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What is RCON / Admin password?
RCON stands for remote console and is a way to temporarily change your half-life or half-life mod (cstrike, tfc, etc) game server variables while you are in the game. RCON is sometimes also called the admin password. NEVER give out RCON password to others unless you can trust them, it can be abused.

You can change maps, gravity, friendly fire, round times and restart a round to name but a few, with RCON. These are mainly temporary, most will revert back to there origanal settings when map changes. To make them permanant they need to be changed in server.cfg file (or equivalent).

RCON Commands
Here are some examples of the most used commands.

First thing you need to do is log into the server either through an external program like In[SaNe] RCON or by the consol while in the game. To bring the consol down press the tilde (~) key, if the consol does not show, quit the game and add "-console" to the games shotcut. Now you can connect.

rcon_port <your game server port>
rcon_password <your rcon password>

Example:
rcon_port 27015
rcon_password rconpassword

Now to test that it works, you can execute an rcon say command and see if it shows up on your game screen.

Example:
rcon say "Hello players, admin is here!"

Note: If this doesn't work, the double check that you are connected to your game server, and that your rcon password is correct, as well as your game server port. Don't use the example above exactly as written, remember to change the port and password to match your server.

How do I find a player's WONID?
You can run the "status" command to get a player's WONID.

Example:
status

What will return is a list of all players on now. Look for the WONID column and take down that number, and then you can act on that (like kicking the player by their WONID, etc).

Another way would be to run "rcon users" as well.

Example:
rcon users

This will return a list players on your server with their ID (userid), and their WONID (uniqueid), as well as their game nick name.

How do I kick a player off the server?
To force a player to leave your game server, you can do:

rcon kick <player>

Example:
If a player named "h4x0r" was on the server and you wanted to kick him, then you can do:

rcon kick "h4x0r"

However, sometimes the player's name is hard to type in or has ~ characters in it which you might not be able to type. So, you should run the "status" command to get their WONID and then kick the player by his/her WONID.

Example:
status

What will return is a list of all players on now. Look for the WONID column and take down that number, and then kick the player by their WONID like so:

rcon kick # <WONID>

Example:
rcon kick # 1828058

You may also kick the player by ID number instead of WONID.

How do I ban a player from the server?
You can ban players by WONID or by their IP Addresses. Usually banning by WONID is enough because it's generated from the player's unique CD Key. However, you may have a player who either has another copy of the game or a hack to change their WONID so you may want to ban their IP as well.

Ban by WONID
To ban by WONID, use the "status" command to find the player's WONID and then use the console to do:

rcon banid <minutes> <WONID>
rcon writeid

To ban permanently, use 0 minutes.

Example:
rcon banid 0 1828058
rcon writeid

Banning doesn't kick someone automatically, so if you want to ban and kick then do:

rcon banid <minutes> <WONID> kick
rcon writeid

Example:
rcon banid 0 1828058 kick
rcon writeid

Don't forget to do the "rcon writeid" command for permanent bans or else the ban will be lost when your server restarts.

Ban by IP Address
To ban by IP Address, use the "rcon stat" command to find the player's IP Address and then do:

rcon addip <minutes> <ipaddress>
rcon writeip

To ban permanently, use 0 minutes.

Example:
rcon addip 0 192.168.10.1
rcon writeip

IP banning does also automatically kick someone in this case. Now to make the IP ban remain permanent, make sure your autoexec.cfg file on your server has the following line at the end of it:

exec listip.cfg

Note: Some cheaters & hackers keep coming back after you ban them by changing their WONIDs and and by dialing in again with their 56k ISP where they get a new IP Address. Here's what you need to do to help permanently ban them, look for the similarities in their previous IP Addresses. For example, let's say that player, "skript kiddie", keeps joining your game with different WONIDs and IP Addresses, and let's say that the last 5 times he joined, his IP Addresses were:

65.80.77.24
65.80.77.56
65.80.76.12
65.80.76.236
65.80.76.112

Then instead of banning each and everyone of his IPs, just ban his ISP by banning both 65.80.76.* and banning 65.80.77.* like so:

rcon addip 0 65.80.76.0
rcon addip 0 65.80.77.0
rcon writeip

And that will ban everything that starts with 65.80.76 and 65.80.77.

Be careful when using this though, because if there are other innocent players that use that ISP, then you will be blocking them too. However, if that's the case then we recommend that you temp ban that ISP for 1-3 days (that's 1440 - 4320 minutes ;-).

Example:
rcon addip 4320 65.80.76.0
rcon addip 4320 65.80.77.0
rcon writeip

That should be enough to keep most annoying cheaters and hackers away as they will grow tired of trying to get around the ban and then just move on.

However, if a cheater/hacker won't let up even after that, then grab their IP Address and take it to a whois database and look up their ISP. Then contact their ISP's abuse department and provide them with the situation and they will likely cancel the hacker's account.

How do I check the ban list from in the server?
You can list banned players from your game console by listing either the WONID ban list or the IP Address ban list.

To list bans by WONID, use the "rcon listid" command:

rcon listid

To list bans by IP Address, use the "rcon listip" command:

rcon listip

How do I unban a player from the server?
You can unban players through your console but you first need to determine if they were banned by WONID or by their IP Address so that you can properly unban them.

Unban by WONID
To unban by WONID, use the console to do:

rcon removeid <WONID>
rcon writeid

Example:
rcon removeid 1828058
rcon writeid

Don't forget to do the "rcon writeid" command to save the changes else the unban will be lost when your server restarts.

