Quake 3 Server Setup Guide
Last updated 20 March, 2001 09:38 AM -0500
By William 'd0gmA' Gall

This guide will talk you through the setup of a Quake 3 server for LAN parties or Internet play.  I will include specific instructions to setup a Q3 Server on both Red Hat 6.2 and Windows NT 4.0.  I acknowledge the fact that Q3 will run on several other Linux distributions as well as BEOS but for simplicity sake will only cover RedHat 6.2 and NT. This document does not cover setting up Q3 Demo or Q3Test servers thought I may consider putting up demo instructions if requested.

This document is a work in progress and will be updated on a daily basis until it is robust enough to stand on its own.  If you have any questions feel free to ask them over at our Quake 3 admin forum.  If  you see any mistakes or know any info that should be added here please feel free to post a note under suggestions in the forum.

Heads UP

New Forums
Ok not being satisfied with the old forums I have upgraded to W-Agora which is another freeware forum package but this one looks quite a bit like UBB and has most of the functions I have been looking for.  You will notice that the latest threads links to the right are missing due to the new forums I am going to have to code some hooks into the new baord for the latest thread feature.  I hope eveyrone enjoys and uses the new forums.  You can now register also so you don't have to keep typing your info.

Server.cfg workaround
I had a brainstorm last night and have been testing it all day.  Because q3config.cfg gets executed on every map change it has been challenging to set cvars on servers and get them to stick.  The solution I have is simple.  For Team Arena servers make a blank q3config.cfg in your missionpack dir and then set it to readonly.  This allows it to be executed on every map change however Quake 3 can't write to it and reset any of your server.cfg cvars.  If anyone finds a problem with this please let me know as it has been working on my servers for the last 10 hours.

Problems
A lot of people have been writing about not being able to set their hostname or other variables and have them stick in 1.27g.  The problem is a bug in 1.27g where the q3config.cfg runs every time you change a map.  When it does it sets everything back to the settings that were saved the last time you ran the server, therefore discarding any changes made in your server.cfg.  To solve this I have been making my changes to server.cfg and then starting the server, after the server starts go to the console and exec server.cfg and then shutdown the server.  This will write out all your seta commands to the q3config.cfg so next time you start the server all your settings will stick.  However this means you have to seta everything or in the case of things like capturelimit you will have to set it from the console before you shutdown the server.  Hopefully this will be fixed quickly.

Christmas Updates
Took some time this morning to update several things including the command list and the Variables page to include the 1.27g info as well as the Team Arena stuff.  Merry Christmas. I also whipped up a page that has all the Team Arena mapshots and map roations listed on it for reference which should help people recognize the different maps.

More Linux madness
Ok thanks to TheRealTimbo over at the Quake 3 World Forums I now have my Linux server up and running TA stuff.  The problem was you need to add +set vm_game 1 to the command line to not use the dll's but instead use the qvm's. See ya there!!

Linux Binaries Are Here !!!!!
We now have the Linux binaries so lets get busy.  I will make some updates as soon as I get my server up and going and have a few matches of One Flag. UPDATE: Well I can get my server up and running fine however I haven't been able to connect to is as I get the couldn't register james/red bug.  If anyone knows a solution to this it would be nice to be able to test my server out.  I haven't had any problems getting on any other servers however everytime I get on one and check it out its a win32 server so I am not sure if its a linux patch problem or what.

Good News I received an email from Marty Stratton at id Software and if all goes well I should be able to start getting some answers for the questions I haven't been able to answer over the last year like the mystery cvars and dmflags and so forth.

Server Batch Files
id has released the server batch files that were accidentally left off of the TA CD.  You can download them here. Usage of the batch files it simply to type the batch filename then +exec and the maplist you want to use.

Hence for a 1 Flag CTF server running the Terrain maps (This rocks) you would simply type:

mp_1flag_server.bat +exec terrain_maps.cfg

On the other side of things I have been experiencing several z_malloc errors on mpterra2.  The other two maps run flawlessly and 1 flag Terrain play simply rocks.  If anyone has a fix for this let me know.

