Well, I understand that, so did I! Just Sayin!!!
There are lots of outdated Windows server guides on the forums, my favorite is:
http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/showthread.php?t=32980 - posted by Huppy. It is good and it was accurate at the time of the posting but there are some things to be aware of. Some of these are in the guide but often overlooked and some are not in the guide. Just Sayin!
Compiling source - Be careful to not use source that is more recent than the latest peqdb revision and vice versa or they won't work together. Just Sayin!
Compiling - There are 6 projects in the solution now, but don't let that worry you. Just Sayin!
Xampp 1.7.3 comes with Perl 5.10 which you can't really find anywhere else. You can also use active perl 5.12 with VS 2008 or Active Perl 5.14 with VS 2010 when compiling. My preference is the Perl 5.12 Just Sayin!
Whichever version of Perl you go with , you need to do the PPM INSTALL DBI and PPM Install IO-stringy, as in the guide. and RESTART your PC! Just Sayin!
If you use active perl 5.12 to a find/replace on the solution to find perl510.lib and replace with perl512.lib. There were 2 occurances of this last time I compiled, Just Sayin!
Use the Zlib file that is included with the source not the one linked in the guide to sourceforge, Just Sayin!
Be sure to get the eqtime.cfg from the peqdb svn and put in the server folder. Just Sayin!
Make sure when you compile you have the VC++ directories linked correctly as in below, Just Sayin!
INCLUDE:
C:\mysql\include
C:\perl\lib\CORE
C:\zlib\include
LIBRARY:
C:\mysql\lib\opt
C:\perl\lib\CORE
C:\zlib\lib
Also when you get the zlib files from the source and put them at c:\zlib, copy one file called ZLIB1.dll to your c:\windows\system32 folder, then reboot. Just Sayin!
Back up your Mysql after it is sourced with the latest revision, load_players.sql, load_bots.sql (if you use bots), and the updates sql files. Just Sayin!
In a command window, simply type the following:
mysqldump -uroot -proot peq > c:\backup\peq_backup.sql
(I add the date after the word backup in the file name for my reference) Do it often. Just Sayin
Then if you ever have to re-install everything, you can easily source your whole database
back in by typing the following: (make sure your in that same backup folder)
mysql -uroot -ppassword
use peq
source peq_backup.sql
***Note** After re-installing, make sure you created the peq database name again with your sql front end like Heidi SQL (free) or Navicat for mysql (not free - Just Sayin).
Dont forget to fowarward your ports if you are going to have a public server and use the ip in your windows host file. Mine was located at c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.ics - Just Sayin!
Oh, here's a helpful tip ... download and use notepad++ to edit any of your config or ini files, etc. Also any .pl files when making quests. Basically anything you can edit, use notepadd++ to make it easier. Its free, just sayin!
These are some of the most common mistakes (above) JUST SAYIN!
If you avoid making those, you will save yourself a lot of headaches! Just Sayin
I am posting this for my own reference but maybe it will help someone else who is possibly frustrated beyond belief! Just Sayin!
Oh, if you didn't know, there are pre-compiled binaries in the google code you can down load and use. AT the time of this post they were compiled using perl 5.12 so you will need that version on your PC at c:\perl in order to use the binaries. You still need to follow the guide for maps, quests, plugins (inside quest folder when you get it via SVN) and all the other files from the source and eqtime.cf from the peqdb svn.
JUST SAYIN!
So you wanna build your own windows server?
Linear Mode
