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Me's are a quadruple threat
http://classictw.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=32466
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Author:  Cruncher [ Thu Nov 03, 2011 7:08 am ]
Post subject:  Me's are a quadruple threat

This is on RP's server. If the number of nodes are limited, this could be a problem down the road.


TWGS v2.13

Copyright (C) EIS
www.eisonline.com

Players Online

Node 1 Game T : Tesler
Node 2 Game T : jack
Node 3 Game T : Micro
Node 4 Game M : me
Node 5 Game T : ?
Node 6 Game M : me
Node 7 Game J : Polaris
Node 8 Game M : me
Node 9 Game J : bloop
Node 10 Game M : me
Node 11 Menu : Cruncher

Selection (? for menu):

Author:  Runaway Proton [ Thu Nov 03, 2011 7:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Me's are a quadruple threat

Cruncher wrote:
This is on RP's server. If the number of nodes are limited, this could be a problem down the road.


TWGS v2.13

Copyright (C) EIS
http://www.eisonline.com

Players Online

Node 1 Game T : Tesler
Node 2 Game T : jack
Node 3 Game T : Micro
Node 4 Game M : me
Node 5 Game T : ?
Node 6 Game M : me
Node 7 Game J : Polaris
Node 8 Game M : me
Node 9 Game J : bloop
Node 10 Game M : me
Node 11 Menu : Cruncher

Selection (? for menu):


JP is aware of the problem,
Each one of those is also keeping an instance of the game active as well, yet for some reason it allows them to log in again. Not sure what's up, but it's been reported.

Author:  John Pritchett [ Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:31 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Me's are a quadruple threat

I guess since I'm not seeing this on my beta server, it would be good to have a look at the server myself. We could use http://join.me so I can explore the situation.

It seems like this is happening more to some players than to others, so it might be related to certain activities.

Author:  Runaway Proton [ Thu Nov 03, 2011 4:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Me's are a quadruple threat

John Pritchett wrote:
I guess since I'm not seeing this on my beta server, it would be good to have a look at the server myself. We could use http://join.me so I can explore the situation.

It seems like this is happening more to some players than to others, so it might be related to certain activities.


Never used Join.me JP, but I'll look at it and you're welcome to browse around and see what you can see.

I've also noticed that this happened a lot to the players Tesla and Micro at the begining of the game, but hasn't seemed to happen to them in some time, so I'm wondering what they might have been doing at the begining that their not doing now, like maybe a ZTM or something, that may help us narrow it down.
I've been trying to spy on Me (that sounds odd lol) and see what he may be doing, but sofar when I've seen the multiple logins, there's been no activity on any nodes he's on.

Author:  Cruncher [ Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Me's are a quadruple threat

Runaway Proton wrote:
John Pritchett wrote:
I guess since I'm not seeing this on my beta server, it would be good to have a look at the server myself. We could use http://join.me so I can explore the situation.

It seems like this is happening more to some players than to others, so it might be related to certain activities.


Never used Join.me JP, but I'll look at it and you're welcome to browse around and see what you can see.

I've also noticed that this happened a lot to the players Tesla and Micro at the begining of the game, but hasn't seemed to happen to them in some time, so I'm wondering what they might have been doing at the begining that their not doing now, like maybe a ZTM or something, that may help us narrow it down.
I've been trying to spy on Me (that sounds odd lol) and see what he may be doing, but sofar when I've seen the multiple logins, there's been no activity on any nodes he's on.


Before it was micro and Micro - two different logins. Someone trying to spoof?

Author:  Micro [ Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Me's are a quadruple threat

Cruncher wrote:
Before it was micro and Micro - two different logins. Someone trying to spoof?
No, I typed "Micro" into Mombot, and micro into Swath. Swath said that my evaulation period was over and closed abruptly without closing the connection.
I have also noticed a lot of players connected 24/7, # says they are in Game T, but they are not actually in the game. I think they are sitting at the opening menu where you press "T", becuase there is no timeout on this menu.

Author:  Cruncher [ Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Me's are a quadruple threat

Micro wrote:
No, I typed "Micro" into Mombot, and micro into Swath. Swath said that my evaulation period was over and closed abruptly without closing the connection.
I have also noticed a lot of players connected 24/7, # says they are in Game T, but they are not actually in the game. I think they are sitting at the opening menu where you press "T", becuase there is no timeout on this menu.


They have scripts that monitor the high scores list. Gleening in-game info without using time or turns.

Author:  John Pritchett [ Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Me's are a quadruple threat

So it could just be that the node is dropping carrier but TWGS is not detecting it and closing the node. This actually happens quite a bit, but a) TW times out, which we considered and there's a 5 minute timeout that doesn't seem to be shutting these down, or b) the player logs in again and forces the previous connection to close. It's definitely unusual. I'd really like to see it in action myself.

