TServerPlayer.ipaddress
 

Please add it to all servers. It's already enabled on certain ones (Zone, etc).

It seems like this has been brought up dozens of times, yet there are still no good arguments for not enabling it. Privacy is not an issue with IPs.

Stefan doesn't want IP addresses being accessible by script! :o

He didn't seem to mind adding it to servers where it suited him.

Its accessible by script now...Inverness had a method with accessing the accounts folder, etc.

But, the issue has been brought up before, and the reason is always, "player privacy".

Even though any low level staff with an rc can open up a players attributes, and like magic...they have their ip address.

Why is privacy not an issue? The problem is that enabling this makes it possible to automate ip-checks or sending the ip somewhere else by script, which cannot be tolerated. The ips are accessible on gold servers because they are supervised by me.

Playerworld renting is open to anyone who has the money. I don't really understand why IP's are considered something private in that respect, because anyone could rent a server and get you to log onto their server if they really wanted to. You should have a little faith in the Classic-tab Playerworld staff if anything.

What do you mean by ip-checks? Checking for banned accounts? Checking where people live?

And why would we need to send the IP elsewhere by script? You do realize that virtually every single website you go to (including these forums) logs your IP? IPs are also not personal. At any given time (depending on your type of connection), there are dozens of other people with your exact same IP address.

At the very least, a MD5 hash should be provided for IPs.

It's not reasonable to omit a useful feature like IPs because of some unwarranted fear that some angry playerworld staff with an Ak47 is going to show up and knock on the door of every house within a 100 mile radius of where the IP supposedly originates.

Anyone who can script can get the IP anyways, it's just a matter of GDT enforcing rules about what people do with them. So either they script someone to grab the IP with a script in a productive way and GDT comes on and tells them not to, or they use player.ipaddress to send off IP's to an external site, and GDT comes on and tells them not to. What's the difference?

Exactly. This would be perfect because the main reason we would need a player's IP address is to compare it with other players.

There is really no privacy issue if the IPs are encrypted or hashed. Technically, someone could brute force it, but if they're willing to do that just to get your IP, there are much easier ways.

If you really wanted to, you could just have a link to a web page you have set up, and save that users ip to a database...thats such a simple script, even I could do it...and I only know basic php/mysql.

No matter what, there are always ways to find ips.
When trasnferring files on any instant messenger, your ip is avaiable if you try hard enough to find it.

And I don't know if it would be useful, but using your ip to locate your city or region, and let you know which players are near you...I know a lot of sites that use that...just for fun i guess, so you can see what players live near you.

But, it could also be used for alot of good things...

The "players near you" is exactly the kind of thing that Stefan is worried about, I think, even if it was an "opt-in" thing.

And yes, I've gotten IPs before via GS2 and PHP with about 10 lines when the two are combined. It's not difficult, but not ideal (since it happens to be breaking a few rules).

I'm just saying, no matter what...there are ways to get an ip address. :P

But about the "players near you". Has he never read masses on servers?

Countless times, I've seen. "Someone call me I'm bored!!! My number: xxx-xxxx"
People pretty much announce their locations anyways...

But, IP addresses are not precise....at one point, my ip said I live somewhere in Georgia...which is very very wrong...

Edit: Right now, my ip address is about 100-ish miles off. =P
So, if anyone went to the location my address points to...they would find themselves somewhere in San Diego, California. Which is not even close to my city.

I agree with you completely, but I'd prefer to freak out Stefan as little as possible so he'd more more willing to flip the switch for IP addresses.

Or you can just load the accounts file of the player.

I agree that the IP address of the player should be visible to all developers. IP addresses can be accessed by /open and /openrights. IPs are in no way private. In fact, here's mine: 71.200.219.141. IPs are used as identifiers to a computer, and nothing more. Sure, they can be traced to a certain area, with a small amount of precision, but it's nothing to worry about. My IP traces to a spot that's not even close to me.

Personally, I would use IP checks to determine if a user is multilogging on my server, or simply evading jail time or ban time. Of course, you could always check using /open, but I believe that script access would be very useful.

I agree with the others that if you are too paranoid about adding the IP address in its raw state, then simply encrypt it. MD5 is irreversible, so why not MD5-hash it? Simple solution.