Unban by IP Address
To unban by IP Address, do:

rcon removeip <ipaddress>
rcon writeip

Example:
rcon removeip 192.168.10.1
rcon writeip

How do I change the map on the server?
Using the map name with out the .bsp extension, do:

rcon changelevel <map>

Example:
rcon changelevel de_aztec

How do I execute a league config for a clan match?
Often these league configs will be called ogl.cfg, cal.cfg, or similar, and this section explains how to use the server version of them. The server version has no rcon keywords in the cfg file, that's how you can tell the difference from it and the client or local version.

First upload the league config via FTP to your game server's mod directory. For example, if you have a Counter-Strike server then upload your league config file to /homedir/hlds_l/cstrike/, or if you have a TFC server then upload your config to your /homedir/hlds_l/tfc/ directory.

Once uploaded then you can execute it by doing:

rcon exec <configfile>

Example:
rcon exec morat.cfg

And that's it. You're all set!

Here are 2 of the main ones we use Morat Enemy Down (server versions)

However, if you only have a local version of the config file, that is, a version that has rcon keywords written inside of the file for each command, then you shouldn't FTP it up to your server. Instead, you would copy the file into your local mod directory on your PC. For example, if you have Counter-Strike then your mod directory might be found at C:\Sierra\Counter-Strike\cstrike\. If so, then copy it there and issue the following command from within your game console:

exec <configfile>

Example:
exec morat.cfg

Here are 2 of the main ones we use Morat Enemy Down (local versions)

How do I turn on friendly fire?
When friendly fire is on, then shots from teammates can hit and kill one another.

To turn on friendly fire and enable team killing:

rcon mp_friendlyfire 1

To turn off friendly fire and disable team killing:

rcon mp_friendlyfire 0

This change is temporary and will remain until the server map is changed or until the server is restarted. If you want the change to be permanent, then change the mp_friendlyfire server variable in your server.cfg file.

How do I set the map time on the server?
If you want to change the map time of the current map, then use the "mp_timelimit" server variable.

Let's say your server has a default map time of 45 minutes and you are playing the map and the time is almost up but you would like the map to keep playing for another 15 minutes. Then you can add an additional 15 minutes to the map time on the fly be typing the following command:

rcon mp_timelimit 60

We've added 15 minutes to the map time (45 + 15).

Now, say you were playing that same map and you get tired of playing that map and wish it would just go to the next map in the mapcycle. You can then do:

rcon mp_timelimit 1

This will force the map to change right away because its map time has expired.

Now if you want to make the map stay on the current map forever (until a server restart), then do:

rcon mp_timelimit 0

This will disable the automatic map changing from happening and the current map will remain loaded until the server is restarted, or until you change maps, or modify the timelimit.

How do I change the entry password on the server?
If you want to change the server password to keep unwanted players out of your match or game, then use the "sv_password" server variable like so:

rcon sv_password <password>

Say you wanted to change your password to "money", then do:

rcon sv_password money

This change takes effect immediately and new players won't be able to get in unless they know the new password.

If you are renting a public server, then doing the above will temporarily lock your server. When you are done with your match or game, then you can unlock it by doing:

rcon sv_password ""

This will immediately make your server public again. Please check with your terms and conditions before you make your server public. If you are renting a private server, for instance, then you will risk being charged the price of a public server for making your server public.

These changes are temporary and will only remain until the server map is changed or until the server is restarted. If you want the change to remain permanent, then change the corresponding server variable in your server.cfg on your server.

How do I restart the game server?
If you want to restart the server, then use "rcon quit" like so:

rcon quit

After about 10 seconds your server will come back up. Though, typically, you should never need to run this command.

How do I change the rcon password on the server?
If you want to change the rcon password temporarily before giving it out to someone during a match (so that you don't have to give out the original rcon password), then do:

rcon rcon_password <newpass>

Say you wanted to change your temporary rcon password to "allaccess", then do:

rcon rcon_password allaccess

This change takes effect immediately and the old rcon password won't work again until a new map load or server restart. Keep in mind though that Punkbuster and Mediator won't work if you change the rcon password without updating their configs and restarting them.

How do I change the gravity on the server?
If you want to change the gravity, then do:

rcon sv_gravity <gravity>

Say you wanted to change your gravity to moon gravity then try:

rcon sv_gravity 80

To change back, use the value of 800.

These changes are temporary and will only remain until the server map is changed or until the server is restarted. If you want the change to remain permanent, then change the corresponding server variable in your server.cfg on your server.

What are some Counter-Strike specific commands?

rcon mp_c4timer <seconds>
Bomb timer, set it to between 15 - 90 seconds.

rcon mp_roundtime <minutes>
Sets maximum time for each round, set it to between 1 - 8 minutes.

rcon sv_restartround <seconds>
Resets the game in <seconds> seconds. The reset is good for matches when everybody is finally ready to start the match. The reset will reset frags, weapons, money, and scores.

rcon mp_limitteams <numplayers>
This variable allows you to keep the team sizes as even as possible. The number entered here is the maximum number of additional players one team can have. Setting it to 0 will not limit team sizes.

rcon mp_autoteambalance <1/0>
If '1', then force players to join teams that will be balanced.
Example: rcon mp_autoteambalance 1

rcon mp_freezetime <seconds>
The time at that beginning where you can't move but can only buy. Set to '0' to have no freeze time.
Example: rcon mp_freezetime 0

rcon mp_hostagepenalty <hostagekills>
Sets the number of hostages that a player can kill before they are kicked from the server. '0' turns it off.
Example: rcon mp_hostagepenalty 0

Remember these changes are temporary and will only remain until the server map is changed or until the server is restarted. If you want the change to remain permanent, then change the corresponding server variable in your server.cfg on your server.