, Chat -> Send IM... and specify the name for yourself. The Instant Message Window is a scaled down simple version of a chatroom:

You may open up as many IMs as you'd like with anyone on the server. As of this release there are no sound effects to notify anyone of an incoming chat.

2.5 Gaming

Now that we have a lot of the chatroom features out of the way we can get down to the meat and potatoes of GTADS, Gaming. GTADS provides a gameroom interface for players to link up and start their multiplayer sessions with each other. There are a few very important things to note before starting or joining a game:

- You MUST open port 8000 (udp) on your router or computer, the proxy accepts incoming packets on that port and cannot function without.
- For GTA1, you must have the proxy run first before attempting to "Gather Network"
- For GTA1, you must connect to 127.0.0.1 or locahost when Joining a TCP/IP Game

On the dashboard next to the number of users and games on the server, there are two buttons that control the gamerooms on the client. The Join button brings up a list window of all games currently being played on the server. This list is updated in real time as to when a game is created, destroyed, or when more users join.

In the screenshot above we see the game "MyGame" is being hosted. To join an available game you may either double click on a selected game or press "Join Game" on the window. If the game is not full (check the Players field) it will automatically load the gameroom as shown below.

Joining a game room will be similar to joining a chatroom. You will be able to chat with people in the game room much like in the main chat screen. Joiners in a gameroom will wait for the host to set the game in motion.

Hosting a Game

Hosting a game involves clicking the Host Game button on the dashboard. You will be presented with a few options as to how to setup the game. As of the first release, the only option that can be customized is the game name. The game name field, as with chatroom names, must be alpha numeric with no spaces in between and a maximum of 20 characters.

If the game is created correctly, the server will register the gameroom, broadcast it to other client's game room list windows, and create the gameroom chat window.

Note the only difference in the joiner and host is the Start Proxy button. Only the host has control over when to start the game and when the host is ready and presses the Start Proxy button, a Proxy Window will appear.

The proxy on the host's side listening for incoming connections. The proxy will automatically start on the hosts side sending a message to the game room that the host proxy has been started.

IMPORTANT NOTE: As of Beta Release 1 (To be fixed in Br2) if you are a Joiner, you must make sure the "dplaysrv.exe" is killed. The proxy emulates a direct play server and those ports must be clear to use.

The proxy on the clientside will automatically display the hosts IP based on the IP used to connect to the server. If the host has multiple IPs and wants to use one, make sure they communicate to you to change the Host IP field before pressing start. Once the Proxy has been started on the host's side, the client may press Start on their own proxy. The Host should recieve a "REQUEST OK!" on their end. As of Beta Release 1, the OK status doesn't get communicated to the gameroom and it is assumed that if all goes well everything should correctly connect.

A Host proxy ready and hosting. When a Host sees this, it is their cue to load up their game and host on there. Shortly after the client should follow by connecting in their game to localhost.

*VOILA MULTIPLAYER SESSION*

The hoster owns the gameroom on the server and if the host logs out, or closes the gameroom, the gameroom for the joiners will also be automatically closed with the followin message.

2.6 Administrative Console

Feature Not Implemented Yet, See Section 2.3 for Admin Commands

2.7 Troubleshooting

As with most software not everything goes 100% correct as you'd like it to. With that I will try to cover the most common problems somebody may have with the GTADS client.

I created an account but the server is denying me access!

This can be attributed to a lot of different things. If you have created an account and cannot login check if you are typing in your password correctly (CAPS LOCK isn't on etc). If this still doesn't work try creating a new account and seeing if that one works. If you still cannot access the server contact the server admin and see if the problem is a bug or a deliberate feature. Keep in mind there are many errors that may prevent you from connecting from the admin putting a cap on the max amount of concurrent connections, your account being removed, etc. If it is a bug work with the admin to get a bug report, with logs at the time the problem occured to the contact info on http://gtads.blogspot.com.

The Server keeps disconnecting my client!

This problem can be attributed to poor connectivity to the server. Try pinging the hostname and checking for latency for packetloss. Other reasons you may be disconnected is if the admin invokes the /skick command. Beta Release 1 of the client doesn't notify the client that they have been kicked and it may look like a disconnect. In this case the admin has full justification to do whatever they please on their server and you may have to use another.

When I try to connect to another chatroom I am left without the ability to chat and my user list is empty.

When the GTADS client goes to another chatroom it automatically parts the current room first. There may be a problem connecting to the target chatroom but should be notifications in the chat window telling you the problem. If this doesn't occur log out and log back into the the server and see if the problem is resolved. If the problem persists try to notify the admin and send a bug report to me.

I am hosting a game and none of the joiners can connect!

