How to start a hub for a first time?

[LadyStardust]

Hub count is going down. If you know someone who would like to open a hub, help him! And help DC grow  

This is a topic that will help users start their first hub, so please show it to other people if they needed it.
Hubowners please feel free to comment anything that you think can be useful for freshly baked hubowner.

1. Hubsoft.
Direct Connect operates on hubsofts and clients. Here you can download hubsoft called FlexHub (latest version you will find here: http://www.flexhub.org/forum/index.php?action=downloads;cat=2 ). For Windows and Linux separately, Windows version you install same way as any other kind of popular software for Windows. You need to register in our forum to download, or you can get it here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/flexhubdc/

After you install FlexHub on your pc, first thing you need to do is to get friendly with Flexhub console. You can find it in installation folder that is called FlexHub, file name is: FlexHub.exe - double click it. Give your hub a name - put it in "Hubname" field. Make sure you forwarded ports for your hub, at least one port to make it work (if any doubts how to do it, check here: http://portforward.com/) and same ports put in "Regular port(s)" field (if there is more then one, should be seperated with comma). And now hit the button called "Start Hub" and voilà   Check your external IP and use it to connect to your hub (ie. your IP:port). Default port for hub to use is 411 but of course it is your own choice what ports you want to use.
Click "Update Settings" to save new settings.

For Linux installation tips look here http://flexhub.org/wiki/index.php?title=Linux_Installation

2. Hub address.
There are two ways you can run a hub, by using your IP (IP for machine where FlexHub is installed) or using a domain.
Address are used by users to connect to your hub. Your IP may change in some time, that is why it is advised to use a domain.
Register your domain with one of domain services, like no-ip.com or dyndns.com
Remember to assign server's IP to your new domain. And when using to connect to your hub, remember to add port that you forwarded for your hub, eg. test.flexhub.org:8000
Let people know you have a hub! Register your hub domain name with hublists. One of them is dchublist.com Your hub will show in hub list in clients, where people can use it to connect to your hub. How to add different hub list servers addresses for auto registration check topic here: http://www.flexhub.org/forum/index.php?topic=474.0

3. First login.
To make your first hub account:
- Go to FlexHub console. Click "Edit accounts"
- Choose profile Hubowner in "Profile" section
- Add your loginname and choose a SAFE password
- Click 'Save'
Go to your client to add new hub to your favorites. You can use your internal IP to login to your hub (eg. 127.0.0.1:411 or 192.168.56.1:411 etc) or your external IP (eg. 78.89.123.34:411) or domain you created. Add hub address, nickname and password that you just used for creating first account in console. Use it to login to your hub.
Type in main chat !help and !sethelp to check basic hub commands. Help for hub commands you can see in our Wiki page http://flexhub.org/wiki/index.php?title=Manual#Operation_Manual or download hubsoft manual from forum: http://www.flexhub.org/forum/index.php?topic=179.msg1392#msg1392

4. Basic hub settings.
Basic settings are already there to run your hub fairly safe. List of hub settings is available here: http://flexhub.org/wiki/index.php?title=Set_explained If you want to display them in your hub, type in main chat !set

If you wish to have private hub (only for people you invite) Type !set Rules in your hub window. There you can find a setting !set regonly. So to set up a hub only for users who are registered type: !set regonly true


To find out what else your hub can do... read Wiki, manual and our forum. Wish to ask a question? Don't hesitate to contact one of the dev team members. You can write here in forum or visit our support hub: adc://test.flexhub.org:8000 We are here to help you  

Welcome to DC hubowners society and enjoy your own hub!  

[Hamachi]

Nice guide LadyStardust