Author:  Micro [ Thu Nov 03, 2011 8:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Me's are a quadruple threat

But if you are sitting at the following menu, there is NO timout. You can sit there forever:

==-- Trade Wars 2002 --==

T - Play Trade Wars 2002
I - Introduction & Help
S - View Game Settings
H - High scores
M - View Access Modes
A - View Announcement
X - Exit

Enter your choice:


Players sit here so they can monitor the CLV, and the session won't time out even if they get disconnected.

Author:  John Pritchett [ Thu Nov 03, 2011 8:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Me's are a quadruple threat

You know, that definitely is one way that a player could be online with an active session on multiple nodes. Logging in a second time wouldn't kick you off, because you're not logged in. And there wouldn't be a timeout. So sure, that is a possible answer to this mystery. But it's not something that we've seen a lot before, which makes me think something else may be going on here.

There are a lot of implications when it comes to changing how this menu behaves. For one thing, you're not logged in at this menu. It's meant to be available to people who haven't yet joined a game. I could put a timeout on it just so whenever a player ends up dropping carrier while at this menu, they eventually do drop off. But other than that, it won't matter. Anyone who wants to remain at this menu can do so by using a keepalive. I could make a time limit on how long you can remain here without actually starting the game, but then people could just log off and right back on. What's the difference there, really.

I'd like to verify that the situation we're looking at is really just a player getting dropped while at this menu. One test would be for a player to try to interact with the player with multiple nodes while RP has the spy window up to show any output on the player's screen. Maybe send a fedcom message, a personal message to the player, etc. If you can go to where the player is, see what happens when you enter his sector. Do you see a message? Just some ways to try to find out if the connection is truly dead. What should happen is, if anything does try to send output to the player, it will cause the connection to fail out and close. If that doesn't happen, it means the player is either at the startup menu, or the game is locked up.

Author:  Crosby [ Fri Nov 04, 2011 9:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Me's are a quadruple threat

I was seeing the same kind of thing while 'squatting' on
the Status page. I was having my Troll.ts script wait for
a disco and I never got a disco message. It just hangs
there and at some point you get hung/frozen/disconnected.

I thought it could be a kinda dangerous thing, as it wouldn't
take much to put in a delay trigger, and then disconnect and
log back on. The result would be all nodes filled in an hour or
so...

Author:  Runaway Proton [ Fri Nov 04, 2011 10:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Me's are a quadruple threat

John Pritchett wrote:
You know, that definitely is one way that a player could be online with an active session on multiple nodes. Logging in a second time wouldn't kick you off, because you're not logged in. And there wouldn't be a timeout. So sure, that is a possible answer to this mystery. But it's not something that we've seen a lot before, which makes me think something else may be going on here.

There are a lot of implications when it comes to changing how this menu behaves. For one thing, you're not logged in at this menu. It's meant to be available to people who haven't yet joined a game. I could put a timeout on it just so whenever a player ends up dropping carrier while at this menu, they eventually do drop off. But other than that, it won't matter. Anyone who wants to remain at this menu can do so by using a keepalive. I could make a time limit on how long you can remain here without actually starting the game, but then people could just log off and right back on. What's the difference there, really.

I'd like to verify that the situation we're looking at is really just a player getting dropped while at this menu. One test would be for a player to try to interact with the player with multiple nodes while RP has the spy window up to show any output on the player's screen. Maybe send a fedcom message, a personal message to the player, etc. If you can go to where the player is, see what happens when you enter his sector. Do you see a message? Just some ways to try to find out if the connection is truly dead. What should happen is, if anything does try to send output to the player, it will cause the connection to fail out and close. If that doesn't happen, it means the player is either at the startup menu, or the game is locked up.


I'm getting feedback from players that they believe this is where the problem is.
I can say that I've seen it on spy at least twice now, that the hung players are indeed at that screen.
I've got a 5 minute inactivity timer set in game, and there's a 45 second inactivity timer set in the TWGS it's self, that I just noticed, but these nodes do not close until I close them. I don't know what effect it may have in the time usage of this game, I'd think as they're not logged in, it's not taking off time.
The only reason that people would sit here is in time limited games such as HHT so therefore it may have not been noticed till now.

Author:  John Pritchett [ Fri Nov 04, 2011 12:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Me's are a quadruple threat

Ok, I can address this. I just wanted to make sure that's the issue.

Crosby, you're right, it could be abused that way. But there are plenty of ways to fill nodes if that's what you want to do. The op basically has to ban any IP that's doing that. Thankfully we haven't seen a lot of that.

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