Before hosting or joining a game you should check that your router is allowing UDP port 8000 incoming. You should also have the game start gathering joiners after the users connect to the proxy (confirmed by the REQUEST OK! status on your proxy). The joiners should also make sure their ports are open and there are no network obstacles. blocking this port. Beta Release 1 hasn't implemented a feature to confirm everyone's port is open as of yet. Besides network problems, also make certain that none of the joiners have dplaysrv.exe running on their machines. This blocks the proxy's ability to route directplay game queries and will hinder connection. If the problem persists either restart the proxy and have others do the same, restart the gameroom.

I am joining a game and cannot see their game!

Make sure that your proxy is startedand that the host has a REQUEST OK! confirmation on their side. Make sure your UDP port 8000 is open and is not being blocked (especially by personal firewalls). Check your process list and make certain that dplaysrv.exe isn't running. If the problem still persists try stopping and starting the proxy again, having the host restart the proxy or gameroom, or try another gameroom. If there are problems beyond this send a bug report and explain step by step what happened and that the above steps were already taken.

3. GTADS Server

3.1 Getting Started

If you have decided to run your own server there are a few simple things you will need to do before you can get it up and running. The GTADS Server acts as a centralized chatroom infrastructure to manage players, games, and chatrooms. The requirements for a server are just to have a working JVM as it will run on most all operating systems. GTADS's Server component has been tested on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and MAC OSX and there should be little problem getting it started on these platforms.
When you open up the zip file for GTADS as of beta release 1, you will find 3 files in there. The first is a readme, which is a quickstart version of this document, as well as a file named gtadsconfig. The latter file is what controls many of the properties of the server, from the limit of users that can login, to whatever name you decide to place for your server. To install the server onto your machine, just unzip the files to a directory of your choice. The configuration file must remain in the same directory as the server.jar.

3.2 The Config File

The most important file for the GTADS Server will probably be the configuration file that controls a lot of the function of how GTADS runs. This file must be configured correctly before the GTADS Server can be run. To configure the file, open up gtadsconfig with your text editor of choice. As the file should look like this:

; GTADS Stock Configuration File

[General]
; General Settings
; Administrative Account
; Note: Publish not implemented yet
ServerName=Sample Server
ServerPort=7000
Admin=admin
publish=no
publish Url=
publish url parameters=

[Message of the Day]
Motd=yes
Motd File=./sampleMOTD.txt

[FriendsList]
FriendsList=yes
; Directory to store friendslists
Friends List Directory=./friendsLists

[Debug]
Console Output=yes
Status Report Interval=900
Debug Level=5
Log=yes
Logfile=./gtadsLog.log


[Users]
; Accounts File sets the location of the usernames and passwords
; Client Signup states whether or new accounts
; are created from the client or by other means
; Account refresh - Interval between refreshing the accounts into the 
; server cache (in seconds. set to 0 for never
Accounts File=./accounts
Max Clients=100
Client Signup=yes
Email Signup=no
SMTP Server=
Account refresh cache=120
User Ping Interval=30

[Chatroom]
; Max Chatrooms - maximum chatrooms on server
Max Chatrooms=0
Max in chatroom=20

[GSIP]
GSIP Server=yes
GSIP port=8000

Here we can see that a lot of files are involved with the server as determined by the config file. Lets go through what each group of parameters do and how they should be configured.

PLEASE NOTE: Please notice the way in which the values are placed into the config file. The values are space sensative and String values should be placed right after the = sign and the end of the line should be at the end of your string.

General Settings

These settings include the servername for your GTADS server, the port it will run on, and your admin account name.

ServerName - Server name determines what the name of your server will be. This will be important for the GSIPS server (which we will go into later) as well as server identification. (String value)

Server Port - Server port configures what port the chat server will run on. It is recommended that you run it on port 7000 as the GTADS Client expects the server to be run on that port if none is explicitly set. The value can be anything in the normal TCP range of ports but check if the desired port isn't already taken by another process. (Numeric value)

Admin - Determines the absolute admin on the server. As of beta release 1 this is the only account that has access to administrator functions. When configuring your server you will need to provide a login for your admin account in the accounts file, which we will discuss in later sections. (String value)

Publish (Not Active) - Will be the option of whether you want to publically display your server on a server list website. As of Beta Release 1 this doesn't apply and can be left alone.

Publish Url (Not Active) - Will be the url the GTADS server will use to publish itself to a directory of servers. In the event of other such server lists this option will remain customizable.

Publish Url Parameters (Not Active) - Cgi parameters of the publish url value.

Message Of The Day

These options pertain to the message of the day. When a GTADS Client logs in, the first thing they see in their chat console is the message of the day. Its purpose is to provide news and updates about the network. These options dictate whether it will be active and where the text file will reside.

Motd - Configures whether or not a GTADS Server will display a message of the day greeting upon login. It is generally a good idea to include one, even if it is a simple message. (yes/no)

Motd File - The location of the message of the day text file, if enabled.

Friends List

This section of the config file covers friendslists. Friendslists are managed and stored on the server and written in a file of username.flist. The configuration file grants the option to allow friendslists to be stores on the server, to be read in on a server reboot, or to just keep the friendslist in ram.

FriendsList - Toggles the option to have stored friendslists on the server or not. Users will still be able to manage friends lists if the option is no but those friendslists will be destroyed when the server is stopped. (yes/no)

Friends List Directory - When a friendslist is stored it is placed in a directory on the server. If friendslists are enabled you will need to specify a directory where those lists can reside.

Debug

Since GTADS is still in the beta the debug options remain important as ever. Some of the options are handy in administraton of a server as well. Just note that writing out to the console just slow down whatever the server is doing and the debug level should really be set higher if you plan to test.

Console Output - This toggles whether a the GTADS will output normal (not debug) text to the console. It is probably a good idea to keep this on yes just to refer to from time to time. (yes/no)

Status Report Interval - The status report interval displays text in the following format every x seconds:

16:08:57 -- class org.GTADS.server.PeriodicStatusChecker -- Server Status
16:08:57 -- class org.GTADS.server.PeriodicStatusChecker -- Users Connected: 5
16:08:57 -- class org.GTADS.server.PeriodicStatusChecker -- Active Chatrooms: 51

16:08:57 -- class org.GTADS.server.PeriodicStatusChecker -- Memory Used: 1001 K

Displaying the users connected, active chatrooms, and the memory usuage of the server. (numeric value representing seconds)

Debug Level - For debug messages there are levels from -1 (no debug messages) and up that determine how verbose the debugging information should be. This should rarely exceed level 3 and will just slow down the server. (numeric value from -1 and above)

Log - For everything that can displayed and output to the screen the console it can also be placed in a log file. Set this as yes if you want to log all server messages, which is recommended. (yes/no)

LogFile - Sets the filename for the GTADS Server log.

Users

This part of the config file is user management. You would use these settings to set up your accounts repository and limit the amount of concurrent users on your server.

Accounts File - Sets up where the accounts file should reside. This is crucial to having a functioning correctly configured server. The accounts file is a flat file and in a later section its usage will be overviewed. (String value file location)

Max Clients - Sets the limit on the maxiumum amount of users that can connect to the GTADS Server at the same time. If you are worried about getting a huge amount of users hitting your server that either your hardware or bandwidth can't handle it is recommended you put a cap on it. A value of 0 will allow unlimited connections. (Number from 0 and up)

Client Signup - Determines whether new accounts can be created through the client's "New User" feature. If you plan to enforce an alternate method of client sign up you can set this off. Otherwise it is recommended to leave this on. (yes/no)

Email Signup (Not Active) - Creates an alternative way for your users to sign up to GTADS. As of Beta Release 1 this option is not set but will allow administrators set the server to send emails with account information and control the amount of accounts per email address. (yes/no)

SMTP Server (Not Active) - Goes together with Email signup and sets the SMTP server that the GTADS server would utilize for sending out message. (String value)

Account Refresh Cache - Allows the option of having the server reload and refresh the accounts list every x seconds. This is useful if there are other methods of creating accounts that make use of writing directly to file. As of Beta Release 1 there isn't really a mechanism to delete an account aside from removing the entry from the accounts table and having the server refresh that list. 0 disables this feature. (Numeric value representing seconds)

User Ping Interval - Right now the primary function of the user ping is to check for detached sockets and cause that user to sign off. It is recommended especially if you plan to host a server on the internet (as opposed to Lan). In future releases the User Ping Interval will also be used as an indicator of latency for users. (Numeric Value in seconds)

Chatroom

This section focuses on chatroom enforcement such as the maximum amount of users in the chatroom, and the maximum amount of chatrooms allowed on the server. In the future more features may be added such as permanent system chatrooms or chatrooms by geographic location.

Max Chatrooms - Sets the cap on the amount of chatrooms that can be created on the server. May be useful in keeping users in bigger groups or maintaining tighter control over the server. The Admin account is exempt to the restrictions. Setting the value as 0 disables the cap. (Numeric positive value)

Max In Chatroom - Sets the maximum amount of users that may be in a chatroom at the one time. The Admin account is exempt to this restriction and may enter a full chatroom. 0 disables the cap. (Numeric positive value)

GSIP

The GSIP, short for GTADS Server Information Protocol, Server which will be discussed in a later section is a server component of GTADS's server that allows external connections to read server stats. Right now GSIP is in its infancy and has minimal functionality. This section of the config file deals with the GSIP settings.

