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Windows Palace Server 4.4 Manual


Getting Started

This section describes everything you need to know in order to get your Palace site up and running:


Requirements

The Palace site software has the following requirements:

RAM: 32 megabytes.

Disk space: The amount of disk space required for your Palace Site initially depends on the number and size of the sounds and graphics you decide to make available. Palace sites typically take 5-20 megabytes of space. Large sites can take over 200. If you have a popular Palace with many users wearing props, your prop file (pserver.prp) can also grow quite large; it's not uncommon to hear of 10- or 15-MB propfiles. See Maintaining Palace files and network settings for more information.

NOTE: Art and sounds are stored on your Palace web server. You can keep these on the mini-web server provided by your Palace installation, or move this media to a web server of your own. See Art and sounds for more information.

Operating system: Windows95, Windows98 or Windows NT. Note that the Windows 95/98 Palace Server runs as an application on Windows NT, 2000 and XP, not a service. There is another product, the Windows NT Palace Server, which runs as a service on Windows NT, this server does NOT run on 2000 or XP.

Web browser. Though not actually required to run your Palace, you need a Web browser to see the help pages you are reading right now, so we can safely say you got that covered. We recommend using the FireFox browser.


Installing and configuring your Palace site

To download The Palace, go to the Downloads page of The Palace Planet website (downloads.palaceplanet.net) and select The Palace Server. You can choose among several options for downloading:

After you install, you can customize your Palace look and feel by obtaining new templates. You can also customize your Palace room art, layout and scripts by using The Palace Client. In fact most Palace authoring is done through the Palace Client. We can probably asume you have the client installed. If not, it is available from the Palace Planet Downloads

After you started your Palace you can connect to it using the following adress: localhost.

Options for authoring will be explained later.

If you are looking for the Palace Authoring Tool: it has been discontinued but there are several other options available like loghelp and addOmatic

both available from the Palace tool site


Registering your Palace site

To make sure other people can find your Palace site, you must register it with the PalaceTools live directory. This is a directory of all registered Palace sites in the entire Palace space. You can choose to use the PalacePlanet version on this site, or use the Palacetools version. To get listed you need to follow these instructions: Getting Listed - Editing Your Site Page

Users can click your Palace link to bring up a web page with your Palace information. If you do have your Palace running, users can even access your Palace from the Live Directory.

You receive your registration code by e-mail when you register The Palace software. You should follow the instructions carefully it will save you some headaches. Remember: this will only register you with the Live directory, it will NOT solve any connection problems you might have.

For more info on Conneciton problems and internet security please visit our FORUM


Getting your site up and running

Once you have installed your Palace site, you can go ahead and start it. Note that once you start your site, you must still connect to it through a Palace client in order to view it. This is documented in Connecting to and visiting your Palace site.

Starting your Palace site

On your machine, select Programs:PalaceServer:The PalaceServer for Windows from the Windows Start menu, or click The Palace icon. The Palace Server control panel launches.

The Palace Server control panel
For detailed information on using this control panel, see The Palace Control Panel Interface.

The first time you start your Palace site, you are prompted for the registration code that was mailed to you when you downloaded the software.


Connecting to and visiting your Palace site

Once your Palace site is up and running, you can explore it, socialize with other people, and do various maintenance tasks such as adding scripts, rooms, and artwork. You do this by connecting to your site from a Palace client. A Palace client is similar to a Web browser; it is a graphical interface that lets you visit Palace sites (including your own). There are two type of Palace clients you can use:

Both clients let you connect to your site either locally (that is, from the same machine) or remotely (that is, from a different machine).

Connecting through the standalone Palace User Software

You can use either the Windows- or Macintosh-based Palace User Software to access your site. Before trying to connect, be sure your site up and running (using the instructions in Getting your site up and running). After you access your Palace for the first time, you can bookmark it or select it from the list of recently-visited Palace sites.

Connecting from a client on the same machine

This section describes how to connect from The Palace User Software for Windows 95/NT that resides on the same machine as your site.

  1. From The Palace site's control panel, the Visit This Palace button will probably not work unless you set your Palace entry page to palace://localhost. You can click the localhost link on this page as well it wil take you to your Palace server if its runnig.

    Because of the many changes in Palace land most buttons on the server control panel are out of date and wil only send you to dead links. In your Palace Preferences:Display page, make sure you also set your launched-client preference to The Palace Windows client (using the localhost. instead of "Visit This Palace" button...).

  2. Your Palace client launches, and automatically connects to your Palace site.

If your Palace User Software is already running, you can connect to your own Palace site directly from the client:

  1. Select Connect to a Palace from the client's File menu.

  2. In the resulting Connect dialog, enter one of the following:

Connecting from a client on a different machine

You can connect to your Palace site from The Palace User Software that sits on a different machine; this machine can be either a Windows 95/98/NT, or Macintosh. The following steps demonstrate connecting from a remote Windows 95/NT machine:

  1. Start your Palace client by choosing Programs:The Palace:The Palace32 from your Windows Start menu.

  2. Connect to your own Palace site. To do this, select Connect to a Palace from the client's File menu.

  3. In the resulting Connect dialog, enter your Palace site's machine's address in the format machine.domain; for example, test.palaceplanet.net. You can also enter the machine's IP address (such as 205.999.99.99)

Connecting through Instant Palace

In contrast to The Palace User Software (which is an application that resides on your machine), Instant Palace is an applet. Applets are programs that run inside of a web page, often initiated when you click their link.

