On April 18, 2009 all HL1 game servers will go down for an update. The update should fix the STEAM userid keysize is bogus error that users are getting if they're using a different client other than Steam. The HL1 game server update should not take more than a couple of hours unless it doesn't work well with the current plug-ins that we're using such as AMX Mod X, AMX Bans, et. al. If it does not work, we'll revert back to the last succesful stable update.

We have a new Counter-Strike Condition Zero server. It's a plain Classic Counter-Strike Condition Zero server with no addons except for admins. I'm planning on adding a Gun Game, Death Match, and Zombie Mod in the future. All HL1 game server administrators will have access to this server (and the other servers in the future). Type connect cscz.classic.ca.joinpgn.com:27016 to connect to this new game server.

There had been some colourful discussions about how the PGN blacklist works last night in IRC. This update should address that issue somewhat unless of course you do not have a Steam account. Another big update would be about the new patch that we'll be using in our servers.

The main dedicated server which is hosted by Centauri Communications went offline early this morning due to some ISP maintenance on Centauri Communications' side. Since the Branzone game servers connect to the main dedicated server to access most of the databases in PGN, they were all timing out and crashing. ETA was unknown on Centauri Communications' side and I was only able to get the servers back up on 3:42PM MT.

As I focus more on the back-end issues in PGN, I am having less and less time to focus on the front-end issues in PGN, thus most of the front-end issues are being left unchecked and uncontested from quite some time now. As you can see from the past, I am slowly transferring most of my front-end administrative levels to the head game server administrators (ie Being able to resolve most of the ban disputes by themselves without my intervention). And now I have once again transferred one of my front-end administrative levels to the head game server administrators, this time it will have an effect on how game server administrators are evaluated.

All of the CS 1.6 game servers now have a new type of command which lets all the players ask for a map vote after a specific time frame. All they have to do is type /newvotemap after a couple of minutes and wait for a certain number of players to type the command as well. This is to make sure that no one player can abuse this command.

On the 29th of January 2009, Branzone will be upgrading the hardware at their UK location. There should at least be around 10+ minutes of downtime as the files are transferred from the old hardware to the new hardware. The hostname, IP address and port should stay the same after the hardware upgrade.

Day Of Defeat is a team-based multiplayer World War II first-person shooter computer game of the European Theater of World War II. This tutorial is written to help users in setting up a Day Of Defeat 1.3 game server in a GNU/Linux based machine. This tutorial assumes that you either have a Windows based or GNU/Linux based machine that will connect to a GNU/Linux based machine remotely.

Getting a sponsorship from a game server provider is probably one of the best things that can happen for you and your clan, especially when the clan budget is a bit on the low side. Almost any clan out there would want to be sponsored somehow, however only a select few ever get it. So how is it that this clans get the sponsorship and some don't?

HLSW (Half-Life Server Watch) is probably one of the best tools a game server admin can have. It is a remote administration tool that connects to a game server and lets a game server admin monitor the game server without even being inside the server. Talk about sneaking in your server to catch cheaters and on occasions abusive game admins. HLSW has many other features such as live-reporting for game matches to IRC (Internet Relay Chat).