I'm not getting what I do to actually acquire dfterm2, much less operate it.
I'm early in the process of looking at getting mine set up, so I'm not certain this is complete or accurate. Corrections appreciated. We should probably work on improving the instructions at
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Dfterm and on providing instruction for Windows, Mac, etc. as well. Note that all comments here are provided as-is and carry no guarantee or warranty; you are required to perform your own due diligence and be aware of all legal and license restrictions you might be under, and to research what costs you might incur. Possible risks may include, but are not limited to, being charged extremely high amounts by your ISP for "business service", having your network access cut off, being (mistakenly, but with no recourse) banned from completely other games for being a "cheater", or in some repressive regimes criminal charges or perhaps beheading.
Things you need or want ahead of time:
If you are using a friend's server or have found a public one, you will need to know the IP address of the server, and possibly how they have set up the ports.
If you are setting up your own server (likely):
* A computer that can run DF; this will be referred to as the "server". It actually does all the hard work, and your frame rate (etc.) will be mostly limited by its capability; you need this to be a heavy-duty computer up to the demands of DF, not just a Raspberry Pi or something. You will likely need root / administrator privileges on the server. It will be *at least* as busy as if you were running DF locally.
* This server should not be running software that either prevents processes from accessing other processes's memory space (Security Enhanced Linux prevents this as I understand it, for instance), or be running "anti-cheat" software that could do bad things to your other accounts because they detect DFterm as a "cheat" because it's doing weird things to another program's memory. For instance, I'd strongly suggest not running DFterm on a computer that's running Steam in the background, as the Valve Anti-Cheat might mistakenly ban you. Some MMOs (particularly Asian ones) have similar software, etc.
* For simplicity, DF should be installed in a directory chain that has no spaces or strange characters. For example, on Windows, having it as \users\public\games\df\df.exe would be better than in "Program Files" due to the space. On Windows Vista and more recent, there are other weird reasons it's easier to not put it into Program Files or into a directory under your own user directory (like your My Documents), as these are handled specially by Windows.
* DF running properly, locally on the server. If it doesn't run locally, it's not going to work remotely.
* Network access both *from* the server (to download software, this is usually easy)...
* and network access *to* the server from the outside world, or at least wherever you want to dial in from.
Many home computer setups do not qualify by default, and there may be legal or technical restrictions preventing you from using a particular computer or network connection from the outside. Some ISPs have policies strictly forbidding any use of a server; some charge a little extra, possibly along with a charge for a static IP (if this is your situation, it's probably worth doing); some require that you upgrade to a "business" grade connection at a tremendous increase in price.
In general, you need a way to route packets on specific ports from the outside-visible IP address to your server (this frequently requires adjusting settings on your router / firewall / cable modem / etc.); for testing or in an emergency, you can try setting your server in a "DMZ" zone from your router, but this is a really bad idea to leave up for long.
You also need to know what your outside-visible IP address is; on most home networks and some others, this will be randomly reassigned by your ISP. Some people have addresses that are stable for months at a time, only changing when the power goes out or whatever; in these cases, just manually keeping track of it is probably OK. If you're on a more common situation where it changes more rapidly, you'll either want to find a way to get a static IP (some ISPs still sell this service for an extra few dollars a month, but it's getting much less common), or you will need to make arrangements to use an online service that lets your server "call out" to a 3rd party to let them know what its IP address is, which you then contact as a middle-man to get updates (DynDNS used to the the obvious way to do this, but they may not be as free or easy these days; search around such as the list at
http://dnslookup.me/dynamic-dns/ ).
Once you've got the above sorted out, you will need to download and install a version of the software "git", as that is how DFterm is distributed. Then, using git, download the appropriate version for your server; it looks like there's a precompiled version for Windows, but you may need to compile it yourself for Linux. Compile, install, etc. DFterm, and configure it as appropriate.
You will probably need to find (usually in this thread) the proper "checksums" to adapt DFterm to the current version of DF (or whichever version you're using). As the original developer has stopped contributing, these need to be figured out by the community.
* For the client side, you need a fully featured SSH client for your chosen device(s). ConnectBot is probably the most common on Android. Some basic clients may not support all the features that DFterm requires.
* Then you set up your SSH client on your device, to connect to your server based on the IP address and port information you've gathered or set up above.
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Topic: Dfterm2 0.16, server software for playing Dwarf Fortress remotely (Read 244097 times)