Greetings Commanders
There is a fair amount of paranoia floating around the forums, especially as this game will incorporate Peer-2-Peer connections. The general feeling is that by playing ED your IP is revealed to other players which could result in them issuing a denial-of-service attack against your computer thus booting you from the game. Depending upon how the game reacts to connection loss this can sometimes result in the death of a character if playing a game in hardcore mode. (For ED that would be Ironman)
I wanted to post and say there are things you can do so "don't panic"
Whilst I know that the below is very generic, simplistic and quite long, if you're unsure of anything ask on the forums - there are a lot of very helpful people here who are willing to help and point you in the right direction.
Personally I think these kinds of attacks (DoS) will be rare, but if ED gains in popularity, or your fame as a streamer increases, knowing what you can do in advance should reassure and help you.
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Without knowing your internet IP (given by your ISP) there is little an attacker can do. You therefore should take steps to protect this as best as you can. Sadly this is made incredibly difficult by the fact that ED needs to know these IPs so you can create a remote connection to another player. Even if FD were to encrypt the logs and/or the connection, by issuing some simple commands you can "ask" your computer as to who is connected and it will quite happily tell you.
All doom and gloom right ? No quite
If you are feeling paranoid (especially more so if you stream) you can take some steps to mitigate these problems.
---
First in my opinion you should use a VPN - There are plenty of services out there you could use (I use StrongVPN) and even some of them are free. The main aim here is to change your public IP that your service provider gives you to a temporary one owned by the VPN company. When connected to a VPN service all your traffic is encrypted and sent to the VPN provider who in turn relays it to the internet. From the attackers point of view then they see your VPN IP and attack that. Whilst your game session may still be interrupted, if you disconnect from the VPN and reconnect you should be given a new IP. (Failing that you may need to contact the vendor for help in getting a new one)
I appreciate that using a VPN service won't actually stop you from dropping from the game, it does mean if you are being attacked once you disconnect from the VPN all other services will work as normal. (Web / Email / Skype / etc) as your "real" IP is safe. Depending upon the intent a DDoS attack can last for hours and being without Internet services can add to the stress.
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A common communication tool people use today is Skype / Ventrillo / TeamSpeak. In the same way that ED works using these services reveal your IP to others. This isn't essential to do but consider using a proxy server for these applications. Like a VPN these proxies hide your real IP and act as a go-between. There are plenty of proxy-servers out there, some free, and it's just a matter of finding one that works for you. Google around for help with setting one up for your application of choice.
For this look for a SOCKS5 provider and configure your software. Obviously if you're using a VPN and a proxy the quality of your streaming / comms maybe affected - it depends on your intenet speed.
---
If you have enough bandwidth you could purchase a good router with DDoS capabilities. Opinions vary on which ones work the best but I like Cisco / DrayTek routers. Then if someone attacks you your internet connection will be filled with random garbage but the router should filter it out and with luck there will be enough bandwidth left for your game to continue as normal. (I have a 30Mb connection and feel fairly confident against all but the most determined attackers)
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Lastly - something for FD to consider.
There has been a lot of talk of Micro-Transactions over the months and whilst writing the above something came to mind. My connection here from the UAE is poor so I was going to use a service like LowerPing to help. (If they add ED as a game they support) It's like a VPN service for games - Using this in the past dropped my ping for World of Warcraft from 250ms to 150ms which made it quite playable.
I feel that, if priced right, FD might be able to offer a VPN service for users and charge a subscription for it. It would in effect have 2 benefits - hide our IPs and lower the latency for people playing from far away.
---
Some useful links:
There is a fair amount of paranoia floating around the forums, especially as this game will incorporate Peer-2-Peer connections. The general feeling is that by playing ED your IP is revealed to other players which could result in them issuing a denial-of-service attack against your computer thus booting you from the game. Depending upon how the game reacts to connection loss this can sometimes result in the death of a character if playing a game in hardcore mode. (For ED that would be Ironman)
I wanted to post and say there are things you can do so "don't panic"
Whilst I know that the below is very generic, simplistic and quite long, if you're unsure of anything ask on the forums - there are a lot of very helpful people here who are willing to help and point you in the right direction.
Personally I think these kinds of attacks (DoS) will be rare, but if ED gains in popularity, or your fame as a streamer increases, knowing what you can do in advance should reassure and help you.
---
Without knowing your internet IP (given by your ISP) there is little an attacker can do. You therefore should take steps to protect this as best as you can. Sadly this is made incredibly difficult by the fact that ED needs to know these IPs so you can create a remote connection to another player. Even if FD were to encrypt the logs and/or the connection, by issuing some simple commands you can "ask" your computer as to who is connected and it will quite happily tell you.
All doom and gloom right ? No quite
If you are feeling paranoid (especially more so if you stream) you can take some steps to mitigate these problems.
---
First in my opinion you should use a VPN - There are plenty of services out there you could use (I use StrongVPN) and even some of them are free. The main aim here is to change your public IP that your service provider gives you to a temporary one owned by the VPN company. When connected to a VPN service all your traffic is encrypted and sent to the VPN provider who in turn relays it to the internet. From the attackers point of view then they see your VPN IP and attack that. Whilst your game session may still be interrupted, if you disconnect from the VPN and reconnect you should be given a new IP. (Failing that you may need to contact the vendor for help in getting a new one)
I appreciate that using a VPN service won't actually stop you from dropping from the game, it does mean if you are being attacked once you disconnect from the VPN all other services will work as normal. (Web / Email / Skype / etc) as your "real" IP is safe. Depending upon the intent a DDoS attack can last for hours and being without Internet services can add to the stress.
---
A common communication tool people use today is Skype / Ventrillo / TeamSpeak. In the same way that ED works using these services reveal your IP to others. This isn't essential to do but consider using a proxy server for these applications. Like a VPN these proxies hide your real IP and act as a go-between. There are plenty of proxy-servers out there, some free, and it's just a matter of finding one that works for you. Google around for help with setting one up for your application of choice.
For this look for a SOCKS5 provider and configure your software. Obviously if you're using a VPN and a proxy the quality of your streaming / comms maybe affected - it depends on your intenet speed.
---
If you have enough bandwidth you could purchase a good router with DDoS capabilities. Opinions vary on which ones work the best but I like Cisco / DrayTek routers. Then if someone attacks you your internet connection will be filled with random garbage but the router should filter it out and with luck there will be enough bandwidth left for your game to continue as normal. (I have a 30Mb connection and feel fairly confident against all but the most determined attackers)
---
Lastly - something for FD to consider.
There has been a lot of talk of Micro-Transactions over the months and whilst writing the above something came to mind. My connection here from the UAE is poor so I was going to use a service like LowerPing to help. (If they add ED as a game they support) It's like a VPN service for games - Using this in the past dropped my ping for World of Warcraft from 250ms to 150ms which made it quite playable.
I feel that, if priced right, FD might be able to offer a VPN service for users and charge a subscription for it. It would in effect have 2 benefits - hide our IPs and lower the latency for people playing from far away.
---
Some useful links:
