Free public redirect project

[UTrustedPlayer]

First I'd like to thank Skillz for all that he has done for the community. UT-Files was a great resource and will be sorely missed.

One of the things that will kill UT online play is the lack of some sort of public redirect that admins with limited resources can use. UT-Files free redirect was important and it's closing really hurts.

I spoke with burst.net and purchased a package to provide free redirect service for anyone running a UT server. They are configuring the server as you read this and hopefully it will be live in the next 24 hours and available for your use.

Because this is happening so quickly I haven't had time to set up a proper gateway for the adding of compressed files. For now I have set up a private FTP server where admins can upload their redirects and then once I verify the contents they will be immediately placed onto the live redirect and be ready for use. Eventually I'll automate this but for now this will get you up and running if you need to use the service.

If you want to use this then just PM me (or drop me an email) and I'll send you FTP credentials and you can begin uploading your files. As quickly as burst has the server configured I'll begin uploading files into it (as will a couple of other admins) so within 48 hours it should be fully stocked and rolling.

Don't give up on UT if you depended on UT-Files. We can work together to overcome the loss.

[Chamberly]

Good to know that you are helping out continuing the free redirect service. I have a thought, how could you manage having 2 files that are the same name and different file size (mismatches)? Would like to know how this is done.

[[MP]Keuter]

Its good that there are people as you and all the others here
who help people too play and serve the game

[UTrustedPlayer]

Sadly there isn't a tremendous amount that can be done. I'm thinking of files such as spinner.u where several versions exist and each is a valid one. I've been talking with Ferali over at UT99.org about ways you can use multiple folders on the redirect and this could get around that problem (as well as providing for free, more private redirects that the clients could access directly). Most of it is untested theory and so remains to be fleshed out but for now this needs to get up and running to cover the UT-Files loss.

Today I'll find someone to give me a small forum subsection or I'll just create my own so that version mismatches can be reported and dealt with. Most of the big ones I know about and I can try to accommodate the admins using the service but to some extent a few of these will come down to picking the most popular version and hosting that one. At least until the multiple folder option is explored and tested.

[Wormbo]

Interestingly the UT2004 version of the redirected download client supports more complex URLs than just "append the file name to this prefix". The problem with multiple could be solved by also sending the package GUID in that case. I have no idea about the support for that in UT1, though.

The RedirectToURL in UT2004 can include placeholders that disable the appending logic:

• %guid% - the package GUID as seen e.g. in the Cache folder
• %file% - the file name with extension, including ".uz2" for compressed files
• %ext% - the package extension, excluding ".uz2"
• %lcfile%, %ucfile%, %lcext% and %ucext% - upper/lower case versions of the file name and extension

Using %guid% and %file% in a single URL should cover most relevant cases of duplicate names for different packages. If a server has different versions available, it could pick one based on what the client thinks the GUID should be, which it should know, because the game server told it.

[UTrustedPlayer]

A good portion of this discussion is above my pay grade as I have only limited knowledge of how remote sites can be configured to handle redirect requests better but I'm certainly willing to try to improve the situation through testing.

I understand that some people have had success with using multiple folders but I'm concerned that it won't totally fix the problem. If you had several versions of spinner.u spread among the folders how will the client know which one to download? Will the engine just find the first one and then quit looking? It would appear to me that some sort of extra identifier will have to accompany the request in order to verify the correct file is chosen (filesize?).

[Wormbo]

The game doesn't ask or tell the HTTP server about the file size. Actually, if the HTTP server responds with a Content-Length header, that will only be used in advance (i.e. before completing the download) if downloading uncompressed files.
The only non-name information the game can send to the HTTP server is the GUID, but only if configured as part of the request URL. I suppose if the HTTP server and game server "know" each other, they could somehow communicate during the client's request to figure out a specific version if multiple are available. That approach would immediately break down if the redirect is available to more than one game server and/or the client configured a proxy to access the redirect server, depending on the proxy configuration.

[UTrustedPlayer]

So in essence the primitive nature of the UT request pretty much ends any discussion about how to address the multiple file question.

