GlobalGamers (Pug) IRC Concern & Tip
Having been a DDoSer in the past (Unrelated to UT), I know from personal experience that having the ability to do so is only as good as your access to IP addresses to attack. Most people are under the impression that it requires a degree of intelligence, when really all you need is to pay someone else to set it up or teach you. The hard part is getting access to a list of IP addresses for players that you want to attack. I know that whoever’s attacked the servers in the past isn’t that good at it because it goes down, and comes back up all the time – I’ve seen and had servers kept offline for months with multiple providers dropping the service as it costs them money to keep you.
What I’m worried about though are players, as household internet has nowhere near the bandwidth of a server it is easier to attack. Though nobody is DDoSing players in this community and just servers, the possibility is there. Also, most people need help changing their IP while being harassed by a DDoSer.
Your IP addresses are in safe hands on Forums/TS/Servers but those that connect to GlobalGamers IRC to join the pugs are potentially sharing their IP with everyone. Most IRC servers have a mode +X automatically converts your IP from decimal to Hex hiding it from other IRC users.
Edit: Learned more
On GlobalGamers IRC You have to be logged in as a registerd user with a password before you can command the server to mask your IP. As of now most everyone in the #mslg channel IP addresses are visible Via Whois & Users has joined /User has quit messages.
To become a user:
In the chat box type the following -
/ns register account password email
Example: /ns register Neff password [email protected]
It will give you this message if it worked:
-NickServ- Account and nick have been registered to you.
-NickServ- To activate your account, you must check your email for the "cookie" that has been mailed to it. When you have it, use the cookie command to complete registration.
You'll have to copy something like this from your email into IRC to complete registration:
/msg [email protected] COOKIE YourNick U4wG1w4TuT
Once done after connecting with your nick type:
/ns id yourpassword
Result:
http://i48.tinypic.com/zlx1z6.png
While loggged in to make sure your Ip is in hidden mode:
The command is:
/mode yournick +x
Example: /mode Neff +x
Result:
http://oi47.tinypic.com/1r7oqt.jpg
Some people have done this already, but most haven't and their IP is always viewable to anyone on the IRC server.
I don't know what the admins are going to say about this but in my opinion nobody should have access to anybodys IP unless they're trusted with admin. I know IRC channels and bots are a pain to set up but switching over to a server that has the +x auto enabled for none registerd users as they connect would be a great investment of time put into protecting players, while not making them have to register to be protected.
Alternatively making users aware their IP is public unless they register and use /mode yournick +x would give them the chance and choice to protect themselves.
