Recently, my dad took away my BzFlag privilages because his friend at the college who works in IT says it opens ports in the firewall which could lead to someone hacking my computer...and my dad is...well...all paranoid about that stuff.
I tried to tell him that everything you do on the internet opens ports...I even showed him the "NETSTAT -b" command in the Command Prompt:
C:\Documents and Settings>NETSTAT -b
Active Connections
Proto Local Address Foreign Address State PID
TCP Nesbitt1:1431 205.188.7.128:5190 ESTABLISHED 2892
[aim.exe]
TCP Nesbitt1:1459 oam-m12c.blue.aol.com:5190 ESTABLISHED 2892
[aim.exe]
TCP Nesbitt1:1735 205.188.7.152:5190 ESTABLISHED 2892
[aim.exe]
TCP Nesbitt1:2400 64.233.161.107:http ESTABLISHED 1644
[gnotify.exe]
TCP Nesbitt1:2396 www.intellicast.com:http TIME_WAIT 0
But he still won't back down, and I can't give up BzFlag. What should I do? Do I have any hope?
Parental Supervision Gone Wrong...I Think
Parental Supervision Gone Wrong...I Think
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Workaphobia
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I just tried "netstat -a" and got this: TCP <Mycomputername>:<port> bzflag.secretplace.us:80 TIME_WAIT. Why would this be there when I'm not playing the game? Is this what your dad's friend was referring to?
I would just tell him that with a proper firewall, virus protection, and a browser other than Internet Explorer, there's no need to be paranoid over computer safety. But it's a bit hard when netstat says otherwise.
I would just tell him that with a proper firewall, virus protection, and a browser other than Internet Explorer, there's no need to be paranoid over computer safety. But it's a bit hard when netstat says otherwise.
"Nifty News Fifty: When news breaks, we give you the pieces."
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Gerbil
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A Suggestion
The only way to get to a parent is with a parent...(or reasonable fascimile thereof)...
Explain to your dad that there are many bzflag gamers who are over 30 professionals with net and programming experience. Explain to him this is an open source game--meaning its PLAYERS maintain and code it--which means they consider security issues too.
Also explain to him that many players are mature adults who are willing to vouch for the game and even your behavior when playing if he would like.
He could email me and I think any developer regarding behavior, security etc. (email a developer for the security thing though--brains of a gerbil here).
BZflag is not some paid online serivce but a community of fanatics and to attack one of us is to attack all of us (Think, "You can never take our freeeedooom!").
We look out for each other and for those who would mess the experience up. A person who tries to exploit bzflag would find and army of dedicated programming fanatics after him--and heck, we already kill each other. think what would happen to them
Maybe it will help--worth a shot.
Be respectful if you bring this up though--you are not a Jedi yet, young Skywalker
Explain to your dad that there are many bzflag gamers who are over 30 professionals with net and programming experience. Explain to him this is an open source game--meaning its PLAYERS maintain and code it--which means they consider security issues too.
Also explain to him that many players are mature adults who are willing to vouch for the game and even your behavior when playing if he would like.
He could email me and I think any developer regarding behavior, security etc. (email a developer for the security thing though--brains of a gerbil here).
BZflag is not some paid online serivce but a community of fanatics and to attack one of us is to attack all of us (Think, "You can never take our freeeedooom!").
We look out for each other and for those who would mess the experience up. A person who tries to exploit bzflag would find and army of dedicated programming fanatics after him--and heck, we already kill each other. think what would happen to them
Maybe it will help--worth a shot.
Be respectful if you bring this up though--you are not a Jedi yet, young Skywalker
Politically correct BZ: A kinder, gentler Guided Missile.
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RPG
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I agree, BZFlag is maintained by ordinary people that do it for good and not a big company like Windows that actually puts small bits of spyware in their automatic updates (read their EULA). From my understanding of the internet, even when BZFlag is connected through a port, all the data is read and interpreted by BZFlag. So if someone gave you a virus through a BZ port, theoretically BZFlag would interpret is as the server's message of where the other tanks are located. I've been playing for a year, and nothing has gone wrong. I also have a firewall, because with Windows, a firewall is a must.
