Server Help

K.R. · Guest Offline

I'm doing a research paper on SS protocols for my Networks class, and I was wondering if anyone who know it can help explain it. I've read some crude documentation on catid's website so I have a rough idea how the core and game protocols work, and I've looked into the source code in MERVBOT... but since I'm an electrical engineer not a programmar, I don't really read codes very well (I don't even know what exactly MERVBOT does... heh). I got a program to log my network traffic so I can examine the packets to/from ss server but since the data's all encrypted I can't really get anything useful out of that (if anyone know how to disable the encrption that'd be very helpful).

anyway, catid said EkTed, Grelminair, and Snrrrub know the protocol inside out and could probably help me, or if anyone else knows how it works please let me know, thanks a lot.

stay alive
K.R.

Mine GO BOOM · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2003 3:57 pm Post subject:

I'd recommend looking at grelminar's ASSS server source. Its pretty easy to follow, as all the packet information is contained in nice modular form. You can also make a packet logging feature into the net.c file if you wanted to, before the encryption can take place (or after you decrypty). More info about how to use it can be found here. Feel free to ask more questions in the Custom Code forum. Myself or any of the other helpful people who spent way too much time looking at packets can easily assist you there if you have a couple of questions about a couple of certain packets.

As a recommendation: I'd learn how the reliable and 0x0E group packets work first (since other packets are usually inside of these). Then you can learn how the position packets and chat packets look. After that you should be pretty good at finding how the other packets work.

Gravitron · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2003 6:42 pm Post subject:

Wasn't there a way to turn off the encryption (or was it taken out in the latest releases) ?

Mine GO BOOM · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2003 8:47 pm Post subject:

Taken out a while ago.. plus you need to use VIE client.

K.R. · Guest Offline

I think there's a little bit of confusion, just to clearify, I'm not running a server, all I have is the continuum client and I was logging the incoming and outgoing traffic on my ethernet card to TW's IP adress.

I downloaded the ASSS server program, I ran the executable but nothing seemed to have happened. How do I use the net.c file to log packet traffic before encryption (or after decryption)?

I have an idea how the reliable packets are transmitted through UDP with some simple handshaking. I'm not sure what you meant by 0x0E packets. According to addendum.txt from the MERVBOT website, 0E packets c2s are voice packets and s2c are turret link packets.

As for position update and weapon packets, c2s is fairly straight forward. It seems the client just sends about 5 packets/sec for position and a weapon packet whenever the thing fires. Now s2c isn't so straight forward, catid said multiple position updates from several ships are combined into larger packets to reduce overhead (which makes sense). But now the question is what is the protocol for combining them, and even trickier is how s2c weapon packets are handled.

I'm starting to get the feeling that each server uses a slightly different game protocol...

K.R.

Smong · Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2003 2:48 am Post subject:

0x0E is the cluster packet

Gravitron · Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2003 2:50 am Post subject:

LoL, that little featured scared priitk?
Well I got the old subgames and naturally VIE client, so...phear m3.

Smong · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 5:21 pm Post subject: Re: aosfij

K.R. · Guest Offline

awesome thanks man that file is very helpful, everything's laid out in nice details.

correct me if I'm wrong, this is what I figured from the stuff I've read. Whatever packets the server wants to send to client, for example, it wants to send position packets and weapon packets from 10 other players, it just sends to your client 5 large packets per seconds, and packing all the info into the 5 packets with the 0x0E cluster packet.

and you don't have to ACK 0x0E packets, which means not all core packets are reliable.

does anybody know if all the chat packets are send via 0x03 reliable packets? From experience I don't think I've seen any chat messages getting lost.

stay alive
K.R.

Mine GO BOOM · Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2003 10:58 pm Post subject:

[Message]
MessageReliable
MessageTeamReliable

Matters what those settings are. Most zones have them set to 1 (messages being reliable).

As for the inet billing, that is better known as the SSC billing. And it came online i believe within a month after the server software went public, since their first zone they had connected to it was the Euro league (which is why old Euro players, such as Shanky, have low UserIDs).

Make sure you include about Twister, which almost killed SubSpace. Very important part, and is programming related more than when SSC formed, etc.

