Allow only ConnectUO

[silverwolfe]

I would like to see a way to limit connections to only use Razor or ConnectUO or both, excluding other methods of connecting to help cut down on cheating in the future....

[DeRuijter]

And UOG, or not?

[silverwolfe]

My point was the ability to limit how people could connect to a shard....

[Arek]

The best way to deal with the cheaters is probably going to be to require the client to use encryption. My understanding of the situation is that both UOG and Razor support this, but that Injection doesn't. Even if Injection does support encryption, I'm pretty sure it doesn't support 5.x clients, so requiring a 5.x client (and 5.x-level encryption) would be your best bet here.

Please note that this will not stop people from being able to use programs such as UO Macro or Easy UO, which do not mess with the UO data stream (for the most part), nor will it stop them from manually connecting to your shard if they choose to do so. There really isn't any way to do that. Also note that this may prevent people from using PlayUO (Krrios' client) and/or Ultima Iris (the only useable cross-platform client available [bar using the official UO + wine], afaik) on your server as well.

--Arek

[Phantom]

Originally Posted by silverwolfe

I would like to see a way to limit connections to only use Razor or ConnectUO or both, excluding other methods of connecting to help cut down on cheating in the future....

My point was the ability to limit how people could connect to a shard....

Its not possible to prevent people from using UO Gateway, if thats what you want.

Like Arek said its not really possible to prevent people from using tools that do not modify the client itself. Since most of the current programs do not do this, thus its hard to prevent it.

I forget if Zippy plans on providing a way, or has provided a way, to prevent the use of Razor.

You will have to remember ConnectUO will in the simple explaination, remove the encryption from the client. This is done for alot of reasons, mainly its a pain to update the encryption code if it was there, every client change.

Any client that can remove the encryption can connect to a RunUO shard. Its just that simple, as long as they do it right ( I suppose I should add that clause ).

[Beyonder]

Originally Posted by Arek

The best way to deal with the cheaters is probably going to be to require the client to use encryption. My understanding of the situation is that both UOG and Razor support this, but that Injection doesn't. Even if Injection does support encryption, I'm pretty sure it doesn't support 5.x clients, so requiring a 5.x client (and 5.x-level encryption) would be your best bet here.

Please note that this will not stop people from being able to use programs such as UO Macro or Easy UO, which do not mess with the UO data stream (for the most part), nor will it stop them from manually connecting to your shard if they choose to do so. There really isn't any way to do that. Also note that this may prevent people from using PlayUO (Krrios' client) and/or Ultima Iris (the only useable cross-platform client available [bar using the official UO + wine], afaik) on your server as well.

--Arek

Injection supports any encryption you want it to support (you can add it to config file).
And nothing but everything can be blocked from the client side.

[Raynew43]

Originally Posted by silverwolfe

I would like to see a way to limit connections to only use Razor or ConnectUO or both, excluding other methods of connecting to help cut down on cheating in the future....

I don't see this happening as it would force players away from UOG and Ryan has stated elswhere that he and Mr Fixit are good friends.

[Malaperth]

In my experience, adding built in limitations to software that is intended to be a community project usually hurts the project.

Having said that, what you suggest may be a worthy project for someone to create and release within the community.

In my not so humble opinion, if this were done by the RunUO team, it would not look good for the 'community' spirit since some may take it personally should their software be intentionally or unintentionally rejected by the RunUO team.

I am sure they are concerned with cheating and security, and would and will add as much generic support as they are able for that, but I believe that any specific types of protection in that area would be outside of what the dev teams priorities should be.

[Ryan]

This is a planned feature.

[silverwolfe]

Originally Posted by Ryan

This is a planned feature.

YES! Ryan you are the master!

[brodock]

the "theory" is kind easy...

a simple lame way is:
if people connect with connectuo, connectuo will send a packet at every X seconds to the shard to say, hey, he is using connectuo instead of other crappy...

but it's also easy to reproduce...

a better bot no saffer way is to create a new encriptation routine or keys to specific shards... so the communication cannot be easy emulated.

also another way should try to develop a better "autentication" method to connect uo say it's connectuo and not other crappy (not sure how but i think it can fail too).

[Phantom]

Originally Posted by brodock

the "theory" is kind easy...

a simple lame way is:
if people connect with connectuo, connectuo will send a packet at every X seconds to the shard to say, hey, he is using connectuo instead of other crappy...

but it's also easy to reproduce...

a better bot no saffer way is to create a new encriptation routine or keys to specific shards... so the communication cannot be easy emulated.

also another way should try to develop a better "autentication" method to connect uo say it's connectuo and not other crappy (not sure how but i think it can fail too).

I hope your not talking about UO Gateway...

[PappaSmurf]

Originally Posted by Malaperth

In my experience, adding built in limitations to software that is intended to be a community project usually hurts the project.

Having said that, what you suggest may be a worthy project for someone to create and release within the community.

In my not so humble opinion, if this were done by the RunUO team, it would not look good for the 'community' spirit since some may take it personally should their software be intentionally or unintentionally rejected by the RunUO team.

I am sure they are concerned with cheating and security, and would and will add as much generic support as they are able for that, but I believe that any specific types of protection in that area would be outside of what the dev teams priorities should be.

While it may or maynot be a priority with the Dev team I can not help but agree with the orginal post requesting some type of limiting factor. If I want to run a shard that dosen't allow Razor...well then it would be nice to have a feature built into the RunUO server that would limit players so they cannot connect via Razor or "if" a future version of Razor permits it have it send a packet to the server that tells it if Razor is running or not and if it's a Razor not allowed server disconnect the player.

It's really should be up to the person who's running the server to decide if they want to allow the people to connect via what ever means. I personally have heard so many complaints about UOG that I would prefer to "endorse" or Show my support of Razor or possibly ConnectUO (once I have a copy of it to try out) by allowing people on my shard to only connect via those or one of those means.

It shows nothing agianst the RunUO Dev team if it is intergrated in a fashion to make it user selectable as in it's our option and not something hard coded. Other wise it's a favortism issue.

[Beyonder]

Everything in both real and computer life can be hacked/emulated.

[Final Realms]

Well, it would be nice to be able to detect at least what third party apps they are using so as to be able to choose which ones to allow.

While the apps themselves are not built to damage a server or to allow hacking or bug abuse, there are allwasy jerks who will try to do that to see if they can mess your shard.

If we where able to determine what they are using and exclude the apps being used in a illegal form, it would be a big contribution to the peace of mind of many a shard admin.

I have had quite a few issues with easy uo and ez macros beign used differentyl from what they are intended for, and until i see a version which does not allow scripts to be used for known exploits or ugs or whatever in any shard I'd like to dis allow its use from code.

Im sure the people who make the two apps have no intention for them to be used that way, but Im also sure they dont check every single scripter's submission to see if there are scripts on their forums which are damaging to some few or to many shards out there.

Personally Im down to the point where Razor seems the only decent application out there and would be very happy if I could limit players to use only that application besides UOG of course.