UOTRACE.EXE is a Freeware server trace-route utility by Robert Simpson - simpson@primenet.com ------------------------------------------------ UOTrace was originally written for use with Ultima Online servers, but it can be easily adapted for use for Quake, QuakeWorld, Hexen, Quake 2 and other servers. Since the utility comes with no instructions, I've included this readme file with an explanation of it's use. If you have any problems, please e-mail the author, not me, unless it's Quake-specific. Or visit my website at: http://www.gate.net/~jdwebb/ TO INSTALL: - Create a directory called UOTRACE and unzip the contents of UOTRACE.ZIP into it. - Create a shortcut to UOTRACE.EXE To use: - Run UOTRACE.EXE (you must be connected to the Internet - DUH!) - Bring down the "Options" menu and make sure there's a checkmark next to "Advanced" - In the DNS address window, located between the "Link Test" and the "DNS" buttons on the button bar, enter the four digit DNS address of the server you want to trace. For example, if the address for the server you want to trace is 206.100.228.22:27500, then enter the four number DNS address in the address window, leaving off the port number: 206.100.228.22 - Now click on the "Trace Route" button. - Wait while the utility traces and displays all the hops. When the "Poll" button is no longer grayed-out, the trace is finished. For a good game, you want to use servers with the least number of hops as possible. Rarely will this be less than 10 unless you're on a T1. Routes with over 16 hops tend to get flaky - there's so many servers between you that the likelihood of a glitch is increased. - Now, click on the "Poll" button. This will continuously ping all the servers. Of most importance to you is "Average Ping Time" and "%Loss" columns for each hop. Ideally you want an Average Ping under 250ms and zero %Loss for each hop. In practice, this may be hard to achieve. The utility will mark good hops with a green light, mediocre ones with yellow, bad ones with red, and ones that don't respond at all will be black. The best gameplay will be had when all the hops have continuous green lights. This is rare, though. Intermittent yellows and occasional reds are okay. Avoid anything with consistent red or black lights. - Let the poll run for a while to get an idea of the kind of connection you have. Some hops will fluctuate over time, causing those annoying burps during gameplay that we've all come to hate. - Over time you'll notice that the same hop servers cause problems on several different routes, and you'll come to recognize them by name. There are also major east and west-coast routers in the United States (as well as in other countries) that are bottle-necks during high-traffic hours. The USA versions of these routers will have the words "MCINet" or "SprintNet" in their names. When one of these routers goes down, you may find that half your servers are affected. WHY QUAKE STUTTERS: - If you're presently playing regular Quake over the Internet, I strongly suggest you download QuakeWorld and play on QuakeWorld servers instead. QuakeWorld is a special Internet-only version of Quake. QuakeWorld and Quake 2 both use player prediction and data compression that dramatically improves play over the Internet. Player prediction allows the game to run smoothly, even when some minor data packet loss occurs. Regular Quake will stutter badly with any data packet loss - the difference is like night and day. You can download QuakeWorld free from QuakeWorld Central at: http://qwcentral.stomped.com/ Go to the Files Section and download the QuakeWorld Client files. TO SPEED UP TRACES: Doing a trace is time consuming. There's some optional settings that will speed things up, though: - If you're certain your Internet provider's server is not causing problems (if from long experience you find that the first hop is always green) then you can skip it during trace routes. Pull down the "Options" menu and select "Settings". Place a checkmark next to "Skip first hop of trace" (conversely, if your first two hops are always red, you have a lousy Internet Provider, and you should go shopping for a new one). - If you don't care to see the names of the hops servers, then you can save a lot of time by not having UOTrace do DNS lookups. Pull down the "Options" menu and select "Settings". Remove the checkmark next to "Reverse DNS lookups". This will speed up traces considerably. Remember, however, that sometimes it's good to see the server names. You'll begin to notice, over time, that hop servers with certain domain names are always causing problems. I avoid any Quake servers with these servers in a hop, even if everything is green during a test. But if you're checking a lot of servers, it's best to turn this off. MODIFYING THE SERVER LIST: The file SERVER.CFG contains a list of servers. This is the default list that comes up in the DNS address window. I've updated SERVER.CFG so it contains a list of my preferred servers. You can modify this list yourself by opening SERVER.CFG in any text editor such as Windows Notepad and replacing the server names and DNS addresses with your own favorites. The entries will look like this: [GameServers] 0=Q2 CTF_LOKI's_SLAUGHTER (204.210.236.73) 1=Q2 Ansible-vanCTF (24.1.134.105) 2=Q2 RUGGS-CTF (24.92.46.42),-8 3=Q2 Boys_v_Girls_CTF (206.171.52.130) 4=Q2 ioNET_Loki_CTF (206.41.128.202) Just follow the same system. You can overwrite the servers in there now by just typing over the name and DNS numbers. Remember to place the DNS number in parentheses, and not to use any parentheses in the server name. When you add a new server, just increment the first number in the line by one and follow the same pattern. For instance, if you were going to add a server called "Angry Bastards" with a DNS of 206.147.1.241:27500, you'd add it to the above list as follows: 5=Angry Bastards (206.147.1.241) Please note that the port number (:27500 in this case) is left off. Then save your changes and restart UOTrace so it recognizes any changes you've made. Enjoy! The Flying Penguin :-) 1/31/98 Flying Penguin's GLQuake / Quake 2 Voodoo 3D FAQ Page: http://www.gate.net/~jdwebb/glfaq.htm