IP Bans response

[Bell]

Instead of a "cannot connect to server" response it would be nice if the response was "IP ban in place on server"

For those that have done nothing wrong they are often at a loss to figure out why they can't log onto a server where someone has made the ban too broad. Ex: 96.215.*.* vs 96.215.20.*

This probably doesn't require V6 but its something I would like to see anyways

[TSAdmin]

This would make life so much easier.

[fowlplay4]

"Banned Reason: Contact [email protected]"

[cbk1994]

You really shouldn't be banning IPs anyway. Account and PCID bans are more than sufficient. IP bans only offer temporary relief from WSU kiddies. The people who know what they're doing will be able to evade it easily.

If one of my neighbors were to get banned (at least one of them plays Graal, so it's not impossible), I could be affected by it as my ISP puts all of the customers in my area in the same subnet pool and hands out new IPs each night, which causes us to swap IPs often among neighbors. Even a 1.2.3.* ban would block significant parts of my neighborhood at times.

But yes, the IP ban message needs to be improved, as do the other ban messages.

[furry_mougle]

Originally Posted by cbk1994

You really shouldn't be banning IPs anyway. Account and PCID bans are more than sufficient. IP bans only offer temporary relief from WSU kiddies. The people who know what they're doing will be able to evade it easily.

If one of my neighbors were to get banned (at least one of them plays Graal, so it's not impossible), I could be affected by it as my ISP puts all of the customers in my area in the same subnet pool and hands out new IPs each night, which causes us to swap IPs often among neighbors. Even a 1.2.3.* ban would block significant parts of my neighborhood at times.

But yes, the IP ban message needs to be improved, as do the other ban messages.

WSU kiddies? What are those?

Anyway, we all know you can ban evade on VMWare and if they 'block' your ISP just download a VPN. I guess that's for the dedicated though.

[cbk1994]

Originally Posted by furry_mougle

WSU kiddies? What are those?

Anyway, we all know you can ban evade on VMWare and if they 'block' your ISP just download a VPN. I guess that's for the dedicated though.

WSU is a trainer for Graal which lets you perform such wonderful feats as warping around in a circle and freeze 'hacking' (which results in an automatic jail on every popular server—at least Era and Zodiac).

[Emera]

Totally agree.

[Dragon551]

I have a feeling Era made you post this, Bell. <3

[Bell]

Originally Posted by Dragon551

I have a feeling Era made you post this, Bell. <3

Era triggered this, yes but its not confined to Era alone. I've come across it on other servers as well.

IP bans aren't by any means perfect. If someone wants to ban evade bad enough they are going to find a way around it. These bans are just another tool to slow them down and make things as annoying for them as they've been annoying the staff trying to keep them off.

Short history lesson: I helped implement the current system several years ago with the preselected ban messages. As with everything else there was a reason to do it. In this case it was to give more consistency to bans. In the past you would get life on one server for a cheat tool and 3 days on another. It made the excuse "But Freddy only got 3 days!" way more common.

Every server at the time was polled for their most common bans and a list compiled, then standardization was put in. A few reasons/times have been added over the years but for the most part it has worked. There will always be special circumstances and those were always meant as 1st offense type bans. I just wish that the Reason actually showed up when you log on since we often get complaints about the sexual harassment one since its the most commonly used 2 week ban.

I often wish we did have the ability to clear nonsense ban histories since UC servers especially seem to be good at making some of the worst. My own ban history is riddled with proof of that. However this is another case of "Be careful what you wish for" because to be quite honest I would prefer that stay in the hands of Stefan and Unixmad alone since I don't like the idea of every global staff having the ability to start removing any ban they feel isn't justified.

[Admins]

Normally you should see "The ip of your computer is banned." but I can check that sometime.

[Bell]

Originally Posted by Stefan

Normally you should see "The ip of your computer is banned." but I can check that sometime.

Appreciate it, I don't believe its saying that at all since not a single person in ages has ever mentioned it. They've only come to the forums or to support asking for tech help.

[Supaman771]

I'm IP Banned on Zone (dunno why, last I checked PPNL said he unbanned me).
But hopefully to be helpful, I shall try to login right now.

It loads the server (like normally when u login) for about half a second.
You are then sent to the Login screen with a disconnection message.
See attachment:

[Bell]

thanks Supaman, it does help to have someone show us a current IP ban message. Can't do it at this moment but I'll run over there and see if I can find out why you're still IP banned for you.

Just noticed you had exactly 771 posts with this

[SlikRick]

Originally Posted by cbk1994

You really shouldn't be banning IPs anyway. Account and PCID bans are more than sufficient.

We actually ran into a situation on N-Pulse a year or so back that a PCID was banned and a huge handful of different accounts were not able to log onto the server due to this, even though their IPs were on different ends of the world, and Bell had to come on because of it.

[Bell]

Originally Posted by SlikRick

We actually ran into a situation on N-Pulse a year or so back that a PCID was banned and a huge handful of different accounts were not able to log onto the server due to this, even though their IPs were on different ends of the world, and Bell had to come on because of it.

Those are always fun, lol. Fortunately it doesn't happen often and its always obvious and easily fixable.