# Dark and Light/About
## About Dark and Light

Dark and Light is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) that is currently in pre-release.
The developers have announced that the completed game will officially be available in April 2006.

### Settlers of Ganareth

Launched on December 12th, 2005, Settlers of Ganareth (SOG) is the current pre-release incarnation of the Dark and Light MMORPG. It is currently at build version 0.88.92, and is constantly being updated with new patches. The SOG Live web page shows all of the latest information that has been officially released about the game.

#### What's the latest news on SOG?

From NPCube, December 23rd, 7:20 PM EST:
Fresh news, everyone:
Massive network attacks on SoG
During the last few days, we faced violent network attacks on our servers, thus greatly decreasing the game stability. People with bad intentions found how to exploit some properties of the network protocol, and managed to shut the front servers down (the only cluster servers that are directly connected to the Internet) almost instantly when the cluster is restarted.
These malevolent and pointless actions prevent all players from accessing the free service at their disposal.
These attacks are being analyzed, and we are regularly testing and implementing a series of fixes. We are investigating everything from the network protocol to the game engine. Our goal is to offer you a stable cluster, allowing reasonable sessions of gameplay time. The DnL system teams, our developers and the Microforte team wish to solve this problem as soon as possible.
But these fixes require a major part of our team, and it is slowing down the game tuning process. In order to make these tests a priority, prevent more attacks, and to bring SoG back online as soon as possible, we have decided to shut the servers down until Thursday, December 29th.
We apologise for this temporary shutdown, but this decision will help us to defend better against future hackers who prevent our members from enjoying SoG.
NPCube.

#### How do I join SOG?

For the moment, you have to ask someone who already has an account. 18,881 accounts were endowed to the community, 8,881 to those who pre-ordered before the release of SoG, and the remaining 10,000 to anyone quick enough to claim one in the 80 seconds they lasted. However, Alchemic Dream (AD) has confirmed that there will be more free spots and pre-orders opening in the future, although these preorders won't have the same benefits as the pioneers. They have hinted that the next wave of free keys will begin in January, but we'll have wait to see.

#### How do I download the SOG client?

The following web page lists all steps necessary to get the latest full version of SOG: http://www.darkandlight.net/article.php3?id_article=1436

##### What are the technical connection points?

The TCP/IP ports that the SOG server use are as follows:
| 80 | patch server |
| 20013 | login server |
| 6666 | game server |

### Beta

AD has stated that right now, a closed beta is continuing in parallel with the current release of SOG. Members invited to the beta are still under a strict NDA, and cannot reveal any information about its content.