README for mcclient source code

1. What is mcclient?
====================

mcclient performs decompression of the mud client compression protocol
(currently only in use on Abandoned Reality, http://www.abandoned.org). This
protocol allows the mud to compress all data it sends to you. This
reduces the bandwidth used by the mud (and bandwidth costs money). It
also tends to speed up your mud connection somewhat - less data is
sent, so packet loss is less likely, and large output can actually get
there faster.

It works by accepting connections on YOUR machine, and redirecting them
to the mud. The connection to the mud is compressed, but the local
connection is not - so you can use whatever client you normally use
without any modifications being needed.

mcclient is free software - see the file COPYING, and comments at the
top of each source file.

2. Compiling
============

The mcclient source compiles under Linux, producing both linux and windows
binaries. To build a linux binary, "make linux" (the binary is linux/mcclient).
To build a windows binary, you will need a mingw32 cross-compiling gcc
installed, plus appropriate win32 headers, the winsock32 library, and a
crosscompiled version of zlib. Assuming you have all of these, adjust the
makefile details and "make win" (binary is in win/mcclient.exe).

3. General configuration
========================

mcclient reads the file "mcclient.cfg" to determine what redirections
to do. The file contains documentation, but in summary:

- Blank lines or lines beginning with # are ignored
- Other lines contain 3 words separated by spaces: local port number,
remote host name, remote port number.

For example, AR's config line is:

4444 abandoned.org 4444

which means to redirect connections to the local port 4444, to
abandoned.org:4444.


4. Other notes
==============

Typical compression levels I've seen are about 65% (3:1 compression
ratio).

mcl 0.42.05 and later support the protocol directly - there's no need to
run mcclient. See the webpages for more information.

See http://www.abandoned.org/nemon/compress/ for details on 
precompiled binaries, protocol documentation, etc.

- Oliver Jowett <icecube@ihug.co.nz>, 98/12/03

5. Version history
==================

1998/12/03: 0.2; initial (?) release
2000/05/28: 0.3; documentation URL updates; only bind to localhost; last
                 update time bugfix