UnrealIRCd Forums

Hi everyone, it's been a long time since i've posted but i'm just now getting to the point where i'm ready to start installing unrealircd on one of my windows based machines (just to mess around and experiment some).

Before i get started , i have some real newbie questions that i need clarification on. This is really simple stuff but there's no explanation of the sorts in the download area for newbies so here i am asking!

When i go to the downloads area i see 3 files and a bunch of mirrors.

Which file do i want to download for a windows system? I'm assuming the first file (3.2.3) would be for non-windows based systems. Then there are two other files... (3.2.3 win32 and 3.2.3-SSL). Which of these do i want to download and install? I understand ssl is secure socket layer but i'm not sure if this is what i want and i'm no expert in the meaning of ssl anyways.

Maybe someone out there can pinpoint me in the right direction?

Also, what are the md5 checksums for? and the sha1 checksums for?

The SSL one should be downloaded if you intend to use SSL. If you don't plan on using SSL immediatly, then you can download the other one.

The MD5 and SHA checksums are there to verify the file you downloaded is indeed an official Unreal. This stops people from hosting versions of Unreal that have been altered and are not official releases.

SSL is generally used on networks to encrypt the traffic from one server to another, and if a user is a bit paranoid, to encrypt traffic to and from their connection to the server.

It is only really useful however if all endpoints are using SSL, for example, if I have two clients connected to the server, one using SSL and the other not, and they start a conversation- that conversation is still vulnerable when it gets sent to and from the unencrypted endpoint.

It is handy to stop sniffing of oper passwords, however.

I see. Thanks guys for the explanation.

I will start off with the regular version (win32) and when i'm familiar with that i'll toy around with the ssl version.