Heimdall Status Check Utility
Purpose
The utility helps a Furcadia technician obtain the following information about Furcadia inner network:
- Current availability of a Heimdall - which heimdalls can actually be accessed at the time of the test. This also tells which heimdalls cannot be accessed and may need attention from the admin.
- Amount of "hits" for each Heimdall - which heimdalls were reached at the time of the test. This can tell if there is a bias where users are more likely to be sent to one Heimdall than the other.
-
Heimdall connectivity status - which heimdalls are connected to a
horton/tribble and which of them aren't. This can help locating heimdalls
that are not connected to the rest of the network and cause a problem in-game.
This feature is available ONLY to bugge hunters and others who have an extended `which command!
Requirements
| .NET Framework: | 2.0 or later |
|---|---|
| Detected: | None |
This project utilizes the .NET Framework and thus, that's what you need to run the program.
If an up-to-date version of the framework was detected above (displayed in green), you don't really need anything else and can simply run the program to use it.
If the version is no up to date and is marked in red (or several were detected, but none of them is suitable - green), you might have to update it before you can run the program. Same if no versions were detected. You can download the Redistributable packages from the following links at Microsoft:
If you are using Windows XP with Service Pack 3, or Windows Vista or later, you might already have the framework installed! If you aren't sure, you can always run the program and see if it successfully runs or gives you an error.
Please note that .NET Framework is huge! Downloading it for the sole purpose of running this application might not be the best idea, so if you really don't have it yet, but know someone who most likely does, you could try asking the person to run it isntead.
Download
| Latest version: | 1.0b Download (58KB) (MD5: 6ad6edf09335e5424d0c9430bfc0b622) |
|---|---|
| Source code: | heimtest-1.0b.zip Download (52KB) |
| Older versions: |
The source code was created with Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Beta 2 (Express Edition).
First Time Use
When you open the program for the first time, most of the basic settings will be pre-filled in. However, you will not be able to perform a scan yet. To do that, the program must use at least one Furcadia character, so you will have to provide login information to it in the Settings first.
Open the Settings window and add one or more characters to the list.
Tip: For your convenience, when entering user info, you can use the the ENTER key to switch from field to field and submit the entry. Press ESC in order to cancel.
When you have at least one character in the list, press OK or Save to apply the settings and then you can start the scan by clicking the now available Scan button in the main window.
Program Interface
Main Window
The main window consists of the following elements:
- Heimdall Status List - shows availability status of the heimdalls during a scan and after it:
- Heimdall # - ID number of the heimdall (seen in `which in the [6500:#] area).
- Hits - counts the amount of times a check instance was sent to that specific heimdall.
- Heimdall - heimdall is available for access (if we got sent there, it's available).
- Horton - heimdall was connected to the horton (PASS = Yes, FAIL = No).
- Tribble - heimdall was connected to the tribble (PASS = Yes, FAIL = No).
- Scan Status - shows the status of an ongoing scan:
- CAtt (Connection Attempts) - shows how many connection attempts were already made (including the current ones) and what is the limit on their amount past which the test would stop.
- Heim (Heimdalls Covered) - shows how many heimdalls were covered so far and how many should it cover at the end of the test.
- Usr (Users Listed) - shows how many Furcadia characters are stored (and used) for the scan procedures.
- Errors - shows how many errors did the system encounter during the test. Clicking the number would show you the error log for more details.
- Control Buttons - used to operate the program.
- Status Strip - used to indicate when a scan is taking place and when the program is done and is ready for further instructions.
Settings Window
The settings window consists of several areas of interest:
- Account Info Settings - contains a list of Furcadia character names that the program will use to perform a scan, as well as two buttons to Add a new character and Remove a selected character from the list. Please note that in order for the program to work, at least one Furcadia character is needed! Also note that trying to add the same character twice will NOT make the tests go faster, but break the program! The program should not allow you to do this, but don't try to outsmart it.
- Connectivity and Test Settings - contains the Furcadia gameserver address/port information to direct connections to, the amount of login attempts that should not be exceeded (in case of a broken heimdall and eternal looping), and the amount of heimdalls in total that the users have access to (starting from 1). The default values should be assumed unless the system has changed and those values are no longer valid. In any case, you cannot have more heimdalls than connection attempts because otherwise, there would be no chance to cover them all! You won't cover all 6 in 6 attempts either, but the values are limited to be sane.
- Settings Control Buttons - the buttons at the bottom of the window that either apply the settings (OK/Save) or ignore the changes (Cancel). The difference between OK and Save is that the former one applies the settings for the current session only, and Save stores these settings in the registry to use them in the future sessions. The Remove from disk button clears saved settings from the registry as a means of cleaning up. Besides these settings, the program should not store anything else on your computer.
Note: The program stores the login information as well, but to avoid unnecessary exposure of passwords in the registry, this data is stored in a scrambled form. This is NOT a good means of security, but it is better than keeping these passwords in plain text. Furcadia does it anyway.
Diagnostics Window
The diagnostics window exists in order to test the mechanism used to check heimdall status. From this window, you can connect a single instance of a heimdall check and see it in action, as well as the results it comes up with at the end of the test. This window is independent of the settings.
Suggestions & Bug Reports
While I don't plan to make the ultimate testing tool out of this, if you have a small suggestion you would really find helpful, or if you can't use the program due to a malfunction of some sort, please contact me personally if possible, or by other means on my contact page: www.icerealm.org/contact
If you have a bug report, please try giving me as much information about it as you can, and among the rest:
- What actually happened and what exactly did you try to do? What was happening right before the problem occurred?
- Precise steps to reproduce the problem: What do I have to do in order for this problem to occur to me?
- Any information that the program gives you about the error.