This is the very MINIMUM needed to get a region up and running quickly on OSgrid with some of the pitfalls often encountered and hopefully solutions to them.

Explanation of ports.

Your home computer can be used to connect to OSgrid. OSGrid uses a doorway on your modem/router called Port 9000 which lets OSgrid talk to your PC. Most Ports are normally closed to keep hackers out.

Your region will appear on the map, but if this port is not opened up you wont be able to go to it as Osgrid cannot send it the information to take you there!

You will need to access your Modem/Router. You do this using your web browser, you will need to find out how to open ports from the instructions that came with it. You need to open both TCP & UDP on Port 9000 and also make sure that any Firewall is not blocking this port

Use this link to help you. .
http://portforward.com/english/routers/ ... rindex.htm

click to bypass the advertisment and then the link for default setup


Use this site after you have finished to check them

http://canyouseeme.org/



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The open ports must also be associated with the "Hardware" IP address of your computer.
Go to control panel, Network Connections, right click on 'Local Area Connection' scroll down and click on 'Properties'. then select 'Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click the 'Properties' Button below.

Click "Use the following IP address"
Enter:

IP address: 192.168.0.0 = choose any last digit, this is the IP address you will associate with your open router Ports

Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway: 0.0.0.0 = this is the "Hardware" ip address of your router..see your internet browser window for this as you access it.


Use the following DNS server addresses
0.0.0.0 = again the hardware address of your router as above

Reboot your computer after you have done this...

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Installing the OSGrid opensim software:

Go to:
http://www.osgrid.org/index.php/downloads

And download the Current OSgrid Version release. It comes to you as a zip file, open it and drag the bin folder to your desktop and rename it if you wish.

Double click on 'OpenSim' or 'Opensim32bitLaunch'

New region name...Enter a name here and press return

Region UUID: leave as is and press return

Region Location: Here go http://quickmap.osgrid.org/. Click on an empty blue part and it will give you a location? enter these two numbers seperated by a comma and press return.

Internal IP address: leave as is and press return

Internal port [9000] leave as is and press return

Allow alternate ports [false] leave as is and press return...Hey this isn't so bad is it!

External host name [SYSTEMIP]: This is the IP address of your internet connection. Go to
http://www.whatsmyip.org/
to find out what your address is and type it in, then press return.

New estate name [My Estate]: enter a name of choice and press return

Estate owner first name [Test]: enter your avatars first name, press return

Estate owner last name [User]: enter the surname of your avatar, press return

If it stops with an error message. Osgrid cant find your computer over the internet so check your IP address is correct by opening Region.info file in the Regions Folder

If all goes well the sim will load and you will see

REGION: Enabling logins
INTERGRID: Informing 0 neighbours that this region is up
Region #

.
Login to an OSG plaza and type the name of your region in your viewer map and it should appear.

NOW the moment of truth are those ports and firewall set up correctly? Double click on your region to TP there!

Now one of several things can happen..

The bar travels across your screen and says contacting new region then arriving and there you are on a green bump surrounded by sea...and your very first region/sim! Congrats!

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BUT more often than not:
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Teleport failed: Service request failed: The request timed out = (A) Your ports are not open, check your router settings are correct.

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Teleport failed: Service request failed: The request timed out = (B) NAT Loopback error..You can identify this one by asking somebody else at LBSA if they can TP to your new region. If they can and you can't then you need to enable your router so it can call itself back. There are only certain routers capable of this, hopefully yours is one..see:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2283&start=0
for a list that work with opensim

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Teleport failed: Service request failed: The operation has timed out... = (C)Your Internet IP number changed while your sim was online.( you can still see your region on the map though). See below for solution.

I could TP to my region yesterday or before I restarted my computer now I get "Teleport failed: Service request failed: The operation has timed out".
Your IP address has changed. Internet companys may change your IP address several times each day or each time you restart your modem.
You can re enter your new ip address in the region.ini file found in the regions folder or better long term solution would be to set up DNS service on your router. This is a service you subscribe to and a basic service is usually free.

http://www.no-ip.com/
http://dyn.com/dns/

In your router there is usually a screen you will tell the service how to find your computer...then it will keep it associated with a permanent address you can choose from a list they give for example: ...mynewopensim.dyns.org . So after this is all set up you would enter in your region.ini file

External host name [SYSTEMIP]: mynewopensim.dyns.org

And your computer will be seen all the time no matter how many times your IP number changes.


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Teleport failed: Service request failed: The operation has timed out = (D) The sim may have crashed, check the Dos window (called the console)

If the console closes if you then sort files by last modified in the windows folder there is a log file produced at the end. You can copy and paste this into pastebin to show somebody at LBSA who's helping you.
http://pastebin.com/

One common reason for a console suddenly closing can be the coordinates you have chosen have already been taken, so pick another set deep in a blue area of the map.
Another reason is you are trying to use a version downloaded from the Opensim site..use only OSG versions.

This has just been a quick and dirty guide...There is much more you can do to make your Region run better..Like setting up a DNS and migrating to Mysql.

Thank you for this simple and to the point tutorial.
This was very helpful, and would love to see more of these.
Such as, how to switch over to mysql database.
I know having ran older versions of opensim, and looked at the files for 7.4 that things seem to have changed.
So most tutorials out there, are outdated and do not help what so ever.

Switching to Mysql:

http://chapter-and-metaverse.blogspot.c ... mysql.html

Hope this helps.

Odd

Hey thanks for that information.
Though i have noticed that most tutorials for doing things are rather out dated.
Or ramble on about other things rather than just getting to the brasstax.
I did get my MySql server up and working with my regions.
Maybe i will start up a web site that provides clear, and up to date simple tutorials for doing things.

Thank you so much for a very easy to understand and straightforward How to. I have a standalone up and running with no issues for two weeks now. Been meaing to stop back and say thanks. Now to start learning how to script as almost every other tutorial out assumes everyone knows how.

Yes the instructions are great. However what do I do if port 9000 is in use. I have tried changing the listener port in the ini file, but the sim still uses 9000.

change both the sim port(in the regions.ini file) and the opensim listener port(in the opensim.ini file)