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View Full Version : CoralCDN, UT, ut-files and an UnrealCDN



Dr.Flay
09-05-2012, 12:38 AM
Recently the possibility of UT-FILES going down (no matter how temporarily) caused a bit of a stir amongst some of us old-timers. (Not much of a response here, but I guess you are well looked after.)
Those of us playing the game long enough, remember a time when people invested all their files, work and web-sites, to the almighty PlanetUnreal...and then waved it all good-bye over-night.
Beyond Unreal stepped in and tried to take up the reins, by offering the same service, only to loose everybody's sites and work again.
There are still remnants of both these sites, but most of the stuff is gone.
FileFront is culling the collection, so we are loosing even more. Any download site not making enough money out of the visitors will follow suit (they will have to).
Obviously the older stuff gets it in the neck first.
Unfortunately Unreal, Return to Na Pali, UT99, and Deus Ex etc. is "older stuff".

UT-FILES works, because it is run by the community for the community, and funded by donations (as is the service you get here).
As the growth is limited by only hosting Unreal engine content, it is long-term sustainable, but suffers the same "eggs in one basket" issue.

There is a contingency plan, or plan-B, for the eventual switching off of the official UT99 master server, in the shape of 333networks awesome server browser http://ubrowser.333networks.com

File and redirect-wise there is no plan-B...Yet ;)
This is where you and I (the community) come in.
People bitch and moan about how well looked after id and Valve game owners are (and maybe rightly so), but if Epic won't look after us, then we have to, and no amount of whining and pleading will change that.
There are methods at our disposal, where we can spread a wider net and build in a "redundancy-factor" for the Unreal network.
More importantly FREE methods (or I wouldn't be wasting my breath...err..fingers), as Unreal players are notoriously hard to get money from!

Below I have pasted edits of 2 of the posts I made in the UT-FILES forum.
All the info is relevant to anyone's server/redirect, so I have not changed any of the references to ut-files.com
I may add a couple of links at the bottom for further reading. ie. My simple over-view of an UnrealCDN and how to build it

*START*
In that case for now if you are hosting from home, you should definitely use CoralCDN.
Quote from their site.

CoralCDN is a free and open content distribution network based around peer-to-peer technologies, comprised of a world-wide network of web proxies and nameservers. It allows a user to run a web site that offers high performance and meets huge demand, all for the price of a $50/month cable modem....*EDIT*
...CoralCDN has been continuously operated since March 2004, running on 300-400 servers on the PlanetLab testbed, spread worldwide. As of 2011, it receives 25-50 million requests per day from a few million unique clients.
The front page and news have absolute addresses so would need to be adjusted, but all the sub folders of the file sections work well. Try for your-selves right now. Click on one. I just had the first one serving me files from Germany (much closer to me).
http://www.ut-files.com.nyud.net
http://unreal.ut-files.com.nyud.net
http://unrealii.ut-files.com.nyud.net
http://ut2004.ut-files.com.nyud.net
http://ut3.ut-files.com.nyud.net

The ports Coral uses are limited. I think they are 80, 90, 8080, and 8090 (something like that)
try using the redirects when you get the chance to test http://uz.ut-files.com.nyud.net etc.
You (Skills) will see the biggest benefit, as popular files are requested repeatedly your server will not be having to deal with it.
With regular accesses via the CDN, you should find quite a difference.
Any people doing site-rips would actually be doing you a favour :D
This is also the perfect setup for redirects, as many players may be requesting the same files at the same time.
The idea of Coral is to serve the files to the client from the closest cache, again helping with people half way round the planet.

You can also just add it to your browser, and try it anywhere a site is laggy (my main use).
http://coralcdn.org/plugins/
It is so simple and ultimately FREE, so you can't lose out if you don't like it.

The CoralCDN, and a deeper "why?"
When it comes to unofficial mirrors that people may look to do in the meantime, if you please do http transfers via the CoralCDN, we can also evaluate its use and performance for us.
eg. If 5 people said "Hey, I've made a copy!" and Skills FTP logs show only normal activity for 1 site rip, then we know Coral itself has the total capacity. I know it has the throughput capacity, but am not sure about it's flush routine.