GSIP Server - Sets the GSIP server on or off on the GTADS Server. If you have a perl script (much like the one on http://gtads.blogspot.com) that can read the GSIP data then it is fine to set it on. As of beta release 1 it really isn't needed otherwise. (yes/no)

GSIP Port - Sets the listening port on the GSIP server. By default the GSIP server is set to listen on TCP port 8000. (Numeric value 1-65535)

This covers all the sections you will need to configure on the gtads config file.

3.3 Message Of the Day

The message of the day, is the greeting that the server gives the client upon logging in. It may have anything from server updates to important system information but that is up to the server administrator. Setting up a message of the day file is very simple as it just consists of a plain-text file. The lenght of each line shouldn't exceed more than 80 lines just for a better appearence on the client and each line break is displayed when shown to the client. Once you have created your motd file you may set the location of the file in the gtads config file. If you are updating the motd while the server is running by invoking the /rmotd command. This will cache a new version of the motd from the file location. In the future variables for server information will be implemented.

3.4 Friends Lists

Friends lists on the server require a directory location to implement a file for each user. If you plan to work with permanent friends lists on your server you will need to create a directory for them. The directory location will need to be placed in the configuration file and when the server loads it will successfully link the directory as the friends lists repository.
The Friends lists mechanism works mainly in the server's ram. The purpose of the flist files are for server start up when all the Friendslists has been erased from memory along with the server. The composition of a friends lists file for Beta Release 1 is a simple plaintext implementation of a list of each user on that person's friends list. In future released some control restrictions will make itself into GTADS such as a limit in size and the implementation of hidden users.

3.5 Logging and Debugging

Logging is an important thing in hosting a server. Its extremly useful to monitor abuse and any problems that may arise. GTADS has a logging and debug message system implemented. The logging may also go into a file if desired for any back logging to any sorts of problems that arise in running the server. Keep in mind that it helps the GTADS Developers greatly if you report any bugs with a log snippit of when the error occured.

3.6 Users

The most important job for the GTADS server is to manage users. Without the users, the server wouldn't be worth much any anybody. With that, in the post config you must set up an accounts file for user logins to reside. The filename will be whatever is specified in the config file for the location. As of beta release 1 GTADS stores the passwords unencrypted in the accounts file and should have the proper permissions set. A typical accounts file will look like this:

admin,changeme
GTAGamer,gta1969rox
luser88,usuxirox

The file is a flat file that is comma delimited to hold the username and then the password. The future releases this may be changed and an option for SQL may be provided. As of right now there is no preloaded way to set up the accounts file and to set up one you must create the accounts file and add in the admin username and login password. You may also add whatever accounts you would like beforehand or create them using the client's New User feature.

As of GTADS Beta Release 1, there is no direct user administrator over adding users and deleting users from the console. If a user needs to be added, deleted, or a password needs to be changed, the Account Refresh Cache should be running to recieve that file's changes, and the accounts file will need to be edited directly. In concurrent releases this will be made easier.

3.7 GSIPS

GSIPS is short for GTADS Server Information Protocol Server, which is a simple server that runs within the GTADS server and provides external queries with server information, such as the status of users, amount of chatrooms open, etc. The GSIPS is a relatively new feature and is undergoing a lot of work to make it more useful. GSIPS is planned to be used in conjunction with server lists but that hasn't been fully worked out. Right now to grab information off the GTADS GSIP Server you can manually telnet to the GSIP port and do the following (in bold)

GSIP Server
query server
server name=Test Server,server port=7000,users connected=40,max clients=100,active chatrooms=3

Connection to host lost.

As it is on the GTADS site there is a script which queries the GSIP server and parses out all the information using a script. When GSIPS gets more mature website ready scripts will be made available as well.

3.8 Troubleshooting

My server says it cannot find the accounts file and to halt the server.
This usually means that the accounts file specified in the GTADS config file is not present or cannot be read. Keep in mind if you are on a windows system that its best to keep the slashes / unix style, so that c:\gtads\accounts.txt would be c:/gtads/accounts.txt in the file. If the account refresh cache is running you can place the accounts file in the location where the server is looking for it and the server will read it when it eventually. If this happens while the server has been running, when the account refresh cache gets invoked, make sure the file hasn't been deleted or moved, the accounts will still be on server but no new accounts will be able to be created until the file is correctly placed.

When I start the server it gives some SocketBindException.
This error hasn't been refined in this version of GTADS but this usually means that the port you are trying to hose the GTADS server on is being used by another program. Either change the port or halt the application using the port, then restart the GTADS server.

I'm getting all types of weird errors and my users can't log in correctly. I need to send a bug report.
If any or all of those problems has happened to your server/users this is probably a server bug and needs to be reported. If you have logging enabled you should send a snippet of the log pertaining to the time of the problem and a copy of your config file to the GTADS developers so they can figure out the problem and make a fix.