What?

Gamespy (now a defunct company) is shutting down their servers.

What does it mean?

Gamespy hosts the master list server for Battlefield 1942 (among other games). It is used when you press "Update" button in the in-game server browser. Unfortunately it's also contacted automatically when you enter Multiplay -> Internet and if the master server is not responding, you'll get a lengthy freeze until the request times out.
Currently there's no info from EA about doing anything about it for BF1942. Instead they've removed BF1942 from Origin downloads.

When?

Initial reports were stating the doom date being May 31th, current info from EA (http://www.ea.com/…/service-updates) talks about June 30th.

What can I do if I still want to play?

First of all, the good thing is that the servers you've marked as favorites will be still there. The annoying freeze on dead master server can be fixed by using a patched .exe
Also, you're not required to do anything yet but i suggest reading through the options to be prepared when gamespy master goes down to know your options and where to get the needed stuff.

Replacement master list server:

We have a replacement master list server with servers imported from the official one (last import: May 17, 3pm CET) + those that are already sending heartbeats to it.

Unfortunatly, redirecting your game to it requires an action on your side, the options being:

1. using modified .exe files

I've modified binaries to use master.b1942.sk instead of master.gamespy.com. These versions already contain other fixes like widescreen support, fix for freeze on dead master, etc. Please read included txt files.

CD version:
files/bf1942-v1.61-nocd-widescreen-gamespy-fix.zip

Origin version:
files/bf1942-v1.612-no-origin-widescreen-gamespy-fix.zip

(you may want to set compatibility mode to win xp xp3  or win 98 for the .exe, it usually helps with crashes if you're running newer Windows versions, see here)

2. changing IP of master.gamespy.com via hosts file

You can do this either automatically using our hosts patcher (files/bf1942_gamespy_patcher.exe) or manually by editing your hosts file.
The patcher should get the current replacement IP (by resolving master.bf1942.sk), check your hosts file and allow you to patch, unpatch or fix the ip if it was changed meanwhile.

You can also do this manually by editing your hosts file and adding line

109.71.69.254 master.gamespy.com

to it.

hosts file is located at c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Desktop shortcuts:

We have prepared a small installer that will install shotcuts that allow you to connect to aX by one doubleclick.
Download it here: files/bf1942-ax.exe

Third party server browsers:

There are many tools that can get you connected to servers, options include X-Fire, QTracker, Gameranger, PFC Toolbox, etc.
This section will be expanded soon.

Source url: External Link

Information for server owners (preliminary)

Replacement master server now supports dynamic server registration functionality. I currently don't suggest doing any changes to your production servers unless you want to help with testing (you can't have your server to report itself on both masters without non-trivial firewall rules).

Redirecting your server to report itself to the replacement server is similar to the client method, it's either done by editing hosts (see above, hosts file on linux systems is /etc/hosts) or by editing server binary and replacing master.gamespy.com with master.bf1942.sk with trailing zero byte (not recommended unless you know what you're doing). You need to restart server process for changes to take effect (no need to restart whole machine/vps).
Modified server binaries will be available soon.

Replacement master currently contains imported list from the official one (see the first post for last import time) + those servers that are sending heartbeats to it.
Imported entries won't expire for at least 1 month since the gamespy shutdown, giving enough time for transition.