This page should help you set up your favourite hub software. :)

In this screen one can define the very basic settings in order to make the hub ready to start and accept connections.

Here you must enter some text that will be the name of your hub.

Here you can give a hub topic. A hub topic whould normally be something users are talking in the hub about. The Hubtopic is showed in most client next to the hubname.

Primary port is the port that is going to appear after the hub address on the hublist. By default this port is set to 411.

Secondary port enables you to give a bit more service to your users. It may be possible that the primary port is blocked by a firewall between a user and the hub. When you have a second port open on a exotic high number the change is very slim that this is blocked also.

This port is only used for receiving active search results.
Do NOT search for files serverside, use DCDM++ with ADL or a similar tool. Or, you can write a bad file searcher if you would like to, but for an average user, it will take 2 days to set up, and will use lots of RAM and CPU.

Here you must specify the address to which the users must connect to in order to log in to the hub.You may want to specify 127.0.0.1 or localhost if you want to run a hub localy, for example, for testing your scripts.

This nick is used when you type messages in the Admin chat. Admin chat is located under the Users/Chat tab.

This will be the description that will acompany the hub's name in a hublist view. This can be of any size. It is a good policy to specify something here as it helps people of the same interests find your hub easier ( using the Filter field on the Public Hublist window of any dc++ based client. For Example if your hub is targeted to Classic Metal music then you would want to add “Classic Metal” to your description.

With this box checked the moglo search client will not be able to connect to your hub.

Specify any IP or DNS to send users to when redirecting them. There are two check boxes below ( Redirect all connecting users & Redirect users when hub is full ). The first one is used to stop accepting connections to the hub instead of accepting it will redirect, and the second one will redirect if the User count of the hub is above the Max. Users Setting (see below).

This field will setup the hublist registration servers for this hub. Hublist registration servers are needed when you want your hub to have the best possible advertisement. After starting the hub it should take some days before it appears on the hublists. The field is accompanied by a checkbox that decides whether or not to contact those registration servers automatically (this is done at a default interval). Registration servers can be added in the formats: address, address:port. The default port they listen on is 2501. If you want to add multiple servers, you can do it by separating every address[:port] with a semicolon.

When this box is checked , the hub will automatically start to listen when the software is loaded.

This setting will only accept numerical input. It is the limit of incoming connections to the hub. Basically you say to the hub accept no more than xxx users. The maximum number is 5000. Be sensible!

The meaning of this acronym is giving away the meaning of this field's existance. It means “Message Of The Day” and it is the message every single connecting user will see when loging in the hub. Information about the hub itself is usally found in this text. The text in this field is saved in a file called motd.txt in the cfg subdirectory of the main PtokaX folder. Do not change the file itself while PtokaX is running, any changes will be discarded… Use the gui ( this big text field ) to change the contents. If there are no contents then there will be no MOTD message sent to the connecting user, even if the Disable MOTD checkbox is unchecked.

When checked it the MOTD will not be sent at all.

When this box is checked the MOTD will appear in a Private Message window instead of being showed in the mainchat window.

:!:Note that if hub bot is disabled and this checkbox is ticked, it's likely that users' clients will ignore it and the whole MOTD thing becomes a waste of bandwidth. — bastya_elvtars 2005/08/18 21:12

By pressing this button the hub should start serving users (the button will turn to Stop Hub). Check that you can access the hub by accessing the address in the Hub Address field with a client like dc++ as soon as you press the Start Hub button.

Some errors can pop up if port is in use or address is wrong etc. These are WinSock eror messages, and should be listed here by a geek. — bastya_elvtars 2005/08/18 21:12

This window shows a chat window (Admin's chat) and a userlist, it is a bit like a DC client. The Main difference is that every raw data sent to the hub can be seen here. This includes searches, private messages, connection requests etc.

You can chat from here, in this case the Admin's nick will be used as nick.

When this checkbox is enabled, chat messages can be seen in the window, nothing else.

When this checkbox is ticked, every (non-chat) command is shown in the chat window. It's unfair to spy others' private messages!

:!:Be aware of the fact that the more data is in the window, the more memory is used by PtokaX. So this option is for debuging purposes only.

As far as I know, the memory used by contents of the chat window never gets released. So this option should be used wisely, or PtokaX must be restarted in order to release mem. — bastya_elvtars

When you press this button, the line you type is sent in PM to all users. Note that as admin's nick is never registered in the userlist, this is quite a redundant feature.

This button will immediately redirect all users to the default redirect address. Use with caution!

On the Ops/Bans page you will create your profiles and user accounts. Profiles define user groups. By default you are provided with four profiles, Master, Operator, VIP & Reg. It is not necessary, but you may set the permissions for each profile by clicking on the [New] button. From the New User window, click the [Launch profile manager] button.See the Profile Manager and Profile information below. Descriptions for other fields are provided below. With Profiles set the way your want, add your user accounts. Provide a Nickname and a Password and select a profile, click accept to save or discard to cancel. Add additional users in this manner. You may also add users accounts by command in your DC client. See the Running and using PtokaX section for more on hub commands.

List of all registered users

List of all temporarily banned users.

Redirect temp banned users? If enabled supply redirect address.

List of all permanently banned users.

Redirect permanently banned users? If enabled supply redirect address.

The following information will be covered in greater detail in the Running and using PtokaX section. This brief information is offered here as you will want to create a Master account for yourself as the hub owner.

Provide a name for the user.

Provide users password.

Choose the profile for this user.

Here, you can set create profiles and set profile permissions.

