To Everyone Asking (Why I think the Devs not Speaking)

[hai_hai]

If you were playing a game of chess, would you reveal your next move to the opponent before even making it? The goal here is to get a checkmate, in the end.

[throx]

Checkmate is not possible in this game.

[Cryonic]

But a stalemate is (just like in chess).

"The only winning move is not to play" - Joshua
Wargames, 1984

[Lyroschen]

Hehe, yeah, but that was Tic-Tac-Toe and global thermonuclear war, not chess...

In this environment of constant change, waiting for your opponent to move when you're a step behind doesn't improve your position. Decifering the current schema is worthwhile, since any future changes will likely build on the current state.

But, at any rate, we'll know when we know. And to know before then would be irrational.

[Ratt]

In this environment of constant change, waiting for your opponent to move when you're a step behind doesn't improve your position. Decifering the current schema is worthwhile, since any future changes will likely build on the current state.


This is a contradictory quote...

If it's constantly changing, how can you be a step behind? Maybe if you said it was constantly moving forward... but it's not; it's just changing. Just because it changes doesn't mean you are automatically falling behind. Waiting on things to settle down into a final configuration is far more efficient than "fixing" something, only to have it change the next day.

Contrary to popular opinion, there's no secret here... up until now, it's basically just monkey work. E.G. it's just brute force. There's no magical trick to finding opcodes. Anyone can really do it, with a minimal amount of "training." The recent changes makes it a bit different now than in the past, though...

Now, without saying anything further that people will take as gospel, I'm going to leave it at that. I haven't made any statements "officially" right now, and nothing I've said is even meant to be "unofficial." I am _NOT_ commenting on any current happenings right now, so please do NOT read anything into what's I've said here. I just wanted to clear up a couple misconceptions.

[don'tdoit]

So, Ratt, what you are saying then is that it will be fixed by tonight? got it, thanks!

[coolzero16]

^^ yeah thats what i got out of it too :D

no but really, i think its more like evolution. sony changes the code, we adapt....sony changes the code......we adapt.....cycle

ever seen alice in wonderland in the queen seen where shes running in place?

its kind of like that..not really moving anywhere just adapting to the environment to surivive

[Jillian]

Originally posted by Ratt

There's no magical trick to finding opcodes. Anyone can really do it, with a minimal amount of "training." The recent changes makes it a bit different now than in the past, though...
I am very interested in helping out here as I imagine many of the readers of this forum are. Could you elaborte on what is involved with the "training" needed to find opcodes? I've searched through all threads containing "opcode" but was not able to find the procedure in order to find new opcodes. Any link or reference would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Mr. Suspicious]

I am very interested in helping out here as I imagine many of the readers of this forum are. Could you elaborte on what is involved with the "training" needed to find opcodes? I've searched through all threads containing "opcode" but was not able to find the procedure in order to find new opcodes. Any link or reference would be appreciated. Thanks.


- step 1 : capture the packets
- step 2 : look at the packets and start working on decyphring them. (look for things in them that are recurring, match them with eachother, look for cleartext parts in the compressed and uncompressed packets that give away the contents of the packets, look for certain hex values (levels, your current HP, stat values, item values etc. etc.) in the compressed and uncompressed packets that give away the contents of the packets etc. etc.
- step 3 : Realize You've just started your training.

[Poncho]

Which Utility/technique do you prefer to work with Mr. S? (for packet capturing)

Any recommendations/particulars which you've found in your experience to be "easier" to work with than others?

[who_me_use_seq]

Capturing packets is capturing packets. How you choose to munge em after you have em is largely a matter of personal disposition. Most of the utilities that you might use will allow you to display, hilight, sort, in any combination of several ways. However I suspect, just from what I have observed of the nature and the temperment of the denizens of these boards that many of them use lower level tools, and higher level skills to do their inquiries. I.E. grep, perl scripts...etc.

Take note that I am not one of the people who are particularly skillful at this sort of activity, so any speculation on my part might very well be complete horseshit. But then you take that chance with anyone posting on a forum board.

[Jillian]

Originally posted by Poncho
Which Utility/technique do you prefer to work with Mr. S? (for packet capturing)
Starting out new to this I've been searching around this morning for different kinds of packet sniffers, surprisingly most are windows based. I am looking forward to hearing from the devs what they use but here's what I've found so far... going to download a few and check them out.

Analyzer: a public domain protocol analyzer - Free
http://analyzer.polito.it/

EtherPeek for Windows - Demo/Purchace
http://www.silkstream.com/products/etherpeek/

Sniff'em™ 1.1 - Demo/Purchase
http://www.sniff-em.com/

Distinct Network Monitor 4.1 - Demo/Purchase
http://www.network-monitor.com/

ANASIL 2.2 - Demo/Purchase
http://www.anasil.net/

CommView 4.0 - Demo/Purchse
http://www.tamos.com/products/commview/

TracePlus®/Ethernet 2.91.000
http://www.sstinc.com/home_ethernet.html

Penguins IP-analyzer, v0.07 - "This webpage lets you input part of an IP-packet and get it analyzed." ...
http://zyxel.trc.dk/?lg=uk

Sucks feeling like a newbie all over again (never worked with packet sniffing before) but it's never too late to start. :)

[Poncho]

I think you can at least triple that list if ya look a bit longer.

That's why I asked in the first place. I certainly dont mind doing my own searches, but still nothing will match the hands-on experience some of these people have here. Maybe just a point in the direction and a few of us can go from there.
;)

[Mr. Suspicious]

It's important to know I'm a "minimalist". Commercial programs usually don't give me the options that I like/need.

In the matter of capturing packets it doesn't matter if you do it on the windows or on the linux platform. Theoretically they can be captured from either.

What I did to start figgling things out is install Winpcap on windows. Most commercial programs are branched from their source (or Lipcap on Linux) anyway.

Then take their pktdump MSVC++ example, look how it works, adjust it to my needs, compile and work from there (adjusting the program to do the comparing and decrypting for me each time I discover a bit more) You'll need to attach zlib in it at some point (since most packets are compressed)

This not only gives you the opportunity to learn about EQ specific packets, but also will help you understand ShowEQ source better.

[Poncho]

Am I on the right track as far as the compression/deflate goes? Or are we dealing with a different beast entirely?

http://www.gzip.org/zlib/feldspar.html

<edit> With more searching, been many references to XOR-64bit...I havnt seen references connecting ZLib and XOR however..am I incorrect? <edit>

[UncleBen]

here's my favorite sniffer. it's free and has version for Windows and Linux

http://www.ethereal.com/

[TDES]

Sniff-em 1.1

Tools -> Settings -> Capture -> Packet List

( ) SEQ

coincidence .... ? <wink>

[millie]

Another hint for decoding. Go to the arena at a time when you can be the only player or mob in the zone. Makes it much easier to isolate packets and tell which is which.