Last order is the Linux binaries.  Until the Linux binaries are released us Linux sysops will just have to wait but that will give us time to upload that 350 mb pak file to our server I guess :)

Team Arena Baby!!!!!!!!!
Ok its here and now you want to set up a Team Arena server. Problem is, id has failed to provide us once again with clear and concise info for setting up a server.  The dedicated server readme for TA states that they have included batch files for the 4 different game types as well as map rotation scripts for Large, small and terrain maps. Half correct the pack file for TA does contain the map rotation scripts but there are no batch files.  I have however updated the gametype section to reflect the new gametypes and I have added a small section to command line to get TA servers up and running.

I will also be working on adding in all the info from the Quake 3 1.27g point release patch into the various pages though if you do see something I may have missed please feel free to drop me a line as I want this document as complete as possible.  Got suggestions ?  Let me know bill@3dgw.com

Rocket Arena 3
Ok the first few problems for RA3 are starting to pop up. One big one is that you have to make sure you set +con hunkmegs 56 on the command line or your server will quit.  I have read on several forums that this is not true yet have not gotten either a Linux or Win32 server to cycle all the maps without it set to 56.

Problem #2:  Add g_dowarmup 0 to your server.cfg.  Other wise you will have these double countdowns going and when the match starts it will kick you right back out.

Problem #3:  I cannot for the life of me turn off individual weapons from the in game admin.  I am scanning through the dox right now and will post more on this one later.  I know its not a password problem as I can change maps fine.

Problem #4: The in game browsers pings Lie like hell.  My server returned a 600+ ping for me but when I got on the server my ping was a happy 99.  This is going to deter players from your server so let them all know the in game browser is not to be trusted.

The long awaited Rocket Arena 3 is finally out and available and I would post up my notes on setting up the server.  Linux folks should copy the ra310cl_linux.gz file into their quake 3 directory and then use tar-xzvf ra310cl_linux.gz to unzip it.  It will create the arena dir and all subdirs as it extracts the files.  Then all you need to do is unzip the ra310sv.zip into the arena dir and edit the config files.  If anyone has any tips or questions post over at the Q3A Forum and I will try to answer them all.

Mods
I have had several requests to add a section that included how to set up mods. It would be quite impossible for me to have a fully comprehensive mod guide that covered the entire install of mods but this should get you on the right track.

Banning Section
At a few users request I have added a section on IP Banning for obnoxious players.

Remote Console
Remote Console or Rcon is a way to allow you to do most server administration task while connected and playing on your server right from inside Quake 3 itself.  I have added this section due to quite a few requests from people sending me e-mail.

Point Release 1.16n
Just minutes after the release of the final Point release I mirrored all files and am now hard at work updating everything to include all the new stuff so keep an eye out. Here are some brief Linux install instructions I have also updated the Variables page also.

Zoid on Linux Autodownload
Zoid updated his .plan with the following on Linux Autodownload

Just a note to linux server operators who are putting custom maps on for autodownloading. The current Linux server binary doesn't check for the file in the basepath, but in the cdpath. That this means is downloads try to come from $HOME/.q3a/baseq3/ and will fail (the client ends up with a zero byte file). To fix this for now, you can force basepath like this on your server:

./q3ded +set fs_basepath `/bin/pwd` +exec blah.cfg

Where `/bin/pwd` will expand to the current directory you are running the server from. You can also explicitly state the path there if you wish.

This will make autodownloading work correctly on Linux servers. In a future version, we'll make sure that the server checks both base and cdpath.

Autodownload notes
I spent a while this morning playing with the autodownload.  On the Linux server you can put the maps in the $HOME/.q3a/baseq3/ dir and the server will run the maps fine so I am not sure where zoids note above really matters other than having your maps in a separate place.  The autodownload rate is based off your maxrate so over the lan it takes 10 minutes to grab a 2.5 meg file which is insane.  I wrote Robert Duffy to see if this was correct or if there was something I should be changing here.  This would make a 2.5 meg map a 20 minute download over a 33.6 modem which pretty much makes autodownload worthless except on very small maps.  Even when setting maxrate to 30000 it takes around 4 minutes.  Over a 100mb link that's still not very promising.

