At-A-Glance Top 4 Server Comparison

[Max™]

Features	ZCS	WCS	FXS	ES
GUI	-	yes	yes	-
fancy entry	yes	yes	-	-
country on entry	-	yes	-	-
client on entry	yes	-	yes	yes
joined with	yes	-	yes	yes
fancy exit	yes	-	-	-
staytime on exit	yes	-	-	-
multi-line pic formats	3 line	yes	yes	-
custom commands	RC1	yes	-	-
multi join same ip	5	yes	yes	yes
large pics	yes	yes	yes	yes
protect host on redirect	yes	-	yes	loopback
room password	yes	-	yes	-
hide & hidecmd	yes	yes	-	-
online offline cmd	yes	-	yes	-
check connection cmd	yes	-	-	-
custom opmsg & action	yes	-	-	-
split config files	yes	-	-	-
block	-	yes	yes	yes
block name	yes	yes	-	-
block word	yes	yes	yes	-
blockkick & blockban	-	-	yes	-
replace	yes	yes	yes	yes
replace word	yes	yes	yes	-
flood control	yes	yes	-	yes
flood kick	-	-	yes	-
anti-spam kick	-	-	yes	-
kickIP	yes	-	yes	-
hostname resolve	yes	-	-	-
user is typing (wpcc)	-	yes	-	yes
shows baned user attempt	-	yes	yes	yes
tray icon	-	yes	yes	-

My Conclusion:


[ZCS] Points against = only allowing 5 names on a single IP,
[ZCS] Points in favour = low memory usage, very stable, easy edit config's, lots of features.


[WCS] Points against = not as many features as the others,
[WCS] Points in favour = low memory usage, some features had been added to the last versions.


[ES] Points against = not many features, not very bot friendly,
[ES] Points in favour = low memory usage, 2 language .txt files.

[FXS] Points against = unstable, closes/crashes without reason or warning/error message,
[FXS] points in favour = config in 2 languages.

Note: if i have missed anything important, sorry.

[silicon_toad2000]

Max, this looks great.

I've made this a sticky, I think the table of features will be a great benefit to the community.
I'm sure there will be more users who disagree with your conculsions than agree, but thats the thing about opinions.
Thanks for knocking this together Max.

[White Stripes]

ES supports 'now typing' ... was the first one that did...

[Max™]

oops, sorry yes, i cant ammend it, if some nice admin wishes to, cos the edit button is invisible, thanks

[silicon_toad2000]

hope i got the right one

[Bieb]

Sorry but those are not the top 4 chat servers.

As much as I hate to admit it RSWCS has a bigger market share than eagle's server does.

These numbers are based on sole chat rooms. Multiple channel names are not counted. This is using the extra information sent after the topic on primary channel listings and the topic if nothing is sent in the extra information area.

This is as of a few minutes ago.

[Pri]

Looks like a nice list Max.

[White Stripes]

@Simba; skanks server may have a bigger market share but lets not promote it more than it needs to be..... skanks scare tactics/room hopping are enough...

@all;

ZCS;
http://pages.usherbrooke.ca/dsaulnier/ZenMX/  (official)
httpss://archive.winmxworld.com/Zenar/Zenar%20Chat%20Server/ (wmw archive)

WCS;
http://wcs.mxstuff.org/ (bide & musique -- official?)

FXS;
httpss://archive.winmxworld.com/Fx%20Server/ (wmw archive -- official down?)

ES;
httpss://archive.winmxworld.com/Eagle/E-Serv/ (wmw archive -- official down?)

[Max™]

Hiya,
@ Simba, my original one on my forum did include Richy's wcs, but here it is not supported,
my conclusions was not based on how many use the servers, it was my round up of what i thing is the best for reliability and features,
like FX is good, but as it has a nack of crashing without warning, makes it less than top.

Thanks Stripes,
and the wcs Bide & Musique worked on was incomplete,
the final version that Mind added the extra features to wcs 1.8.8 is here
http://maxtech.youneed.us/downloads-desk-for-servers-clients-bots-other-tools-f1/wcs-winmx-chat-sever-windows-linux-t548.htm

[Max™]

hope i got the right one

Yes you did thanks ST.

