Counter Strike 1.6 Dedicated Server Help Post - Complete HLDS Help

What is Counter Strike 1.6 Dedicated Server:
It is a application which can run the Counter Strike 1.6 engine in a Public or Private Server. The application can be installed without installing the game itself. The application will be included in the game while installing the game CS1.6. The Dedicated server is for the public and is intended for other players to join the game. Where as the Listen Server is one in which the player himself will start the game while the game is being played himself.

How to Host:
This Dedicated Server application can be launched by the executable hlds.exe, the one which is commented as HLDS launcher. This HLDS is the Half-Life Dedicated Server. Once the application is opened, it will show up a GUI. The GUI contains some options and tabs. The game which is intended to run on the server should be given in the options of the first Tab. It includes the following,

Game,
The Game is the Mod which the server should start. It includes CStrike, DOD, CZero, etc... These Mods are all the sub parts of the game Half-Life. CStrike stands for Counter Strike, either CS1.6, CS1.5 or Other versions.

Server Name,
Server Name is the name which should be shown while showing the server in the server browser of the other players GUI. The Server Name is to be specified clearly so that the other players can easily know what game is going on and what mod is being used in the game.

Map,
Map is the starting Map, the Default map can be changed to the required map by changing the map in InstallationFolder\Platform\Config\Server.VDF. This file will save the data previously given. So, to be specific, this is not the default file but it keeps on changing.

Network,
The Network is obviously LAN or Internet.

Max Players,
Max Players can be 32.

UDP Port,
The is the port defined universally for all the PCs. These ports from 27015 to 27020 and more are all dedicated to the Half-Life applications. If you want to setup another server in the same PC, then you need to give the port different to that of previous one. If some error is reported as shown below,

Could not allocate dedicated server IP Port 27015

This may be the case when you are trying to start a second Dedicated Server in the same PC or you may have previously started a Listen Server and Closed it, but that game is still running.

Rcon Password,
The rcon password which is used to control the server from another computer. If you think you will be administrating the server all the time this should be neglected. To know about rcon see the previous posts in this blog.

Once the Dedicated Server is started, you can see the Tabs on the top of GUI. The first Tab is Configure

Configure,
This Tab lets the Administrator change the Cvars of the game. The Cvars included are Round Limit, Win Limit, Buy Time, Freeze Time, Teams Limit, Time Per Round, Bomb Time, Starting Money, Friendly Fire, Flash Light, Foot Steps, Team Balance, Camara Angle,

Some more CVars can be added to these by changing the parameters in the GameServerConfig.VDF. This file allows the administrator to add any number of CVars to the GUI in the HLDS Applicated after launched.

The other Tabs include Statistics, Players, Bans, Console.

The Console can be operated from that tab. The condump command can be used to dump the console to any .txt file in the game DIR.