GameSpy Problems

The server has been unusually quite this week.  I was beginning to wonder what was up with that when kovalxxx from badlands logged in.  He said that all the servers in GameSpy were gone.  I can't ever see my own server in GameSpy so I don't logon with GameSpy, therefore I had no idea that GameSpy had gone down.

I did some checking and found that GameSpy changed owners back in August.  The new owner of GameSpy told the game companies to pay their bill or loose their service.  Neverwinter Nights and a whole bunch of other old games got the red letter boot.  I'll provide a few links to a few articles.  The first is a Facebook post by the current owner of GameSpy.

http://www.facebook.com/gamespytech/posts/10152118921128475

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/12/14/gamespy-multiplayer-server-shutdown-result-of-failure-to-pay-by/

http://kotaku.com/5968050/gamespy-says-no-they-totally-did-not-cut-peoples-multiplayer-games-without-warning

At this time the only suggestion I have for anybody that wishes to continue playing BadLands RPG is to build a desktop shortcut and do a direct logon.  You can find full instructions here:
http://badlandsrpg.blogspot.com/2008/11/tricks-tips-no-43-desktop-shortcut.html

If anybody finds an alternative to GameSpy, please let us know about it.

Qwildurn Bluemoon, server host

ISP Troubles

My finances have changed and I changed ISP last week.  Now I have an intermittent internet connection. The technician should be here in a few days to fix the problem.  Until then I have shut off the server.  I may lose my connection before I can finish posting this note.

Player Security System

After much frustrating thought, I finally started doing some work on making your accounts secure. I actually considered abandoning the whole thing, until I started jonesing for my BadLands fix.

The biggest problem here is how to correctly identify legal ownership of said account(s). And what to do when a second person claims that they are the rightful owner.

I finally settled into:

- One account per CD Key.

- Wipe all the accounts and start over.

- Each CD Key is linked to the one logon account name.

- Anybody trying to access an account that's not theirs will be frozen before they can do anything and then booted.

Now, I got play the tough guy and tell you not to loose your CD Key or forget your logon name. I won't send you or anybody else that information. It's your CD Key, you paid for it and you own it. It's your account name, don't forget your own name. It's your responsibility to keep track of your personal stuff, not mine. I will do my best to keep others out of your account.

All the player information has been wiped, the only thing that remains is the list of permanently banned CD Keys. Gart, when I said I was banning you for life, I wasn't messing around.

I fixed the problem that was allowing banned players to login, a typo...duh...

So, log in and secure your favorite user name before some dweeb takes it.

Account Hacking

I've shut the server down until I can make it secure.

We've been hacked! More correctly, about seven months ago Bioware was hacked and the player accounts / passwords were compromised. Several months ago Bioware shut down their server that authenticates player account names and passwords. That means anybody can log in to any account without a password check, all they need to know is the correct spelling.

You can follow these links for further information:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/199/index/7846801

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/199/index/8398695

I was unaware of this until informed by a player. I did some checking and found out a few things. Our accounts been accessed by "people" other than ourselves. I have a list of accounts that I know have been compromised and I have two CD Keys that are being used to do the hacking.

One of the CD Keys belongs to our old friend, Gart. Somehow Gart managed to get passed my permanent ban list. For those who don't know Gart, he got banned on five (5) CD Keys, most of which were probably stolen.

Gart, if you're reading this, "Your a jerk!" I would use stronger words, but this is a family channel. Someday you're going to end up in prison as Bubba's Backdoor Bitch. My only regret is the video won't be published to YouTube.

The other CD Key points to "Ruby der Killer" and the IP being used is in Germany.

The following is a list of accounts that have been compromised. Please note that my account is in this list. These are only the ones that I know about. No doubt there are other accounts and other CD Keys involved.

Diamonda

Ruby der Killer

Mr. Chemical

1235711

Joker

SmithySmith

Dragonix

zenblade

conantheman

Simon Hawk

Qwertt

Hubert Pape

Bunte Reiter

Psyammy

deathstar001

Bluntmad Joker

the master devil

Cluster4518

Qwildurn

keepersofthe7thhell

So, until I can figure a way to secure your accounts, I've shut my server down.

Neverwinter Nights 3

Time to 'suit up' everyone, grab your sword and shield then get get ready to hack some monsters to pieces, thats right Neverwinter 3 is happening!