Ventrilo: Gamers' Best Friends.

The idea for this tutorial actually came from the reason im coming back to trap17.
I was working on a .NET application that converts a ventrilo's rcon (remote console)
logs into a useable database for information sharing. Which is particularly useful
for people who are working for big ventrilo servers. I, myself, am the user-end
technical manager for a large gaming clan's 100 slot vent. When I found myself going
to other friend's ventrilo to help them out, often they didn't even know about some
of the very useful tools built into ventrilo to provide a more designed environment.

Some of the tools, such as command targets, are simpler to use. While other, including
rcon, advanced ip bans, and user rank points, take more to understand. This tutorial
will be written in a way for people who are already somewhat familiar with ventrilo,
so if it's your first time using it, don't expect to have full control in the first day.
Also, since I'm going to write about the features in a way to easily find information
on what you want, ill separate everything out as neatly as I can (I wish I could say
the same about my house >.>).

Channels ***
Channels in ventrilo are very easy to use, take seconds to set up, but with most of the
settings being pre-selected, people rarely take a look at what some of the more advanced
features are. Well start with channel types, there are three channel types inside
ventrilo. Normal, Authentication, and Passworded. Normal allows anyone to come and go
as they like, without restriction. Authentication requires each specific user account
in the user editor to be allowed to access the channel. Authentication is not included
in the preset file in a user account, so if you use the preset, your still going to have
to check off any authentication you want affiliated with the user. Passworded is the
last type, with passworded, as soon as somone enters the password for the channel, they
have access to it until the room is deleted, or the password is changed. They do not
have to re-enter the password each time they want to join the room however.

Another usually unused feature for channels is the transmit level. Each rank inside
ventrilo is able to be assigned a rank point. These rank points are used for only one
thing inside ventrilo, and thats transmit rights. Every time you create a channel,
there is a box in the bottom right that you can select, and input a rank point. If
you enable broadcast ranks, only people who have a rank with a point higher than the
number in the channel may talk. The users can still hear, and move into the channel
but their ability to broadcast user-to-channel will be disabled.

One of the *LEAST* used features for channels that I see is Channel Admin. Most people
think that the only way to let somone control vent is to give them full admin, not
true. In ventrilo's user editor, you can go into a user's editor then select the
channel admin tab. You can select any channel or sub-channel for the user to be an
admin. An channel admin can edit the channel in any way, just as an admin could.
They are limited to that channel, and any of it's sub-channels however. A channel
admin can: Create a sub-channel, edit his/her channel and its sub-channels, delete
his/her channel and its sub-channels, mute users in the channels, kick users from
the channels, ban the user from the channels. There is one bug with banning users from
channels however. When you ban a user from a channel, even if its a subchannel, and
the user does not have admin over the main channel, the ban is added to that channel
and all channels higher and lower in rank from it.

The last channel feature I'll go over is the voice mode. This isn't an especially
useful feature, but if you're ever in the case that you have too many people trying
to talk, this can be kind of helpful. In the channel editor, there are three radio
boxes you can select. Normal allows everyone to transmit just as you would in the
server lobby. Qeued mode sets the channel so users can only transmit one at a time,
once somone lets go of their hotkey, whoever starts transmitting next will be the
only one able to transmit until they stop, unless they are muted. The last mode is
muted, this instantly mutes every user in the room. A channel admin can then
individually un-mute and re-mute any user in the room. This is good if you want to
have a meeting and make sure only a select few people can talk, until you open it
back up to normal mode.

Targets ***
There are two types of targets in ventrilo, command targets and voice targets.
But what are targets? The target system is like a big version of the private message
system. It allows you to push to talk to a specific group of users (voice targets)
or do a mass message that arrives in a similar form to private messages (command
targets). How do you use the target system though? Well, to start off you need to
access the user editor. Inside the user editor there are two buttons in the bottom
right, that say voice targets and command targets. Both of them are so similar
all I really need to do is describe one of them. Inside the command targets, at the
top it gives you a list of groups, second line is the owner of the group (just for
informational purposes), then there are two list boxes. The right-hand list is
a list of all the users in your user-database. The left-hand side is the users you've
added to the group. Also inside the left hand list, it will show whether the user
has transmit rights. Just click on the user(s) you want to add on the right hand
list, click add, and *boom* you're done. Well, not quite, by default every user you
add cannot transmit, any user you want to be able to transmit to the rest of the
group you need to double-click. You will see the word transmit next to their name if
it worked. Now just click send to save the group, and now you can go back to ventrilo
right click anywhere, click misc then hit command targets. You will see the group
in the left hand list (that is if you added yourself to it), and then you can type in
the right side. By default, every user's command target window is set to automaticly
open as soon as a message is received, so as soon as you send the message, every
user in the group will have a box looking exactly like what you just opened and will
be able to read it. But unless you allowed them to transmit, they cant talk back.
The voice system is almost exactly the same, except you only need a window the trans-
mitting side not the recieving side.