New Variable list
I just noticed that I hadn't put a link to my variable list I have been working on.  Here is a list of the useful variables for Quake 3 server.  Please feel free to e-mail me anything I might have missed and share the knowledge.

Forum Quick Links
I have added the quick links to news and the latest 5 forum posts to the right of the guide here so you don't miss any groovy things like the latest UT Patch release or a smoking hot thread on the forum that you just happen to know everything about or wanted to know more.

Point Release Beta Readme Info
Here are the changes that effect us server ops from the point release beta:

• Voting can change gametype if current map does not support current game type

• possible team uneven measures? (as in L-Fire CTF) Prevent team join, prevent capture, prevent flag pickup

• fixed bot_minplayers, kept loading bots during intermission because

• added g_needpass serverinfo so remote browsers can determine if a password is needed

• g_teamAutoJoin (default off), sets it so players automatically join a team on connect

• g_teamForceBalance (default off), forces it so that the spread between the number of players on a team is no more than two. Player will be disallowed to join a team with two or more players than the other.

• added callvote nextmap, and display available callvote commands if usage is incorrect

• added g_needpass serverinfo so remote browsers can determine if a password is needed

• added the ability to set g_password to "none" which means no password. This makes /rcon g_password none work

• Add g_doWarmup to allow warmup countdown timer on all game modes. This helps out in clan matches, since they can do a restart and get a fair countdown (as opposed to a random map_restart that is abruptive). This also gives people with slow load times a fair chance

• add g_doWarmup to callvote so people can vote in the warmup option

• Added IP banning. Similar to Quake2 method. Two new commands addip _mask_ and removeip _mask_. The ban list is saved in a cvar called g_banIPs. g_filterBan controls ban direction (default value of non-zero means everyone is allowed to connect, except thos

• If a callvote passes with "map _mapname_", the game will keep the value of nextmap the same. This allows a player call vote a map change without upsetting the map rotation

• com_hunkMegs now works properly, com_hunkMegs has a minimum value of 56 for standard gameplay and 1 for a dedicated server connecting to a pure server works properly, no more kickouts

More on bots
I have seen a whole lot of talk about the new Q3ASC release talking about the new Automatic bots it adds so I thought I would point out that you can do that with a regular config using bot_minplayers as you will see in the Server Bots section.  I would also like to say that Q3ASC is a great tool and if you want a nice easy way to configure and organize several configurations this program is for you.  Grab it over at the Q3ASC Homepage.

Setting Server Info such as admin e-mail
Many people have asked how they can set server info such as the admin name and admin e-mail so they will show up in gamespy like on quake 2 servers.

sets - Sets a server defined variable viewable from Gamespy such as admin E-Mail ect.

usage: sets <variable> <value>
example: sets Admin "William Gall"
example: sets "Admin E-Mail" "bill@3dgw.com"

New Command List
I have started a new command list which I will be working on today to try to get as many commands as possible explained.

Warning:
If you have a server and have the sv_pure set to 1 then all clients that have extra models such as the Dungeon Keeper 2 Horney Model will be kicked back to the menu upon every map change.  I suggest you set it to 0 unless you are running a clan match of some sort.

Server Bot Warning:
If you have bot_enable set to 1 on Windows dedicated servers the CD will be required to start the server.  This in mind you might want to add:

+set bot_enable 0

to the command line or at least

seta bot_enable 0

in your server.cfg

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Issues
This is a list of issues that collectively as a group we have discovered to be a problem/bug or simply haven't found a solution for yet.  If you know the solution to one of these issues then please let us know.  If you know of an issue you think should be here post a note on the forum.

1. Autodownload over a LAN uses modem speeds which are to slow for practical use.

2. q3config.cfg runs on every map change

 

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A. Linux Install
Download the latest Linux Dedicated binaries linuxq3apoint-1.17.x86.run (9.8 MB).

Step 2. Installation.
Create a directory for Quake 3 usually /usr/local/games/quake3 and copy or upload the pak0.pk3 pack file from your Windows CD to the baseq3 directory.

Then make the 1.17 update executable and then run it like so:

chmod +x linuxq3apoint-1.17.x86.run
./linuxq3apoint-1.17.x86.run

Follow the instructions in the installer and your server will be all ready to configure.

