TWGS Installation for Windows Server 2016 Core

twgs_installation.md

Prerequisites:

• Windows Server 2016 Installation Media
• A copy of oledlg.dll from a Windows Server 2016 installed with Desktop Experience
  • Install with Desktop and grab the file or extract it from the install media
• A copy of TWGS 2002
  • Unless you want to enable file sharing or some kind of file transfer service you'll need to make a ISO image with the TWGS installer on it in order to have it available
• Basic knowledge of windows command shell and windows powershell

Installation:

• Install, setup, activate Windows Server 2016 Standard (Without Desktop Experience)

  1. Install Windows Server 2016 Standard
  2. Install NetKVM drivers for network interface
  3. Configure network interface
  4. Activate Windows Server 2016
  5. Create user account with admin rights
  6. Disable built-in administrator account

• Install TWGS

  1. Copy oledlg.dll from a Windows Server 2016 server with Desktop Experience to C:\Windows\SysWOW64\

  2. Install TWGS using the TWGS220B.EXE executable

  3. Configure windows firewall to allow TWGS traffic inbound

     • Two ways to do this,

       1. Whitelisting the application itself (allows you to change the game and admin ports at will without any other work)

          netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="TWGS" program="C:\Program Files (x86)\EIS\TWGS\TWGS.EXE" action=allow dir=in enable=yes profile=any

       2. Whitelisting the ports (provides finer control over the ports, but if you change the port in TWGS, you have to update the firewall rules)

          netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="TWGS Game Port" localport=2002 protocol=TCP action=allow dir=in enable=yes profile=any

  4. Launch TWGS and verify server connectivity

     • Highly recommend changing the game port from 23 to 2002 or some other port
       • Within 30s of starting the game server with port 23, I had scanners hitting the server looking for an exploit
     • Also, if you expose 2003 to the internet via the firewall, I recommend setting the allowed IPs for the Admin interface in TWGS or locking down the firewall rules to permit 2003 from trusted sources

  5. Configure TWGS to your liking

  6. Set TWGS to start as a service

     • You can verify that TWGS is set to start at boot by running the following PowerShell command, it should show StartMode as Auto and State as Running

       Get-wmiobject win32_service | where Name -eq TWGS

  7. Connect to the Admin Console via telnet and enjoy!