Connecting to the Chat Relay

Clients

The CheckValve Chat Relay listens for client connections via TCP on the port specified in the configuration file. The default port for client connections is 23456. When a client connects, the server returns its identity string and then waits for a connection request from the client (see Packet Types and Formats). The server will close the socket if another packet is not received within 2 seconds, or if the next packet is not a connection request.

Note: No message is returned to the client if the connection is timed out, but the timeout is logged and it counts as a bad connection attempt for the client IP if auto-bans are enabled.

Game servers

Logging must be enabled on the HLDS/SRCDS server, and the server must be configured to send log messages to the Chat Relay. This is done using the logaddress_add console command. To configure a server to send log messages to the chat relay, enter the following lines into the server console or the server's configuration file (usually server.cfg) where <ip> is the IP address of the Chat Relay, and <port> is the message listener port (12345 by default):

Source engine:

log on

logaddress_add <ip>:<port>

GoldSrc engine:

log on

logaddress_add <ip> <port>

Note: In Source engine servers, the IP and port are separated with a colon, but in GoldSrc servers (such as Counter-Strike 1.6), the IP and port are separated by a space.