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Windows 9x/NT Install
For the windows installs everything you need is already on the CD.  You should be able to simply create a directory on your hard drive such as Quake3 and then copy the quake3.exe into it and then make a quake3\baseq3 dir and copy the pak0.pk3 file into it.  You can however do a normal install from the CD as well.

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The Server.cfg
The next step is setting up a server.cfg that will configure your server every time you start it.  Quake3 ships with several sample config files in the pak0.pk3 file.

Here is a list of the configs that ship with Quake3:

ctf.config - Basic Capture the Flag config.
ffa.config - Free For All config.
gamecyle.config - Map cycle for all Free For All Maps.
teamplay.config - Teamplay Server config.
tourney.config - Tournament Server config.

It is best to simply make your own that does exactly what you want it to do. Create a file in notepad or vi or whatever your favorite text editor is and name it server.cfg. Read below for an explanation of the server variables.

Here is a sample of my server.cfg for a ctf server.

My server.cfg:

// Server Config
g_gametype 4
seta sv_hostname "3DGW's Linux Quake 3 CTF"
seta sv_maxclients 16
capturelimit 8
timelimit 30
fraglimit 0
seta g_motd "Welcome to 3DGW's Quake 3 CTF Server"
seta g_quadfactor 3
sv_pure 0
sv_maxRate 10000
seta g_inactivity 0
seta rconpassword "secret"

g_allowvote 1

set d1 "map q3ctf1 ; set nextmap vstr d2"
set d2 "map q3ctf2 ; set nextmap vstr d3"
set d3 "map q3ctf3 ; set nextmap vstr d4"
set d4 "map q3ctf4 ; set nextmap vstr d1"
vstr d1

Server Variables
The following list are a sample of the basic variables that can be defined in your server.cfg. For a more complete list look at our Server Variable Page.

capturelimit [number] - The goal score of Capture the Flag before the winner is declared.

usage:
capturelimit 8

g_gametype [number] - Sets the gametype.

0. Free For All
1. Tournament 1 on 1
2. Single Player
3. Team Deathmatch
4. Capture the Flag
5. One Flag CTF
6. Overload
7. Harvester

g_motd [message] - Sets the Message of the Day

usage:
g_motd "Welcome to my really cool Q3A Server"

fraglimit [number] - Sets the number of frags that must be reached before the current level will end.

usage:
fraglimit 10

sv_hostname - Name of the server

usage: sv_hostname <Hostname>
seta sv_hostname "My Bad Ass Q3 Server"

sv_maxclients - Sets the maximum clients allowed on the server

Usage: sv_maxclients <number>
seta sv_maxclients 8

sv_pure [0/1] - This cvar if set on a server, will not permit the client to load files or pk3 files that do not exist on the server. This was done to eliminate "Media Hacking".

usage:
sv_pure 0

timelimit [minutes] - Sets the limit in minutes that the server will run a level before forcing a map change.

usage:
timelimit 15

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Map/GameType Rotation
One thing that server admins of Quake and Quake 2 servers had screamed for since nearly the end of time was map rotation.  Quake 3 provides this via the ability to create a variable that holds several commands.  Therefore we get a simple map rotation by defining a variable that holds the command to start a map and define what the next map is to be executed.  This is more powerful than you think though so with a little thought and creativity we should see some really cool mods based just off of map rotation.

Simple map rotation - this rotates between Q3DM1, Q3DM2, and Q3DM3 and then back to Q3DM1 to start the cycle over.

set d1 "map q3dm1 ; set nextmap vstr d2"
set d2 "map q3dm2 ; set nextmap vstr d3"
set d3 "map q3dm3 ; set nextmap vstr d1"
vstr d1

You can also define a number of other variables for each map inside the rotation script such as capturelimit, fraglimit, timelimit, ect.  This rotation runs Q3DM1 and then switches to Capture the Flag for Q3CTF2 and Q3CTF3 and then goes back to Q3DM1 Deathmatch for a ctf intermission of sorts.

