the Amber Dragon

Serverstatus Script

It displays some basic information about a multiplayer NWN server. Providing it is visible over the internet, then there are no extra requirements (ie no database or special router settings) needed. The script needs to know the address of the server, so its address needs to be fixed, either by using a fixed IP address or a DNS service (we use dyndns). I decided to stick the script here after this thread on the BioBoards, which is why the code uses that server’s address.

Example output:

Server Address: legacyofnetheril.servegame.org:5121
Server Status: Online
Players: 3 / 24

These variables may need altering:

• $serveraddr – should be the fixed IP address or the URL used to connect to the server
• $server_down – the message that gets displayed if the script can’t find the server
• $port – if the server is running on the default port 5121, then you do not need to do anything. If it is running on a different port you need to add a line below $serveraddr:
  $port="5122" (replace it with the port number you use), then change the $status … line to read
  $status = nwserver_status($serveraddr, $port);

The PHP code

<?php
 
# function: nwserver_status
# Returns the server status in an array
# If the server does not respond with the expected hex string,
# it returns an error message (which is not an array).

 
function nwserver_status($serveraddr, $port="5121", $timeout=5) {
	$connect = fsockopen( "udp://" . $serveraddr, $port, $errno, $errstr, $timeout );
	$error = NULL;
	if ( ! $connect )    {
	    $error = "server down";
	    return $error;
	} else {
	    socket_set_timeout( $connect, $timeout );
	    $send = "\\xFE\\xFD\\x00\\xE0\\xEB\\x2D\\x0E\\x14\\x01\\x0B\\x01\\x05\\x08\\x0A\\x33\\x34\\x35\\x13\\x04\\x36\\x37\\x38\\x39\\x14\\x3A\\x3B\\x3C\\x3D\\x00\\x00";
	    fwrite( $connect, $send );
	    $output = fread( $connect, 5000 );
	    if ( ! $output ) {
            $error = "no reply";
	    } else {
            $statusarray = explode( "\\x00", $output );
            if (count($statusarray) < 6) { // if the array has < 6 elements, we're referencing a non-existing element
                $error = "bad reply";
            }
	    }
	}
	fclose( $connect );
	if ($error == NULL) {
		return $statusarray;
	} else {
		return $error;
	}
}
 
# php script to get the server status and player list

// gets server status directly from the gameserver
 
$serveraddr = "legacyofnetheril.servegame.org";
// $server_down is displayed if the script can't connect 
// or if it receives no data from the server
$server_down = "<p class=\\"highlight\\">The server is down - now what are you gonna do?</p>\\n";
 
 
$status = nwserver_status($serveraddr);
if (!is_array($status)) { // if an error message was returned
	print ($status);
} else {
    // format serverstatus array
	// $status[11] is the port used, $status[5] the number of players online
	// $status[6] the maximum number of players allowed
    print( "Server Address: <strong>$serveraddr:$status[11]</strong><br />\\n" );
    print( "Server Status: <strong>Online</strong><br />\\n" );
    print( "Players: <strong>$status[5]</strong> / <strong>$status[6]</strong><br />\\n" );
}
 
?>
 
 
 

Download code: nwserver_status.php.txt

Rename it to nwserver_status.php. The parsed PHP script to show it works.