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Step by Step Guide for Servers

This Step-By-Step Guide will help you to setup a Counter-Strike 1.5 or other MOD server on WON2. Should any of the links in the guides be broken, you'll most likely be able to find mirrors at FileMirrors or Google. Meanwhile, please drop a message on the forums so we can fix it.

Minimum hardware requirements mentioned in this tutorial are calculated for only the Half-Life server, meaning no other processes should be run. Any addons are also not taken in account.

Quickly go to:

>> Guide for Windows
>> Guide for Linux

Windows based systems

Minimum hardware requirements: 800 MHz AMD / Intel x86 processor with 256 MB system memory
Recommended hardware requirements: 1 GHz or faster AMD / Intel x86/x86-64 processor with 512 MB system memory. HLDS has minimal multithreading support, so running it on more than one core will most likely not improve (but neither decrease) performance.


1) First you will need to get the Half-Life base files. You can get these either from a retail CD or the 4.1.1.0 standalone package available on the Internet.

Client CD: If you have a retail disc, install Half-Life or Counter-Strike Retail from CD.
Standalone package: Download and install the Half-Life Dedicated Server 4.1.1.0 standalone package in a folder of your choice.


2) In case you used a client CD to get the base files, follow the instructions below. If you used the standalone package, skip this step.

Client CD:
Half-Life: Download and install the Half-Life 1.1.1.0 Full update (hl1110.exe).
Counter-Strike Retail: Download and install the Counter-Strike Retail update 1.0.0.5 (CS 1.5 for Retail editions), cs1005.exe.

Standalone package: Skip this step.

Your server is now almost ready to go. However, you can only run a Half-Life game server right now. If you wish to host a server that runs Counter-Strike 1.5, follow step 3 below. You should follow the same procedure if you choose to run another MOD. Otherwise, skip to step 4.


3) Now it's time to get the files for Counter-Strike 1.5.

Client CD:
Half-Life: Download and install the Counter-Strike 1.5 full MOD package (csv15full.exe).
Counter-Strike Retail: Skip this step. CS 1.5 was installed by updating the game with the CS Retail patch in step 2.

Standalone package: Download and install the Counter-Strike 1.5 full MOD package (csv15full.exe). Install it in the same folder as HLDS.

If you have chosen to run another MOD, install it in the same folder as you would with CS 1.5.


4) Download and install Half-Life Dedicated Server 2.


5) Follow the instructions included in the RAR file, with the exception of step 1:

In this step you are required to copy all files from either Half-Life or Counter-Strike Retail to a new place of your choice. This is true if you are using Half-Life or Counter-Strike Retail, so if you followed all steps for the 'Client CD' above.

However, if you have chosen to use the standalone package, you can directly install HLDS2 to the location where you have installed the 4.1.1.0 standalone package.

NOTE: Be sure to read the instructions carefully. Many setups fail just because the installation notes were not carefully read. This includes for example, as stated in the instructions, that you should NOT install HLDS2 to your Half-Life or Counter-Strike Retail installation, should you be using one of these. This will result in a corrupted installation as HLDS2 uses some Steam DLLs. Like mentioned above, if you are using the 4.1.1.0 standalone package, you can (and need to) install HLDS2 directly to the location where you installed it.

6) Open up the folder of the MOD you have chosen to run ('cstrike' in case of Counter-Strike) and locate the file server.cfg. Right-click on this item and choose 'Open'. If this file type wasn't previously assigned to any program, Windows will ask you what to do next. Make sure to choose 'Select a program from a list of installed programs', after which you select Notepad and click OK.

Notepad will now open server.cfg. In this file you will find (by default) only a small number of settings, including comments, which describe what each of these settings do.

Locate the line that starts with 'hostname'. Between the two double quotes (") you can enter the server's hostname as it will appear in the Server Browser list.

Next, move to the end of the document and add a new line starting with 'rcon_password'. Behind this line (seperated by a space) you need to enter the Remote Control (RCON) password you can use for remotely administrating the server. For example:

rcon_password santaclauserocks

The above line sets the RCON password to 'santaclauserocks'. You will need to supply this password whenever you want to administrate the server. An RCON crash course is available here.

7) (optional) If you wish your server to be only accessible by you and your clan mates, you can secure it by adding a server password, which needs to be supplied upon connecting to the server.

Adding the following line to server.cfg will enable the server password feature:

sv_password somepassword

..where 'somepassword' is a password of your choice, which you can pass on to your clan mates.

8) (optional) You may wish to extend your server's gameplay or administration features, both of which can be done by installing addons.

Further notes

An example command line that works with all HLDS versions:

-console -maxplayers 16 +map de_dust -port 27015 +sv_lan 1 -game cstrike

By making a shortcut to hlds.exe (right-click on the item and select "Create Shortcut") and adding the line above behind the executable name, you can start a dedicated server in console mode.

Note that at bare minimum the console, map, game and sv_lan parameters should be specified. Otherwise, the server will fail to launch - it will just show you a console window where it seemingly doesn't do anything. For more information about HLDS parameters, see the HLDS finetuning guide.

Linux based systems

This Linux guide only covers HLDS 3.1.1.1e. Older versions suffer from many security vulnerabilities. As such we do not recommend using them.

1) Get the following packages:
* HLDS Linux 3.1.1.1: hlds_l_3111_full.bin
* Counter-Strike 1.5: cs_15_full.tar.gz or an other MOD of your choice
* HLDS Linux 3.1.1.1e update: hlds_l_3111e_update.tar.gz 

If any of those links are broken you should be able to find the files elsewhere (try Google or FileMirrors).