set d1 "fraglimit 15 ; timelimit 10 ; g_gametype 0 ; map q3dm1 ; set nextmap vstr d2"
set d2 "fraglimit 150 ; timelimit 15 ; g_gametype 4 ; capturelimit 3 ; map q3ctf2 ; set nextmap vstr d3"
set d3 "fraglimit 150 ; timelimit 15 ; g_gametype 4 ; capturelimit 3 ; map q3ctf3 ; set nextmap vstr d1"
vstr d1

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Command Line
The final step is to simply create a shell script to start your server or a shortcut/batchfile if in windows.

com_hunkmegs [number] - allocates a certain amount of memory for map and item loading.  The default of 56 is required for the client but is overkill for a dedicated server, and thus wasting precious server memory.  For general use free for all, tournament maps, and team deathmatch, a com_hunkmegs setting of 16 is sufficient.  Using the included tournament maps only, a com_hunkmegs setting of 12 may be used to conserve more memory.  Capture The Flag requires a minimum com_hunkmegs setting of 26 with the included maps.

usage: 
quake3.exe +set dedicated 1 +set com_hunkmegs 16

NOTE: user made or future map releases may require a higher setting.  If you receive an ERROR: Hunk_Alloc failed then try increasing the com_hunkmegs setting in increments of 2 until the map successfully loads.

dedicated [number] - Tells Quake 3 to start in dedicated server mode and which mode to use

+set dedicated 1 - Launches a LAN server that will not report to the master server.
+set dedicated 2 - Launches the server for internet play and announces its presence to the master servers so it will show up in gamespy

net_ip [IP Address] - Sets which ip address for the Quake 3 server to bind to in case of multihomed servers.

usage:
quake3.exe +set dedicated 1 +set net_ip 192.168.0.0

net_port [port] - Sets which port for the server to listen on.  Useful for running multiple servers on the same machine.

usage:
quake3.exe +set dedicated 1 +set net_port 27961

Team Arena
To run team Arena you must remember to set the fs_game var so it knows what dir to look in for the TA pak file by adding the following to your command line:

+set fs_game missionpack

Starting the Server
Linux:
For linux users it is best to use screen to launch your quake 3 server so you can log out of the shell. If you use screen to start the server you can hti ctrl a then ctrl D and it will allow you to log out of the telnet session.  You can later re-claim the screen process by typing screen -r at the command prompt.

cd /usr/local/games/quake3
screen ./q3ded +set dedicated 2 +exec server.cfg

This should start your server running and execute the server.cfg and start the q3ctf1 map or whatever map you call at the end of the server.cfg.

Several people have pointed out that you can also use the command line:

./q3ded +set dedicated 2 +map q3dm1 > /dev/null 2>&1 &

This will make the server fork off and run as a daemon.  This will allow you to cron the command and make the server start automatically every time the server reboots.

 A third option is the use of a program called Q2GETTY which you can find out more about from the Q2GETTY Homepage.

Windows
In windows simply make a shortcut or a batch file that calls:

quake3.exe +set dedicated 2 +exec server.cfg

Note: If the Quake3.exe file is in a directory with long file names such as the default C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\Quake3.exe you must put Quotation marks around the path and file name and put the command line outside of the quotation marks like this:

"C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\Quake3.exe" +set dedicated 1 +exec server.cfg

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FAQ

1.  Every time the map changes it kicks some or all of the players back to the main menu.

This is because the players have extra models or mods installed and the sv_pure is set to 1 on the server.  sv_pure should only set to 1 if you want to make sure none of the clients have any extra modifications above what the server has.  Set sv_pure to 0 to resolve this.

2. Can I run a dedicated server without the CD?

Yes as long as you are running a dedicated server and bots aren't enabled on the server. Note Since 1.27g you can run bots without the CD now.