Do you see any sort of 'creative' solution that might address it? I guess a server program that could parse packages found on some sort of 'Hot List' that ask to be loaded could conceivably request them from a webserver by filesize but I'm unsure how to attach that request to a download to cache.

Perhaps it might be best to attack this from another direction. Can I package a UMod that will install all given mismatch versions of a file directly to someone's game cache?

[Wormbo]

That should work, though it will likely be affected by the cache expiration. Also I'm not sure if you can add any entries to Cache.ini because it's not in the System folder.

[Feralidragon]

Just my 2 cents, in the worst case scenario:
- you could have a mismatches database;
- this database would essentially have 2 tables: the file mismatches one, and another to stablish the relation of a server with a server file version;
- on request, the server IP or custom ID sent through get (with the redirecturl with something like "my.redirect.com/?id=myid&file=") could be used for the server to fetch the right version;
- if the query gave an empty result, then it means there's a unique file for everyone, if not, then return the right one.

I'm not sure if at least the "my.redirect.com/?id=myid&file=" part would work, but if all UT does is to append the filename, then it makes the job easier to send a custom query string.
Each server would have its own ID (I prefer the ID idea rather than IP, to be more flexible).

And to save time, a script could be made for the admin to run to save all the files names and respective md5 hashes into a file, to then send to the redirect/web server owner, to then compare it against the current DB, create a new ID and establish the relations between server and file versions.

Of course, the cherry on the top would be having some sort of frontend interface for the admin to do this in his own and be ready to go, with the advantage of each admin be able to manage things up, and also the advantage of getting statistical data in the amount of files in that situation.

Again, just my 2 cents in a possible solution in the worst case scenario if you aim to support mismatched versions of packages.

[SoNY_scarface]

A "direct" replacement for now would be if skillz could update the nameservers to point to the new server. That way when he decides to put it back up, he can just change them to his own.

[medor]

When we pay a redirect on gameservers there is a link like this do set

RedirectToURL=http://redirect.de.gameservers.com/ipserver_7777/

it can help you may be

[UTrustedPlayer]

Alright guys the redirect has now gone *LIVE* and files are being added as we speak. By tomorrow it will be in a usable state with enough files to make it worthwhile. I have approx. 25GB of stuff on upload.

Anyone may use this redirect and I urge it especially for those with limited resources. the redirect address is

http://66.197.194.21/redirect/

and you can watch as the files go in.

Now that you can see and taste it, don't be shy to get yours added too. See me and I'll get you sorted.

[Chamberly]

Thank you.

[back4more]

I think to save on bandwidth? perhaps drop the following file into the root of your redirect (where the .uz files are stored)

.htaccess

IndexIgnore *

That should stop leeching .. unless you endorse it of course.

Now what we need is a descent file repository

^_^

[UTrustedPlayer]

I've put in a ton of BT maps and files and should finish up with this section of the upload by mid-day. Medor is currently uploading a massive amount of files that will eventually have the repository topping 100GB but I expect this to take around the next couple of weeks to do at least.

If you want to move your current redirect into the public one I can pause this process at any time and focus entirely on your collection until it is hosted. All you need to do is just get with me and arrange access to your files. I'll take care of the rest.

[Wormbo]

If leeching is a problem, the UT client is easy to distinguish by its minimal use of headers. Modern browsers may be able to change User-Agent on-the-fly through add-ons, but you can't really prevent them from sending a lot of additional stuff.

[Feralidragon]

You can however make the requests from other means and mimic the UT headers and he won't even suspect of leeching that way.
Although headers can be checked to prevent at least most leechers, and restrict the redirect to 1 single port, whoever wants to leech will still be able to do so with some minutes of research work.

All he can do reliably is to blacklist or traffic-shape IPs which start to leech, and he can detect this leeching automatically.

[back4more]

The .htaccess file i produced should stop leaching as the files are invisible unless the client requests a specific file ie: file.u.uz

Then that file will be sent.

Unless there is a way around this that i have over-seen?

Am pretty sure that it hides the file list therefore making leeching pretty tricky to say the least

[medor]

Following the problems encountered in this redirection I suspend my full upload.

I would take upload if it arranges.

In the meantime I'll put 50 gigabytes on mega.co.nz / and may be the full 93.7 at magnet link.