User Editor ***
Im going to start off the part about the User Editor with something that will save
you LOTS and *LOTS* and **LOTS** of time! Whenever you create someones account, you
go through giving them a password, rank, adding their rights, display privalges,
and area settings. All those checkboxes and finding the right default channel takes
quite a bit of clicking. But theres a simpler way! In the top right of the user
editor there is a combo box, and two buttons. This is the vuep (Ventrilo User
Environment Profiles) manager. You can load or save profiles through here. Each
user on ventrilo creates and maintains their own set of vuep files. So it isn't
stored on the server for other people who use the user editor. If you want to give
somone else a vuep file, that means your going to have to use some other form of
communication to give them the actual vuep file stored on your computer. But how
it works, is either create a new user, and set up all its right (not including
password, rank, or name, that information is NOT INCLUDED in the vuep file.), or
just go to one of the people you've already created, that you know their rights
are what you want to copy, then hit the save button in the top right. Now when you
reload the user editor, the vuep profile will be available in the dropdown box.
Just choose the username you want to create, type in a password (if you use them)
and choose a rank, then select the vuep profile from the dropdown box, and click
load. Add the user and your done. That was... only 3 click instead of 40?

Rcon (Remote Console) ***
This has to be my favorite admin control for ventrilo. Probably because its the
most powerful, but maybe because its a console and I love typing commands ^.^
(Outdated but egotistical I know.) RCon (Remote Console) is acessible from the
admin menu. I won't go over all the commands because most of them aren't very
useful and you can find them anywhere on google, so it wouldn't add anything
of importance to my tutorial unlike the other things I've listed. The first
command ill go over is called 'loggrep' (no 's of course) It works like this:
loggrep 100 (number of lines to return to the user) something to search for here

loggrep 20 iXeta

That last line will return the last 20 lines logged that contain the word iXeta.
But note, if my username is iXeta and you search for IXETA or IxEtA you won't
get any lines returned. Thats because the log is cAsE sEnSiTiVe. That and you
can search for more words like:

loggrep 20 20081015 12:20:13 LOGON:

So everything including 20081015 12:20:13 LOGON: will be searched for, but they
all have to be together in the log. So as an example, it won't search for a line
containing each separate word, but all of them together exactly like I asked for.
But anyways, if you understand that, everything of importance is recorded by
the log system. Admin changes, logon and disconnects (including how long the user
was online) attempts at using the Admin Menu 'Login...' password, and more.

While im on the topic of the loggrep command, I might go over something useful
for you people who are having your server attacked by somone using VEX or
ventriloFP. Contrary to popular belief there is a way to add a netban on ventrilo
Start by getting their IP from the loggrep command that I showed above. Just type
their name in like this loggrep 100 haihaxedu, or if their using rapid connection
(most do) just type loggrep 100 LOGON: and that will return the most recent logins
from the bottom up just copy the IP (the 4 sets of octets [1-255]). Now go into
the ban list through the admin menu. Add in the IP then add a reason and click ban.
Now if they disconnect, they can't come back in, but if their still in your server
you will have to kick them, the system doesn't automaticly do it when you ban
through the ban list. Now ill step into netbans. Netbans are when you ban based
upon one or more of the octets. Say the person is connecting from the IP of
123.345.567.789 and now lets say you ban them, but they come back, why? Well
whats probably happening is their using a proxy or changing their IP of their
router or modem (which in fact, if your using it to harass somone, is illegal
and you can report them to their ISP and I can almost guarantee they will be shut
off). But how do you stop them? If their using a proxy, it may not be possible
because with proxies, they are located all over the world and can use so many
different geo ips, and banning every one that the hacker uses could eliminate some
of your legitimate members. But if their just changing say the second, third,
or fourth octet (345, 567, or 789) you can easily ban them. How you'd do this
is copy the IP into the ban list just the same, but replace the octets your
banning with one 0. So it would be like this 123.0.0.0, or 123.345.0.0, or
123.345.567.0, and then you should notice there is a dropdown box in the ban
list that has a number 255.255.255.255 that number should have the same 0s
as the IP you entered, so if you entered the IP 123.0.0.0 you should select
the mask 255.0.0.0, and if you entered 123.345 the mask should be 255.255.0.0
and so on. Just type in a reason, and ban. Now if they change their IP to anything
inside that mask they won't be able to connect. But do a check and make sure
you didn't ban any of your legitimate members by netbanning, but thats
a little much to explain, you can figure it out on your own.

But thats enough for today! If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I
try to make sure I know how everything works with ventrilo (at least user-
side adminwise that is)

- Need2Dominate GEN [Vent-Tech] iXeta

Hey, i know you posted this a long time ago, but hopefully ill get an answer somehow =)

I was wondering if there was anyway to log the User Editor changes that occur, because thats pretty important sometimes. I dont think there is, however if anyone knows that there is I'd appreciate it =D