Looks like a nice list Max.

thanks Pri

[thunderwinds]

One other note to add is the WCS Linux doesn't have a GUI.  it runs in a terminal window

[Max™]

Oh thanks Thunderwinds,
as im not a linux user, i can only got by my windows xp, sorry to all those linux users if any info is incorrect,

another point i can make, now i use ZCS, it has come to light that users with Talk Talk as their ISP, can enter and talk in ZCS hosted rooms,
but can not in other rooms hosted on WCS & FX, the main problems are, the MOTD doesnt fully load, the user list doesn't load and they cant see what is typed or what they type, but we can see what they type,
some of the SIP's include: Pipex, Opal, Tiscalli, Bulldog just to name a few that have been taken over by Talk Talk,
also I heard somewhere that AOL & Talk Talk have merged,

The top 3 ISP's that was restricting users was,
1, Talk Talk
2, Tiscalli
3, AOL
Now the top 3 has merged to become the worst nightmare for alot of users.

[GhostShip]

Sounds like thats not a real ISP as they must be messing with users traffic, this could be a case for "interception of communication act" proceedings, Talk talk are big on promises but low on delivery it seems.

[nylly444]

Seems Max doesn't know all the features of ES:

 - all the server messages are configurable in the language file in ES, so you want a fancy entry you just configure it - same with the exit message, custom opmsg (opmsg can be colored as well), and action message or whatever. All that in any language you want - once you translate it
 - multi-line text or pics can be done with /n (newline)...
 - multi-join same IP is configurable...
 - if by on/-offline command you mean can it connect/disconnect to wpn - ES can do that by simply setting the number of wpn connections to 0...
 - blocking names or words it can do as well plus you can configure what happens when blocked words are used (1=Block+nothing 2=Block+kick 3=Block+kickban)...
 - of course it kicks on flood...
 - kickip is no problem either...

Unfortunately most of these features are not well known but with ES you can configure all this from within the room (if you've got the right access level)
and simply save the config just like when hosting with winmx itself.
Also a lot of the commands from the winmx commands menu just work.
Another feature hardly anyone knows about is the web status page of ES (http://78.47.24.174:47777/ is the page for the wmw help room)

All in all ES has much more features most people give it credit for - all it lacks is a fancy gui

BTW: Sorry for going into this in so much detail but I really feel ES deserves some more recognition then it currently gets
cause it's certainly MY top choice for a chat server that simply runs and does it's job without a hassle for days, week, months...
             

OH - and the official page is here: http://www.hackroom.org/winmx

[Max™]

Thanks Nylly for pointing it out,
i didnt know about all the features, i did know about block-kick or block-ban, but i know its either all or nothing, you cant pick seperate block-kicks and blocks, also as there is no /help alot of people including myself wont know what is there until they try it, sorry.

[nylly444]

Well, we actually have a tutorial for ES right here:  https://www.winmxworld.com/tutorials/eserv-hosting_guide.html

Admittedly just a few features are exlained, but there's a complete list of commands if you click on it, complete with explanations.

The main problem with ES is that the original is in italian and translation hasn't been easy.

[]...alot of people including myself wont know what is there until they try it, sorry.

That's why I felt the need to post and add some things

I'm well aware that ES might be not the most obvious choice, still it shouldn't be shortchanged IMO

[Joshua203]

ES actually does start sounding more intresting ..especially because there's also a linux version (i might try this one soon)

[Bieb]

The main reason that people have held onto fxserver is due to the user interface. People want something that is easy to use and customize without having to read through a howto guide. They just want it to work. Seeing as how ES and ZCS do not have a user interface that's the reason they're less popular.  WCS at least has a user interface and that's why it's the 2nd most used.

[thunderwinds]

To me the main drawback of ES is the hierarchical admin structure.  I find it not to be as concussive to bot games though with a little tweeking they are plenty playable.  It is the most configurable of the chat servers that I've used, though i still prefer wcs. I may have to take a look at that documentation now that it's been translated, when I last tried it i managed a rough translation of it with google translate which helped some.

[nylly444]

That's exactly why I posted some more info about ES - I think it's worth people taking a closer look at it.

Of course it's less popular with people wanting a user interface - but it's a nice choice for people that don't change their configs much.
Pretty much everything in the configuration can be done in the room though and a simple /savecfg will save it to a file.
The only thing that really bothers me about ES it that all basns will be lost after a restart unless you save them somewhere or put them in the config manually.

The config file is basically a batch file setting all these config options at start, everything that's configurable from within the room can be put into the config and vice versa.

ES might not be an obvious choice but it's well worth looking into