VALIDATED FREELANCER SERVERS README FILE
2005-04-04

The ValidatedFreelancerServers.txt file is a list of 179 "possible" Freelancer servers. I am posting it since the global server apparently is having problems; the list is poor quality since I rushed to make it available quickly for users who have been unable to connect to the Freelancer server during the past few days.

The list contains server "names" followed by the internet address of the server. I did test connection to each server this morning, confirming that all the listed ones are up - note that some ARE private servers which are password-protected; I couldn't easily test details of this, nor confirm that the servers are up 24/7. Please be polite to server owners if you use the list. Also, I didn't have clear name information for 139 of the servers, so they are simply named Server1, Server2, etc.

How You Can Use This List
The raw list is not useful to most people, so I've included some "helper" tools and have instructions below on using the list and tools. Note that the list itself is in the format used by FL-Quick1.2 in its fl-list.txt file.

+ If You Vaguely Recall a Server Name/Address
If you will recognize an address when you see it, or are just unsure about a port number, you MIGHT be able to look through  this list to determine a server. Since most servers have "generic" names, this won't help a lot. However, if you find the correct server you can just add its IPAddress:Port as a server that is automatically browsed. For example, if you know you usually connect to NRW-Freelancer, when you look through ValidatedFreelancerServers.txt you will see a line that reads:
    NRW-Freelancer 62.75.221.129:2302
You would then add the following to the end of the shortcut you use to run Freelancer:
    -s62.75.221.129:2302

+ If You Use FL-Quick
A PORTION OF the ValidatedFreelancerServers.txt file contents can be pasted into fl-list.txt.
*** Note that FL-Quick appears to me to have problems with more than 100 or so entries in fl-list.txt. That means only about half of the contents can be in the fl-list.txt file. When I've tried more, I get a subscript out of range error from FL-Quick and it closes.

+ If Freelancer Is In The Default Location And You Want to Browse Servers
I have provided 3 shell scripts that should run on Windows 2000/XP/2003: servers1.cmd, servers2.cmd, and servers3.cmd. Each will add about 60 of the servers to your automatic browsing list; it had to be broken into separate files because of limits on the Windows command line length. The servers are NOT sorted or categorized in any way. To use each file, just double-click it and run it.
If you've installed Freelancer to a different location, you will have to open each of the three files and edit the first line to the directory where Freelancer.exe is installed. For example, if you installed Freelancer to C:\Apps\Games\FL, then the actual location of Freelancer.exe would be:
    C:\Apps\Games\FL\exe\Freelancer.exe
and the folder where it is would be
    C:\Apps\Games\FL\exe
You would open each of the 3 files and change the line
    pushd "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\exe"
to read
    pushd "C:\Apps\Games\FL\exe"

+ Picking Up Freelancer Location From Registry or FL-Quick
The files AutoServers1.vbs, AutoServers2.vbs, and AutoServers3.vbs are more advanced versions of the servers1/2/3.cmd files. Each shows a separate list of servers identical to those in the cmd files, but the VBScript versions will find where Freelancer is located automatically from the registry. If you are using FL-Quick and put the scripts in the FL-Quick folder, it can instead pick up the location from FL-Quick's fl-path.txt file.
