The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Stupid, but extremely ravenous!

Whois Plugin - Version 3.8 - Install

Filename: plugin_blatt_whois

Offline Manual

You are reading this offline manual for this plugin. The links to the right navigate through the offline information. The links above and to the left link to www.ravenousbugblatterbeast.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. If you downloaded the plugin from somewhere else, or downloaded it some time ago, I recomend you check for an updated plugin. Note that the on-line manual may have been updated even if the plugin hasn't.

Installing The Plugin

Complete the following form to tailor these instructions to your system:

Which type of server are you using?
Windows Dedicated (You run HLDS.EXE)
Windows Listen (You click "Create Game")
Linux Dedicated
In which subfolder is the game installed?
Where is Metamod installed?
cstrike/addons/metamod folder
cstrike folder
Where is Admin Mod installed?
cstrike/addons/adminmod folder
cstrike folder

Requirements

Check you have installed all the prerequisite software for this plugin and it is working before you attempt to install the plugin.

Copying Files

Copy the contents of the X folder to your X folder.

Copy the contents of the Config folder to X (you will need to create this folder).

Run the file X in your X folder to create the folders necessary to store the database.

Adding the plugin to Admin Mod

Open the file Xplugin.ini and add the following line above Xplugin_base.amx, but below Xplugin_antiflood.amx.

Xplugin_blatt_whois.amx

Admin Mod Configuration

Make the following changes to your X file:

  • Set admin_vault_file to the name of your vault file (normally vault.ini). This file will be created if it doesn't exist.
  • Set file_access_read to 1.
  • Set file_access_write to 1.

HLGuard configuration

To use this plugin with HLGuard, add the following line to your HLGuard config file, after the global settings are set but before the lines to "exec" the other HLGuard config files. If you put it after the other files are included, the whois reports will not always contain the player name.

exec addons/whois/hlg_whois.cfg

Cheating-Death configuration

To use this plugin to mediate Cheating-Death, it must be put in optional mode. Add the following to your server.cfg:

cdrequired 0

Then enable the mediation in the whois plugin by issuing the following command from your client console after connecting to the server with the plugin running:

bbwhois_requirecd on

Web server configuration

In order to publish whois data on a web site you must publish the addons\whois\db folder either as the root directory of a website or a virtual directory

IIS Configuration

  • Open the Internet Information Services admin tool.
  • Right click the default web site and choose "New Virtual Directory".
  • Enter "whois" as the alias, and the path to the "db" folder as the directory.
  • Only read access is required.

If you want to secure the directory you have to have your Half-Life folder on an NTFS file system.

  • Right click on your new virtual directory in the tree and open the properties page.
  • On the directory security tab, press the top edit button and disable anonymous access. Enable integrated windows. You can enable basic if you want non-IE users to be able to access the pages, but as the javascript only works in IE at the moment there is no point.
  • Create a Windows user login for those people you want to have access (one account or one each - up to you)
  • Edit the NTFS filesystem permissions on the "db" folder using explorer. Give read access to the user(s) you just created and give full control to the user that runs HLDS. Make sure you remove access for the "Users" and "Everyone" groups if they have access.

Finally restart the IIS service

Apache Configuration

For Apache, add the following to your httpd.conf (substituting the correct path for your machine):

Alias /whois "C:\half-life\cstrike\addons\whois\db"

To secure the folder on Apache also add the following:

NOTE: You will have to create the passwd folder - don't worry that that file "passwords" doesn't exist. Also substitute the list of user names you want to give access to in place of "whoisuser"

<Location /whois>
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Administrators Only"
AuthUserFile "C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\passwd\passwords"
require user whoisuser
</Location>

Next run the htpasswd program in the apache bin folder to create each user name you put in place of whoisuser and set their passwords. NOTE: The htpasswd program that comes with version 2.0.37 of apache is broken - get 2.0.44.

Finally restart the apache service

Index generation

If you are pubishing the database on you web site, you need to schedule index generation. To do this use Windows scheduled tasks in control pannel and add a schedule to run the IndexDB.vbs script that is in the whois folder on a regular basis - I recommend at least once an hour. Names and IP addresses used since the last index generation will not be found by the search feature.

NOTE: Do set a schedule to run more than once a day, first use the wizard to set it up to run once a day, then go back to the properties and into the advanced schedule window. Set it to run every hour for a duration of 24 hours.

You will not be able to view whois information on the web until the indexes have been generated at least once. You can check if this has worked as there will be "names.xml" and "ids.xml" files in your "db" folder.

Special note for those upgrading from version 3.2

If it exists, the file globalnotes.xml in your db folder will say:

<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="globalnotes.xsl"?>

To view this file in your browser you need to change "globalnotes.xsl" to "player.xsl". The this file doesn't exist you need not do anything.

Special note for those upgrading from version 3.2 or 3.3

To fix a bug in displaying some player names in the WEB reports, copy the file Upgrade3.3_3.4.vbs (Windows) or Upgrade3.3_3.4.pl (Linux) into your whois folder and run it with either:

cscript Upgrade3.3_3.4.vbs

perl Upgrade3.3_3.4.pl

You can safely do this at any point after upgrading - it merely fixes existing logged data. If your database is on a rented Linux server and you cannot execute programs on there do the following:

  • ftp your whois folder to your local windows box in ASCII mode. It is important you don't use binary mode.
  • copy Upgrade3.3_3.4.vbs into it and run it.
  • ftp the folder back again in ASCII mode.

Testing the installation

Start a game, then check your log file. Any errors from the plugin should be reported at the point the first player connects. Note: If you see an error message repeating continuously, there is usually another error that appears above it once; that one indicates the real problem.

If no errors are reported you have successfully installed the plugin.