Port 80 is an http port, not a game port. Not sure what caused that.Workaphobia wrote:I just tried "netstat -a" and got this: TCP <Mycomputername>:<port> bzflag.secretplace.us:80 TIME_WAIT. Why would this be there when I'm not playing the game?
-toaster
"So there I was, all alone, facing all of the enemy. I started driving in circles, until I had them surrounded, and then I escaped in the confusion."
"So there I was, all alone, facing all of the enemy. I started driving in circles, until I had them surrounded, and then I escaped in the confusion."
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Gerbil
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Ha!
No need to worry about windows getting a virus--it IS one!
Remember Agent Smith in The Matrix when he explained to Neo that humanity was a virus? He meant windows and just accidentally said humanity
So basically, the only malicious scripting that could run in bzflag would be that which affects the game--not ur pc?
What say ye wise programming ones? Sound too good to be true.
I am certain my neurolinguistic quantum-synaptic synergizer would shield me--especially with it's eleven dimension cryptographic keys and realtime cerebral-heuristic comparitive analysis--but it pays to be safe. I don't want hacker to access my retinal control pads, yikes!
Crap. Did I say that out loud? Now I have to kill you all
Remember Agent Smith in The Matrix when he explained to Neo that humanity was a virus? He meant windows and just accidentally said humanity
So basically, the only malicious scripting that could run in bzflag would be that which affects the game--not ur pc?
What say ye wise programming ones? Sound too good to be true.
I am certain my neurolinguistic quantum-synaptic synergizer would shield me--especially with it's eleven dimension cryptographic keys and realtime cerebral-heuristic comparitive analysis--but it pays to be safe. I don't want hacker to access my retinal control pads, yikes!
Crap. Did I say that out loud? Now I have to kill you all
Politically correct BZ: A kinder, gentler Guided Missile.
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RPG
- Lieutenant, Junior Grade
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I tried your setup, Mr. Anderson, but three times in a year Windows got infected with a virus. The moment I got a firewall and virus protection from McAffe, that all stopped. I was reading an article today in the paper that emphasized the importance of virus protection and a firewall. "It's like a city, and you can get mugged on every street corner"
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BIYA
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You must be one of those DOWNLOADING FREAKS that like to download every bit of cool or intreting freeware there is one the net. I stick to a few things that are made by windows and the others are made by all of ya'll. Like Bzflag 1.10.8, Bzedit 1.6.2, Pybzedit, Bzflag 1.11.32, and maybe some game software that I bought. The only problem that I had with windows was annoying pop-ups or spyware that always minimized my Bzflag cleint and made me die.
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Gerbil
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That's funny!
I just started a business after helping friends for the past year FIX their pc's due to spyware messing them up.
The problem is so prevalent that I was helping someone everytime I went to their house. Finally my wife said, "Start charging them money or I'm not going to let you visit anyone."
In ran an ad in the classified paper and get so far about two calls a day (way more than I expected).
Guess what 70% of the biz has been so far . . .
Helping 70-90 year old grandmas clear spyware out of the pc's that they only use once a week to check their kids email.
The next most common thing has been clearing malware out of machines from people who thought they didn't need a firewall because they "didn't go on that much."
I set up three pc's in a row here and two of the three were infected with spyware while I was setting up the firewalls and all.
As an experiment, I turned off the firewall on my own pc and in exactly seveteen minutes had two pesistent and aggressive port scan attempts on my pc from two external locations (not vendors for software I have installed either and I had cleaned all cookies and temp files from my pc).
So word up: Use a firewall, use antivirus, use antispyware. Consider using mozilla opensource for mail and internet (it's much better now).
...or get a Mac or go totally Linux (until hackers start those up).
The problem is so prevalent that I was helping someone everytime I went to their house. Finally my wife said, "Start charging them money or I'm not going to let you visit anyone."
In ran an ad in the classified paper and get so far about two calls a day (way more than I expected).
Guess what 70% of the biz has been so far . . .
Helping 70-90 year old grandmas clear spyware out of the pc's that they only use once a week to check their kids email.
The next most common thing has been clearing malware out of machines from people who thought they didn't need a firewall because they "didn't go on that much."
I set up three pc's in a row here and two of the three were infected with spyware while I was setting up the firewalls and all.