K.R. · Guest Offline

who was iNet run by? Was iNet a commercial sponsour or was it just a server run by an individual (or a group of) players. I'm trying to make a point that SS has been entirely player-run since VIE pulled their servers, but if iNet is a company that adapted the server than that is sort of not true...

what did you mean by lower user ID, aren't the users just archieved by their log in name. I looked in the Log in process and nowhere was any type of user ID exchanged.

this is what I was thinking about when I read some documentation on ss history, a large emphasis was put on the whole cheating problem 1998-1999 and how it would've killed SS. I came back to SS around Oct 98 and started my squad Dependency in Trench Wars and I had been around after that, personally I didn't really notice too much problem with cheating. I remember early 1999 I'd see a cheater once in a while (like every few days), but people just complain and bitch at them the same way they do tker's and they eventually leave or get kicked off. And SS didn't seem to be dying either. Maybe it was a bigger problem in other zones, or maybe TW was just a noob zone back then so nobody really cares to cheat in it, all I'm saying is I didn't really notice the problem as big as they documented it to be.

stay alive
K.R.

SOS · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2003 1:59 pm Post subject:

UserID is just the number of the username. Just that. Nothing less, nothing more. Not used much.
And just logging packets between Continuum and a zone isn't going to do anything, since everything is encrypted.
If you know C, then look at ASSS's source, it has all the client and server packets in it.
iNet was a server that someone(I'm not exactly sure who) got to run their biller on. BD Vine maybe? I dunno, someone who worked there I think.
It was just a host, the company probably had no idea wtf this server they were hosting did. I wasn't playing back then, so I can't be 100% sure, but I belive that's how it was.
And I remember that most cheats/hacks have been used on EG and Chaos. I dunno from where I remember this, I just do.
Oh and clicking on the "Archived news" link on server help main page brings up quite old things.
And yes, not everything is reliable, like position packets. But if it's important(Just about everything else) then it is sent reliably.
_________________
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j0! 3y3 4m t4lking to j00!
fux0red 5cr1pt k1dd13.
-"l33t h41ku"

Smong · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2003 2:44 pm Post subject:

The cluster packets are probably made by having a sort of buffer between the packet generator and the network code.
Packet -> Buffer -> Network
The buffer probably waits a few milliseconds before sending the packet, and if another packet gets sent to this buffer within that time then a cluster packet is made.
I have no idea how accurate this is but you might want to read it: http://www.subspace.net/whatif/baud.shtml
Also ?userid in game will probably give it to you (you can use in in the cfg to grant people ?settings access without sysop).

Gravitron · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2003 2:56 pm Post subject:

KR I've splitted your question to here:
http://forums.minegoboom.com/viewtopic.php?p=4187#4187

And MGB, twister was nothing really.
You people always blow it up to something which it hardly was.

K.R. · Guest Offline

thanks for the help

I was supposed to be writing the report, I went into SS to check something and ended up playing for 2 hours

damn it

stay alive
K.R.

K.R. · Guest Offline

hey smonq I looked into the white paper thingy some more and in the client to server position update packets there are appereantly two fields for energy, one of them in optional. what's the purpose of sending the energy information twice, do you know?

also the other baud link you gave makes no sense whatsoever, lol, it doesn't seem like they're even talking about anything technical.

stay alive
K.R.

Smong · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 3:00 am Post subject:

The Baudchaser link was in the "whatif" section of ss.net, heh.
I'm not sure about the position packets and the energy, the best thing to do is get the source to ASSS or a bot and see what they do with it. Maybe if your on a turret its the drivers energy?

K.R. · Guest Offline

yea I went to the link and all I saw was some dumb story that goes like this...

What If...?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...you had the last dose of 'SS'

SS Addict Massacre's police!

A terrifying siege is still going on in Norway today as a man known only as Baudchaser just lost control of himself as some people came to take away his SS vending machine known as I-Net Warzone. It started when the two men Chris Tomlinson (30) and Terry Beverly (25) entered 'Baudchaser`s' house to take away the SS vending machine which came when he bought SS.

It is said his eyes flared up and he just grabbed the men, who have not been seen since. The place was surrounded by police and armed forces but nothing was attempted. It is also thought there are still a few doses of SS left in the machine, these are thought .....