2) Extract the above files in the order they are listed. Customize the configs and install any addons if you wish to do so. If you don't know how to do this you can find the basics in the Linux CS Server How-To on Counter-Server. If they removed it use this copy archived here.


3) Replace /hlds_l/valve/valvecomm.lst with the WON2 listing patch (You'll notice the patch consists of a file named woncomm.lst, rename it to valvecomm.lst and overwrite the existing one in the 'valve' folder).

4) If you do not wish to add any anticheat addons, edit /hlds_l/cstrike/liblist.gam and change secure "1" to secure "0".

Note: As of 2008, the WON2 AntiCheat System (WAC) is no longer operational, so secure should always be set to 0. Failure to do so may significantly slow down HLDS while launching and might even prevent your server from operating.

Another good anticheat system is HLGuard.

We do not, however, recommend Cheating-Death. Cheating-Death does not officially support the WON(2)/Half-Life system anymore and as for the latest version it doesn't work at all  server-side. Pre-4.30.x versions work with CS 1.5, however this make huge laggs occur both server and client side. Note: after a long period of inactivity UnitedAdmins has dropped support and development for Cheating-Death entirely.

While HLGuard (or any other anticheat system of your choice) will prevent cheating and auto-ban many cheaters to some extent, you should be aware that the best 'anticheat' is being around and banning cheaters manually on sight.


5) Create a file in /hlds_l/ called nowon.c with just one line: int NET_IsReservedAdr(){return 1;}

In the same directory, type these commands:
1. gcc -c nowon.c -o nowon.o
2. ld -shared -o nowon.so nowon.o 

Note: A number of users have reported that this method does not work on 64-bit installations, although only Fedora seems affected for now. Should you have problems getting this to work, you must force gcc to compile nowon.c as a 32-bit file, or consider installing a 32-bit version of your distro in a virtual machine or natively. You can also consider using method 2 from the WON2 Patch for Linux Servers guide in place of step 5 and 6.

6) Edit /hlds_l/hlds_run and under the first "export" line add this:

export LD_PRELOAD=/.../hlds_l/nowon.so 

Be sure to substitute the full path to your hlds_l directory in place of the "...".


7) Edit the script you use to start your server and add +sv_lan 1 to it.


8) Now you should have a working server. Unfortunately HLDS 3.1.1.1 has an exploit that allows anyone to crash it. You may want to start your server anyway and try connecting so that you know it works, then shut it down and follow the rest of these steps to patch this hole in HLDS.


9) Download this HLDS security patch to your /hlds_l/ directory (credits to Liskni_si).


10) In /hlds_l/ type the following command:

gcc -s -O3 -D_GNU_SOURCE -fPIC -shared -ldl -o hlds_20040707fix.so hlds_20040707fix.c 


11) Edit /hlds_l/hlds_run and change the "export" line you created in step 5 to this:

export LD_PRELOAD="/.../hlds_l/nowon.so /.../hlds_l/hlds_20040707fix.so" 

As before, be sure to substitute the full path to your hlds_l directory in place of both "...".


12) Your server is now working and slightly more secure. You can add more security by incorporating the chroot patch from this site and running HLDS in a "chroot jail". Compiling and using the HLDS chroot patch is easy, however creating the jail is beyond what I have spare time to deal with right now (let alone document). If anyone has some good instructions for this please post them at the Steamless CS Project Forums.

Thanks fly out to Phorce_Phed for the Linux guide, which has been edited slightly as new information came to light.

Further notes

An example command line that works with all HLDS versions:

-maxplayers 16 +map de_dust -port 27015 +sv_lan 1 -game cstrike

Edit your startup script that refers to hlds_run and add the line above, while customizing it to your needs.

Note that at bare minimum the map, game and sv_lan parameters should be specified. Otherwise, the server will fail to launch. For more information about HLDS parameters, see the HLDS finetuning guide.

Supplement: RCON Crash Course

Remotely administrating your server can be very useful, such as for banning cheaters on sight or changing the running map.

To login while you are in-game, open up your console and type:

rcon_address serverip
rcon_port serverport
rcon_password rconpassword

Where:
rcon_address is the IP address of your server;
rcon_port is the port the game server is using (27015 by default);
rcon_password is the RCON password you set in server.cfg.

Entering the above commands each time you want to administrate your server in-game can be quite annoying. You can eliminate this problem by creating a config file inside the folder of the MOD you'll be playing (cstrike for example), after which you paste the aforementioned commands in this config file. Now you can execute this config file by just typing a single line in your console: exec logindetails.cfg (where logindetails.cfg is the name of your config file).

After logging in you may wish to type 'rcon test' to make sure you have logged in succesfully. If you have supplied an incorrect RCON password, the console will print 'Bad RCON password', otherwise it will return nothing.

Once you are logged in you can enter any commands you wish. Below is a short 'cheat sheet' for most common tasks.

Kicking a player:
rcon status (shows a list of players including their IP address)
rcon kick "playername" (these quotes are important, especially for names containing unusual characters)

Banning a player:
rcon status
rcon addip timelimit playerip (enter ban period in minutes and the IP of the player you wish to ban)

Switching maps:
rcon changelevel de_dust2 (where de_dust2 is the map of your choice you wish to switch to)

Enabling a server password:
rcon sv_password somepassword (this password needs to be supplied in order to be able to connect)

Note: A server password set this way will be disabled upon map change. To permanently enable a server password, see step 7 for Windows servers and step 2 for Linux servers.