As an experiment, I turned off the firewall on my own pc and in exactly seveteen minutes had two pesistent and aggressive port scan attempts on my pc from two external locations (not vendors for software I have installed either and I had cleaned all cookies and temp files from my pc).
So word up: Use a firewall, use antivirus, use antispyware. Consider using mozilla opensource for mail and internet (it's much better now).
...or get a Mac or go totally Linux (until hackers start those up).
Politically correct BZ: A kinder, gentler Guided Missile.
list server chatter
All communications with the list server are via HTTP on port 80. So when you pull up the server list, or when you run a bzflag server, it will connect to the list server. The machine you notice -- bzflag.secretplace.us -- is presently the list server so there's no cause for concern. That is either a stale connection or you are/were running a bzflag server (bzfs).toaster wrote:Port 80 is an http port, not a game port. Not sure what caused that.Workaphobia wrote:I just tried "netstat -a" and got this: TCP <Mycomputername>:<port> bzflag.secretplace.us:80 TIME_WAIT. Why would this be there when I'm not playing the game?
Cheers!
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BIYA
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Hey I would love to switch to an apple or somthing like that but im so used to using windows. If I switched to apple or linux or what ever I will be clicking in places that werent ment to be clicked in other OS's. O and you wanna know somthing my computer has
40GB HD
128 MB RAM
Gigabyte 865PE FSB800 Dual DDR 400 AGP 8X Sata
GeForce FX 5200/AGP/SSE2
Pentium 4 5.4GHZ CPU
2 LED fans for cooling
1 fan/heatsink for CPU
Is there anything else that im missing hmmm I dont think so.
40GB HD
128 MB RAM
Gigabyte 865PE FSB800 Dual DDR 400 AGP 8X Sata
GeForce FX 5200/AGP/SSE2
Pentium 4 5.4GHZ CPU
2 LED fans for cooling
1 fan/heatsink for CPU
Is there anything else that im missing hmmm I dont think so.
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BIYA
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Oops sorry errr screwin up my CPU numbers umm I think its a no its a 2.6 gig. Beffy system? You actually think my system is nice lol probably cause you thought I had a 3.2 gig no I have nothing even close to that. I got it as the cheapest Dell computer that DELL sold and after a year bought a case, new motherbaord, and a new Graphics Card. Crap video card?!?!? This video card can handle RainbowSix 3 unlike it was before I switched from built-in video to Ummm damnit dont know the word.
2.6 makes more sense, tho with a single 128 meg DIMM in it your not doing any sort of Dual channel stuff at all.
The FX5200 is the baseline FX card. It's a bit better then a 4MX. Rainbow6 does not push the graphical evelope
. Yes it is better then your onboard intel video. But there are a number of nvidia cards that are faster and that have better shader units then a 5200. It does fit fine with a 2.6giger But it sounds like you need more ram. 128 with XP must be taging your virtual memory for just about all things.
The FX5200 is the baseline FX card. It's a bit better then a 4MX. Rainbow6 does not push the graphical evelope
. Yes it is better then your onboard intel video. But there are a number of nvidia cards that are faster and that have better shader units then a 5200. It does fit fine with a 2.6giger But it sounds like you need more ram. 128 with XP must be taging your virtual memory for just about all things.
JeffMThanks guys.
Hey, thanks guys.
I think the problem will be solved, circus or otherwise. Gerbil, your post will probably work the best against my dad's case...thank you. I think he will be convinced once I tell him. Meanwhile, I will just play viper.pimpi.org like I always do when he leaves for a party or something grown-up like that. (and the wierd thing is that my mom is okay with me playing it... ) And although you did kind of get off the topic in this forum...you helped me enough to potentially get me out of this hole.
Thanks again.
I think the problem will be solved, circus or otherwise. Gerbil, your post will probably work the best against my dad's case...thank you. I think he will be convinced once I tell him. Meanwhile, I will just play viper.pimpi.org like I always do when he leaves for a party or something grown-up like that. (and the wierd thing is that my mom is okay with me playing it...
) And although you did kind of get off the topic in this forum...you helped me enough to potentially get me out of this hole.Thanks again.
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