Updates to the Metis Bot

[Pri]

I've not been around these forums for almost two years now but I have still been releasing stuff for WinMX during that time.

One such project I've been working on is Metis. I really like Metis I think it's a fantastic little bot that really lowers the entry bar for people to get in to programming for their chat room. It's easy to pick up and learn and can be used to create quite impressive room software.

After it stopped being updated many many years ago it set a ceiling that obviously script writers couldn't punch through as all the functionality of your scripts rely on Metis parameters, conditions & operators.

This is where I thought it would be good for the community to release new versions with bug fixes, performance improvements and new features. I've since released three versions of Metis and they are all following the GPL license that the original Metis was distributed under meaning they come with full source code which you are free to redistribute & modify.

If you're a script writer and looking to do more web related stuff then 2.83 is great for you as it contains better compatibility with webservers and twice the page query performance of Metis 2.80. And if you're making offline scripts there are a few new parameters for you to make use of too.

You can download a compiled version of just the metis.r2x plugin and the source code on this page: http://www.mxpulse.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=405 I have also included a RoboMX + Metis 2.83 installer which includes all the WinMXWorld cache addresses already built in to RoboMX enabling it to connect to the WinMX Network in under 3 seconds. It comes with code examples, optional popular scripts you can select during the install process and a fully setup mxc.xml so you can start adding scripts or writing your own in minutes.

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone will enjoy these Metis releases and maybe even build off the source code and add even more great stuff to Metis for the benefit of all. One last thing I'd like to note is these versions of Metis are fully 100% compatible with any script that ran on Metis 2.70 and above.

[achilles]

Sounds like this one can be made compatible with the the upcoming new network with some protocol changes to the code.

[White Stripes]

metis is a plugin to robomx... as long as robomx is compatible metis will be...

[RebelMX]

I have been looking at a few updates and improvements to RoboMX so it should be pretty easy to modify for the very few packets that may change.  As it is primarily a secondary protocol chat client there are few packets that are likely to change for it.

[achilles]

Is this the most up to date, stable, and functional build of RoboMx for English users? httpss://archive.winmxworld.com/MxControl/RoboMx/RoboMX208_en.exe

[achilles]

Oh yeah.. is it possible to use the chat functionality of the network, and RoboMx in general if you are using IPV6? I know the file sharing does not work, but I was hoping the chat functionality would work.

[White Stripes]

robomx like winmx is ipv4 only...

[achilles]

  Hopefully the new client will be up to par soon.

[RebelMX]

In theory it's just a case of changing
[ RoomName : S ][ 00 : 1 ][ LineType : 2 ][ PrimaryIP : 4 ][ PrimaryPort : 2 ][ SharedFiles : 4 ][ UserName : S ][ 00 : 1 ]

to

[ RoomName : S ][ 00 : 1 ][ LineType : 2 ][ PrimaryIP : 16 ][ PrimaryPort : 2 ][ SharedFiles : 4 ][ UserName : S ][ 00 : 1 ]
i.e. making the ip field long enough to support the 16 byte ip address needed.

On a slightly different note: what is it that actually stops WinMX sharing files larger than XXX file size?  Does the client itself ignore those files when listing them in the library?  As it appears the protocol in my understanding already supports files up to 4 GB in size.  What sort of limit would you want to set?

[GhostShip]

I'm sure its been mentioned a few times already over the years but the limit is not 4GB but 2GB hard coded.

This was done to support win98 users and back in the day they made up  most of the userbase, XP was at that time a spring chicken. At fiirst glance some folks will suggest that FAT32 has a file limit of 4GB which is correct but whats often forgotten is that win98 can also run on a FAT16 partition and there I hope the penny drops.

As RebelMX shows it is a simple matter of sitting down and changing a few fields to adjust the protocol but obviously a new protocol requires a supporting client, fortunately Robomx/Metis src code is available.

[Will]

In theory it's just a case of changing
[ RoomName : S ][ 00 : 1 ][ LineType : 2 ][ PrimaryIP : 4 ][ PrimaryPort : 2 ][ SharedFiles : 4 ][ UserName : S ][ 00 : 1 ]

to

[ RoomName : S ][ 00 : 1 ][ LineType : 2 ][ PrimaryIP : 16 ][ PrimaryPort : 2 ][ SharedFiles : 4 ][ UserName : S ][ 00 : 1 ]
i.e. making the ip field long enough to support the 16 byte ip address needed.

That would only work if your room and the clients are all using IPv6 unless your using dual stack, chat servers would also need to be modded to support IPv6. The problem then is how to display the rooms in the channel list as the protocol atm doesn't support IPv6 or a way to display a IPv6 room hash.

[White Stripes]

im curious how an ipv4 only user is going to connect to an ipv6 only room or user (or vice versa).... the two versions get along on irc... but on mx? this is gonna get ugly...

[achilles]

Is any of this helpful http://long.ccaba.upc.edu/long/045Guidelines/LONG_Trans_app_IPv6.pdf 

[achilles]

Microsoft has a utility on this page to check for possible problems in your code when making applications IPV6 compatible, and offers possible solutions. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms738649%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

[Will]

im curious how an ipv4 only user is going to connect to an ipv6 only room or user (or vice versa).... the two versions get along on irc... but on mx? this is gonna get ugly...

The room host or the user could use a tunnel broker, you can find a list of a few here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IPv6_tunnel_brokers

[Lagerlout666]

Would be nice to enable dns, as a future upgrade rather than see ipv6 long codes after a room name