3. I want to set up a stats program but can't find where my log files are in Linux.

The log files are put in a hidden directory in the home directory of the user that the Quake 3 server is running as.

ex. if you created a user called "bob" to run the server the log file would be in /home/bob/.q3a/baseq3/games.log

4. I constantly see these Hitch warnings like "Hitch warning: 1748797 msec frame time" whats a hitch warning?

Here is an explanation snipped from the GameAdmin site:

Since the question "What does the 'Hitch warning: x msec frame time' message mean on a dedicated server?" keeps coming up here, I figured it needed a real answer. Quake 3 has a program loop that is constantly handling game "events". The loop gets an event, handles that event, gets an event, handles that event, etc. That loop has to execute at a fairly constant rate for the game play to be smooth. However, since that loop can be interrupted by other programs running on the computer, or can be delayed when the game does some time-consuming operation (like loading levels or bots from disk), there's code in that loop that adjusts for small amounts of time lost to those interruptions (call the interruptions "hitches"). Longer hitches cause glitches in game play (you've probably seen those where your connection to a server goes bad and everything starts jumping around).

When Quake 3 is running as a dedicated server, it warns you (via the console log) of hitches longer than 500 msec. You'll probably see hitch warnings as the game loads levels, loads bots, or other time consuming operations. The hitch warnings can be ignored as long as they are small amounts of time. However, large hitches will be noticed by the clients (with the extreme case being a temporary disconnection). (from SysError 119)

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Server Bots
Here you will find info on how to add bots to your dedicated server.  Note: on windows servers the cd is required to have bots running on it.  Weather or not this is a bug or a feature is yet to be known but the linux server does NOT require the CD to have bots run on it.

1. Set the server to allow bots by setting bot_enable to 1 in your server.cfg

bot_enable 1

2. add a bot.  If done in the server.cfg you should put this line after a map has been started.  The command is

addbot <name> [skill] [team] [delay]

usage:
addbot orbb 4 blue 20

from the remot console you would simply pull down the console with the ~ key and then type your rconpassword.  NOTE: make sure you put the / before rconpassword or you will essentially send everyone on the server your servers rconpassword.

/rconpassword secret
/rcon addbot <name> [skill] [team] [delay]

Note: you don't have to type in your /rconpassword every time.

3. To get rid of bots simply kick them.  Thanks to Gulf for pointing this out.

Auto Bots
You can also set up Auto bots like Unreal Tournament where the bots fill a minimum number of players.

bot_minplayers [number] - Sets the number of minimum slots that will be filled by bots.

usage: bot_minplayers <number>
example: bot_minplayers 4

Note: I believe that this is per team. so for team games such as ctf setting this to 4 would put 4 bots on each team on an empty server.

Note: If the server is password protected by setting g_password bots are unable to join the game.  If you want to run a private server with bots you might want to either use sv_privateClients and sv_privatePassword.

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Stats Pages
Many programs are available for keeping player stats on your servers. Here are the player stats of my server. I am not going to do a section on how to install and setup theses as each of these stats programs should have adequate instructions on their pages.  If you have or know of a stats program that I don't have listed here please drop me an e-mail with a link on where I can get more info and I will add it here. bill@3dgw.com

Fragstats

Quake 3 Player Log - This seems to be down now.

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Server Tools
Here are links to some really great server utilities that you might want to try to make administration of your Quake 3 server easier by doing most of the work for you. If you have or know of a program that should be listed here please let me know.  bill@3dgw.com

Serverarena

Quake 3 Server Wizard: This is a nice utility that will allow you to configure your server from a friendly interface. It allows setting up map rotations and bots as well.

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Linux Point Release Install
The linux point release beta is a self extracting zip so simply type:

./linuxq3apoint-1.17.x86.run

You may have to chmod +x it as well so it will be executable.  After running the self extracting zip it will talk you right through the install.  It will ask for the path to your quake 3 dir as well as the binary path. I used /usr/local/games/quake3 for both.

The last thing to note is you will want to change your shell script that you use to start q3 to use q3ded to start it as opposed to the linuxq3ded that you used on the command line for the 1.11 release.

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IP Banning
The point release adds the feature to ban certain ip addresses so you can ban certain ip addresses from playing on your server for whatever reasons.  I would like to first remind you that most players will have dynamic ip addresses meaning that each time they log into their isp they will have a different ip address.  This means that if your server is good playing grounds for a certain ip by banning one obnoxious users you may be banning their whole isp and all their users.  Just keep that in mind.

