PLEASE NOTE:
This redirection is needed for admins (game servers need to send so called heartbeat - "i'm alive" notification to masterserver), as well as for players (game client needs to ask masterserver for list of alive, online servers)
Domain name is an alias for IP address, so it's easier for human to remember (facebook.com vs 173.252.110.27). Applications tend to use domain names instead of direct IP addresses to avoid situations when servers or services change location and IP address.
If they would use IP address, every time server changes it's IP address, application would need an update. Thanks to domain names, when server changes IP address it has only to assign this new IP address to domain name, and applications asking for domain name will get new IP address.
When application asks for domain name, operating system (be it Windows or Linux) first checks a hosts file. It contains pairs of "key value" entries, where key is an IP address, and value is a domain name.
If operating system can't find corresponding entry in hosts file, it asks global domain name services (DNS) for IP address assigned to specific domain name.
We don't own master.gamespy.com domain name, but as you can understand, with help of hosts file, we can redirect MoH:AA/SH/BT games that ask for this domain name, to get new IP address which will point to our custom Reborn MasterServer service.
Below you can find instructions how to apply redirection for different operating systems.
Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, 7, 2012 and 8
- Go to: %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\ - SystemRoot is where your Windows is installed, for example: C:\Windows
- Open file called hosts in your favourite text editor (Notepad is enough)
- Add the following line to the bottom of the file: 209.105.228.101 master.gamespy.com
- Save. Done.
OS may need to be rebooted after applying the change.
You will need administrator privileges to edit this file.
Linux, Unix, Unix-like, POSIX
- Go to: /etc/
- Open file called hosts in your favourite text editor (vi, vim for example)
- Add the following line to the file: 209.105.228.101 master.gamespy.com
- Save. Done.
OS may need to be rebooted after applying the change.
You will need administrator privileges to edit this file.