Coral itself is P2P so files can be in 1 or more locations at any point (oooh quantum files!). As long as the files keep getting asked for they will proliferate across the Coral servers.
Theoretically if this site went down for a while no one would actually notice, if they were all routed through Coral. The content stays live as long as people keep requesting it (including the portal site).
All UT game servers getting redirects via Coral, would also still get the common files that they require, during any server-outage for any reason at ut-files, or their chosen redirect.

Coral can handle thousands of connections, and the more people use it the more efficient it becomes.
CoralCDN shifts TBs of data every day back and forth from thousands of people running the "Electric Sheep" screensaver!
I learned about it in 2005 from a DJ/Producer who's site kept exceeding his bandwidth, until he used Coral.
Then I found out my fave screensaver also uses it
I use it regularly for slow sites, or Australian sites (many hops) etc., and all my links to this site.
Coral is itself an "educational resource" and as such is hosted on and via free services, so stays free to run and free for us to use.
Note it does not feature in Yahoo developer network's list of CDNs. They only list commercial ones, with theirs at the top :nono:

Coral is also run by some serious geeks. It is not "owned" by a company, so a company is not going to switch it off for not making money. That is not what it is for, it is for.. well other than "us", "the the world" it is not for anything other than lowering the data traffic out there and making life easier.
Which in my book is a Good-Thing™

No-one needs an account, or a plugin, or even know they are using it. It is just sitting there like an "elephant in the room" waiting to be used.
Using the links I gave in the earlier post, you can all start right now. You don't have to wait for anyone to implement anything!
http://forums.ut-files.com/ut-files-com-may-be-closing-t1890-10.html#p12885
just click them, or add .nyud.net in the address bar manually eg. http://www.ut-files.com.nyud.net
*END*

*Note* unrealkillers.com requires the Firefox plugin as this site is using absolute addresses (links don't dynamically inherit the root URL)

Where and why this started.
http://wayback.archive.org/web/20120829060847/http://forums.ut-files.com/ut-files-com-may-be-closing-t1890-10.html
UnrealCDN idea (any of you old enough to remember or use the Aminet will get the idea immediately)
http://hooksutplace.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1663&start=30
Unrelated, but server admins please visit this thread.
http://hooksutplace.freeforums.org/server-admin-consultancy-group-proposal-t1675.html

.seVered.][
09-05-2012, 05:49 PM
The front page and news have absolute addresses so would need to be adjusted, but all the sub folders of the file sections work well. Try for your-selves right now. Click on one. I just had the first one serving me files from Germany (much closer to me).
http://www.ut-files.com.nyud.net

*Note* unrealkillers.com requires the Firefox plugin as this site is using absolute addresses (links don't dynamically inherit the root URL)


None of the links work for me, is that because of the *Note*? I'll check more when I get back later.

Feralidragon
09-06-2012, 07:41 AM
Just one thing, I don't like to play the pessimist role, but if Epic shuts down the master server, UT will certainly without the shade of a doubt... die.
Think about it: only the guys that go to the forums (a slim percentage of the whole player base) will know about this secondary master server, most people will just switch to another game, new players won't even know there was a working multiplayer mode before to start with and will just uninstall and go to another game as well, etc.
Even some players that do frequent the forums will certainly have difficulties in switching.

Also, there's the history of that master server in specific which the people who know about have reservations in using it. I won't say what history it is because I am not sure if the guy hosting it is either telling the truth or lying once it came back again.

Anyway, I don't think they will switch it off. They waste way more money in other things, so keeping an old and low cost master server is not an issue for them and could even be a significative mark in the history of the engine and the enterprise as a whole.
Also, they're still making some money with UT (Steam), so they have to keep it running otherwise Steam cannot sell a game which selling point is the multiplayer gameplay and not having a master server up.

Dr.Flay
05-13-2013, 12:04 AM
*BUMP*

See UT99.org | UT-FILES down. Population panics. Suicide rate increases. : General Discussions (http://www.ut99.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4781)