Through the Rules page you can set the hub rules as you'd like. Rule values may be set and also choices on action to take when a connecting user fails to meet the rule.\\For example you may set a minimum share value to 10Gb, users connecting with less than 10 Gb share will not be allowed to enter the hub. Optionally you may set the message they will receive if denied entry. If you'd like to redirect them to another hub you may set the redirect address for that rule. Descriptions for each field are provided below.

Minimum and maximum file share required/allowed for hub users

Message to send user if they do not meet min or exceed max share.

Redirect users with too low or too high a share? If enabled, set address.

Min slots required / Max slots allowed, number of slots allowed to users

Message to send user if they do not meet min or exceed max slots.

Redirect users with too low or too high a slot count? If enabled, set address.

Additional slots required per hub user is connected to. [Ex. User is connected to 3 hubs and min slots is set to 2, ratio is set to 1, user is required to have 4 slots open]

Message to send user if they do not meet min or exceed max slots.

Redirect users with too low or too high a slot count? If enabled, set address.

Maximum number of hubs user may connected to.

Message to send user if they exceed max hub setting.

Redirect users if they exceed max hub setting? If enabled, set address.

What to do with user clients without tag Accept = allow tagless client, Reject = deny entry of tagless client Redirect = redirect tagless clients

Message to send user with tagless client. This message is sent if rejecting or redireting tagless client.

If redirect is enabled, set address.

If you want to allow only particular nicknames (or exclude special ones) define a nick name rule by using regular expressions here. Not familiar with Regular Expressions? Checkout this Regular Expressions - User guide

Message to send user if they fail nickname check.

Redirect users if they fail nickname check? If enabled, set address.

In this field, you can restrict nicknames to aminimum and maximum length.

Minimum charachters required in a user nickname. Less charachters than this setting will fail the check.

Maximum charachters allowed in a user nickname. More charachters than this setting will fail the check

Message to send user if they fail nick limit check.

Redirect users if they fail nick limit check? If enabled, set address.

With the script editor, you can load and edit your scripts, toggle them on and off in the script list and set their load priority. Once a script is enabled (checked) click Restart scripts . Script status or errors, if any, will be displayed in the lower pane.

Note: Simply loading the script into the editor does NOT execute it. You must save your scripts using the .lua file extension. Save them in the hub's /scripts folder.

Click Restart scripts to refresh the script listing. Take note of the Check syntax button as well as the status bar and memory usage display. If you hadn't yet noticed, transmit and receive speeds have been added to the status bar. By default, scripting is enabled, if your scripts won't run, ensure that the Enable scripting option is checked on the Options page.

Displays code of loaded script.

The CLS button in the upper right corner of the Edit Box, will clear the contents of the Edit Box.

Displays status of loaded scripts

The CLS button in the lower right corner of the Status Box, will clear the contents of the Status Box.

Clicking this button will move the highlighted script name up in the Script List. Scripts are loaded from the top down. To execute this script before others, use this button to place it above the other scripts.

Clicking this button will move the highlighted script name down in the Script List. Again, scripts are loaded from the top down.

Displays all script files in the scripts folder. Enable/disable scripts with check box

Checks your currently enabled scripts for syntax errors

Restart all enabled scripts

Loads the script into the editor. Note: Does not execute script! Enable script(tick) and click restart scripts to execute.

Save the script currently loaded in the editor. Once again, enable script(tick) and click restart scripts to execute.

On the Advanced settings page we see a few options regarding MyINFO, for those not aware, the MYINFO is a string of information sent from your client to the hub. This string identifies you and your client to the hub. Here is a typical MyINFO string:

$MyINFO $ALL Username Apps/Scripts<++ V:0.401,M:A,H:1/0/0,S:2>$ $Cable
$127.0.0.1$135040938544$|

What it means:

Command|Arg|User Nick|Description|Client|Ver|Mode|Hubs|Slots|Connection|User's IP|User's Share size

Once a users MyINFO is sent to the hub, the server must pass this message to all users of the hub, including the sender. The client should resend it's MyINFO when the information changes. The hub must resend this if it receives a $GetINFO command from any client. As it would seem, this info is sent all too often. Therefore it is somewhat wasteful of bandwidth. To conserve resources you can filter or strip this information, stop it all together or send to all users or only Operators.

Strip user's description out of user's MyINFO string.

Strip user's client tag out of user's MyINFO string.

Strip user's connection out of user's MyINFO string.

Strip user's email address out of user's MyINFO string.

Delay updates to user MyINFO per this setting.

Do not filter MyINFO strings, send to all users.

Do not filter MyINFO string send only to Operators.

Always send to all filtered MyINFO.

Include user's client mode in user's MyINFO string.

Include user's client mode in user's Description string.

Log main chat to text file, if enabled, set filename.

*Not yet implemented, currently on English is supported.

Here, you can set create profiles and set profile permissions. By default you are provided with four profiles, Master, Operator, VIP & Reg. It is not necessary to change anything, but you may set the permissions for each profile. You may add or remove profiles as well.

Enable user statistic database. *Currently this feature is not active.

Flushes statistics database *Currently this feature is not active.

When enabled (ticked), only registered user may enter hub. If enabled, set message to send to unregistered users.

When Registered users only is enabled you may redirect unregistered users to another hub, if redirecting, set address.

*Disabled in this release

Passive searches are sent through the hub. To save resources set limit for number of searches.

Set default time for temporary bans, user may not enter hub until this time has elapsed.

Displays resources used by active scripts. Displayed are, actual memory used and G.C. threshold