The Instant Palace applet has to reside on a web page run from your computer. This means you have to have a webserver installed on thaat computer. By default, your Palace site page (in The Palace Directory) contains a link to Instant Palace pointing to your Palace site; see Maintaining your site page in The Palace Directory for more information. You can also embed Instant Palace on any part of your website, just as long as the website aand Palace server are running on the same server.. See To use Instant Palace on a web page for more information.

* To connect to your Palace site using Instant Palace

  1. Launch your Palace site according to the instructions in Getting your site up and running.

  2. Do one of the following:

    On the site's control panel, click the Visit This Palace button. In your Palace Preferences:Display page, make sure you also set your launched-client preference to Instant Palace (using the field The "Visit This Palace" button should...)
    Or
    From your web browser, launch a web page containing a Palace Viewer pointing to your Palace. By default, you can follow the link from your Palace Site Page in The Palace Directory (on www.thepalace.com).

  3. Click the link to Instant Palace.

Making your Palace site accessible to others

Users can visit your Palace site when you have it up and running. There are multiple ways users can access your site; these are all documented in The Palace User's Guide and Instant Palace documentation.

Embedding Instant Palace on a web page

Embedding Instant Palace applet on one of your web pages and pointing it to your Palace site encourages users to visit your Palace. Anybody visiting your web page can also visit your Palace site simply by clicking on the link. They do not have to download any software themselves.

To attract even more visitors to your site, you can encourage others to embed Instant Palace in their web page and point to your site. They don't have to have a Palace site installed to do this.

See To embed Instant Palace on a web page for more information.

While you might welcome having your Palace linked to by many web pages, you might also want to control the web content surrounding this link. For example, if you operate a family-oriented Palace site, you probably don't want links to your Palace site appearing in web pages containing adult content. For information on controlling which web pages can point to your Palace site, see Maintaining information for web-based users.

You can set privileges and access rules for Palace Viewers using the Preferences page of your Palace control panel. For information on how to control access from Palace Viewer users, see Setting user access and privileges.

The Palace Directory

By default, your Palace site is listed in The Palace Directory. The Palace Directory resides on The Palace website, and lists all registered Palaces in the entire Palace space.

Each Palace in the Directory has its own Palace site page; users access this page by clicking on The Palace's link in the Directory. Palace site pages include information such as a description of your Palace site, any announcements you want, and a link that the user can click to visit your Palace site. This page is displayed 24 hours a day, whether or not your Palace site is up and running.

NOTE: To allow users to access your site, you must have your Palace running.

You can control the content of your site page by using The Palace Site Administration form. This is a web page that is automatically created when you register your Palace. For information on the Site Administration Form, see Maintaining your site page in The Palace Directory.

Direct web access for standalone Palace User clients

Even if users use the standalone Palace User Software instead of the web-based Palace Viewer, you can give them direct web access to your Palace site.

You can give users your machine address (in the format machine.domain, such as test.communities.com) or IP address (such as 205.999.99.99) so they can access it directly without having to search for it on The Palace Directory. They can enter this name or address in either their Palace client Connect window (if they have the standalone Palace User Software) or their web browser. Once they have visited your site, they can return to it by bookmarking it or selecting it from their list of previously-visited Palaces.

You can even give Palace users access to specific rooms in your Palace site. To do so, give the user your Palace site URL, port number, and the room ID (from your Palace User Software, enter operator mode using the instructions in Owner and operator commands, go to the specific room, then select Wizard:Room Info to find the ID). Users can then enter this URL in their web browser. You can also include this reference in one of your Palace site rooms as a "hot spot" link. Note that users cannot access a URL-addressable room through their Palace User Software's Connect window.

This example illustrates the extended URL specification, where 89 is the room ID on The Palace site located at mansion.thepalace.com (port 9998).

palace://mansion.thepalace.com:9998/89

NOTE: If you don't provide a port, The Palace client always assumes port 9998.

To include a room reference in your web page, use the HTML <a href> command, the Palace protocol start with palace:// instead of http://. To include a room reference as a hotspot in a Palace room, use the Netgoto command. See The Iptscrae Language Guide for more information on the Netgoto command.

Publicizing events

You can host events on your Palace site and encourage people to attend them. To publicize your event, list it in your Palace Site Page and also The Palace Event Calendar, which publicizes events to the entire Palace community on The Palace website (www.palaceplanet.net).

The Palace Event Calendar
To list your event in your Palace site page, use The Palace Site Administration form (described in Maintaining your site page in The Palace Directory). To list your event in The Palace event calendar, click the link on The Palace website (http://calendar.palaceplanet.net) and fill out the event form.

You can use The Palace Events Moderator (PalacePresents) to host moderated auditorium-style events such as meetings, lectures, and other "one-to-many" interactions. The Palace Events Moderator allows you to control every aspect of these events, from show time and participant notification to security and web-based "slide shows." You can get The Palace Events Moderator at http://downloads.palaceplanet.net


Shutting down your Palace site

You might need to shut down your Palace site periodically for maintenance.

* To shut down your Palace from a local machine

Select File: Exit from your Palace's control panel.
Or
Close The Palace site's window as you would close any Windows window.
* To shut down your Palace site from another machine

  1. Connect to your Palace site from your Palace client (this must be the standalone Palace User Software).

  2. Select Wizard Mode from the Options menu, and enter your owner password to enter owner mode.

  3. Type the owner command `shutdown in your client input window, and press the Enter key.