Setting up IP Banning is almost exactly like Quake 2 and QuakeWorld.  First you need to set the g_filterban to 1 in your server.cfg

g_filterban 1

then to add an ip address you simply need to use the addip command like so:

addip 192.168.0.4

Note you can also ban a whole class c network by simply leaving off the last octet such as:

addip 192.168.0.

This would in effect ban everyone that was on the 192.168.0.X Network.

If you want to remove an ip from the banlist you can simply issue the removeip command like so:

removeip 192.168.0.4

You can also use the g_banips command to show which ip addresses are currently banned.

g_banips
"g_banIPs" is:"192.168.0.4 ^7" default:"192.168.0.4 ^7"

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Remote Console
Rcon allows you to remotely control most of your servers features from the console in quake 3 without all the hassles of getting out of the game and telneting into your server.

The first step is you need to set a rconpassword on the server.  In your server.cfg you need to have a line that sets the password such as:

seta rconpassword "secret"

This sets your rconpassword to oddly enough, secret.

Now in order to use the remote console you will need to log onto your Quake 3 server and then bring down the console by hitting the ~ key and type:

\rconpassword secret

Be sure you have the backslash "\" before the rconpassword secret or you will essentially tell everyone on the server what the rconpassword is and I can almost guarantee half of them will start playing with rcon and quit playing Quake :)

This really should have been fixed so that if anyone typed rcon anything it wouldn't get broadcast to the server to protect against this very easy and very simple mistake.  You can also set the rconpassword in your local script which is the way I prefer.  Simply create an autoexec.cfg in your baseq3 directory of your client machine (not the server) and put the same line you used to set the password on your server:

seta rconpassword "secret"

This will allow you to issue rcon passwords on YOUR server without ever having to issue the rconpassword command leaving yourself open to forget the \ therefore giving out your server password.

Using RCON
Now that your server and client are all setup to use RCON you can simply type \rcon and almost all of the server commands available to you.

\rcon vstr d2 - change to second map in my rotation

\rcon addip 192.168.0.4 - ban user from 192.168.0.4

\rcon g_banips - show the ban list

\rcon status - show list of users on the server along with their client number and ip address

\rcon kick 3 - kick client number 3

As you can see most commands can be used from rcon. Just make sure for your own protection that you don't send your rcon password out to everyone on the server or you might get yourself kicked and banned :)

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Mods
Most folks are not going to be content with running a regular Deathmatch Quake 3 server or CTF and are going to want to run mods such as Rocket Arena, Headhunters, Jailbreak, etc.  This section will give you the basics on installing and setting up mods on your server.  I would urge you to read over the documentation for each mod that you are going to install and FOLLOW their directions.  This is just provided as an illustration.

Directories
Mods will require their own subdirectory under the Quake3 dir so typically you will want to unzip the mod to this location.  Voosh for instance unzips to the Quake III Arena directory, NOTE that you must ensure that the option to restore paths be used so that files in the Voosh distribution be placed in the correct place.  Doing this for Voosh will put the files in the Quake III Aren\Voosh directory and will stick the Virtual machine file in the Quake III Arena\Voosh\vm directory.

Command Line
Next you are going to have to change the command line that you start your server with.  You must set the fs_game variable at the command line and not in your server.cfg.  With this in mind you would simply change the command line so that it looked something like this:

"C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\quake3.exe" +set dedicated 1 +set fs_game Voosh +set com_hunkmegs 16 +exec server.cfg

The same thing would apply to linux which would make your command line:

screen ./q3ded +set dedicated 2 +set fs_game Voosh +set logfile 1 +set com_hunkmegs 16 +exec server.cfg

The Config
Most mods will come with their own config file that you can edit to config the mod to your liking and your server.  Others will simply require you make their own and allow you to include several mod specific commands and variable in them. What you need in the way of config files really depends on the mod you are running so you should refer to the mods documentation for specific instructions.

Voosh for instance has two configs that run on every map change.  To install Voosh you will want to make sure the settings in the Voosh.cfg and the instagib.cfg(if set to instagib) are configured the way you want them.  Then you simply need to create a server.cfg that has the base configuration stuff such as Hostname, Message of the Day, Fraglimit, Timelimit, etc.  You must also set up your map rotation here as well.

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