To: christian-ops@draaw.net From: Richard Ashton Subject: %CHRISTIAN-OPS problems in recognition by bots Cc: Bcc: #c-chat short list X-Attachments: In-Reply-To: <20010407043714.31505.qmail@draaw.net> References: <20010407034449.30045.qmail@draaw.net> This email may be more useful to new ops, but please would everybody read it. It will be available shortly as a text file in the downloads library on the website. ======================================= So the bot doesn't know you :( This is really a short discourse about hostmasks - so that the bot knows you, and the pitfalls that can befall. It follows exactly the same philosophy as to how you set a ban. If you look at your electronic signature that you get with doing a /whois on yourself, you will see that the first line is divided into two sections, seperated by an @ The first portion describes you as an individual; the second portion describes the service provider you are currently using. The second portion may be four blocks of numbers, each block seperated by a "." or it may be a series of similarly seperated text and/or figures ending in a providername.com or .something else take these widely different signatures for example... [09:53] *** Joins: Shilla (uiuiui@194.102.76.68) [09:55] *** Joins: eclectric (eclectric@cc966392-a.spdwy1.in.home.com) [09:55] *** Joins: Ratty` (Leveller@host213-122-15-170.btinternet.com) [09:55] *** Joins: seizure (louise.cle@m214-mp1-cvx1a.lis.ntl.com) [09:57] *** Joins: CanadaGod (Monicabing@66.59.147.214) [10:02] *** Joins: Belle707 (Ozzy_@ip206102035088.dlup.ezwv.com) [10:03] *** Joins: satva (satva@131tvc012.chartermi.net) [10:18] *** Joins: dreamer1 (~peter@ACAB02B8.ipt.aol.com) [10:18] *** Parts: kumquat (louise.cle@m22-mp1-cvx1b.lis.ntl.com) [10:20] *** Joins: Bobbo (kl@async37-bri-isp-3.nas.one.net.au) some providers use random dialin information (like aol) or geographical info (like one.net.au - the one shown was from Brisbane) - generally speaking what goes between the @ and the provider's name is not relevant and can be replaced by a "wildcard" - the ubiquitous * now bots will identify someone - for authentication as an op - or for banning - by looking at nick (if so instructed) and userid and provider It follows this pattern... nick!userid@*.provider The ! is a seperator so you could identify the last one like this... Bobbo!kl@*.one.net.au You can see how easy it is to set a kick or a ban on an unsuitable nick such as devil666 - like this... devil666!*@* That "Bobbo!kl@*.one.net.au" is now a complete mask for opping or banning, BUT that person would only be recognised if they ALWAYS used the nick of Bobbo so we should adjust it to read *!kl@*.one.net.au But suppose Bobbo came in with a ~ before his userid because the server he was on hadn't done an ident succesfully? (like dreamer had on that list) - Simple, you place a wildcard * after the ! and before the kl meaning "anything before kl" thus... *!*kl@*.one.net.au Suppose Bobbo came in as ~akl@12345678.one.net.au - the mask would fit but ~kla@12345678.one.net.au would not The bot wouldn't see that as the same person as before - and it would be ban evasion if previously banned, and a new ban would need to be set; and if that person was an op, the bot wouldn't recognise him/her either. So, if you are an op, don't muck around with the userid section of your login. Or if you do, realise that you will need to do a /msg logos3 ident password handle (or /msg logos9 the same) and get the bot to recognise you before you can log in. This will mean the bot ends up with a long list of who you might come in as. Another point. Often when a mask is added BY THE BOT, it will not place the * after the ! which means if you come in without a server ident and have the ~ there, you won't be recognised. Senior ops usually look for that sort of thing when you are first added, but they can get overlooked. We are only human :) Now where do you set what your userid is? In mIRC go to options (second button from the left on the top toolbar), go down to Identd, and type in what you wish your userid to be there, then make sure there is a tick in the box "enable ident server", click OK and it is saved. Then shut down mIRC and resart it. Changes won't be there until mIRC is rebooted. There is another way to do this. The old fashioned way, using the command line. You can type /identd ... for example /identd on vegemite and that will actually change the identd info on the option tab for you. You will still need to quit mIRC and reboot it, though, before it takes effect. But it might be quicker :) Which bots is this info needed for? logos3, logos4, logos7 (in undernet.org) logos9, CStar (in starlink-irc.org) Note... This is no longer needed for X in undernet.org ; the new X will log you in as authenticated on ANY user@host you have, provided that you know what your registered username and password are. Perhaps not as secure as CStar and logos. Richard/eagles