IW.Net Causes ISP Banning?

[Webbie]

It just seems more and more problems have been deriving out of Infinity Ward’s decision to neglect dedicated server support and their last minute plan P2P announcement with IW.net.

Gamers has been complaining that IW.net leads to threats from termination from their ISPs for “running servers on their home connection” and “excessive file sharing through peer to peer connections.” I am by no means an ISP security expert but I believe you have got to spend a whole lot of time playing to bring up that red flag.

Several gamers have been downgraded to dial-up or spend hectic phone conversations explaining the dilemma to their ISPs, some even faced higher phone bill charges. IW.net forces a good portion of MW2 players to violate the terms of most ISP providers as you can see here. I am curious, any of our readers have this issue yet?

I received a letter from time-warner cable which I would type out but it would take me 20 minutes. the letter basically says that they think I have a virus thats sending/receiving information.”when computers that are connected to the network become infected with viruses and other intrusions, serious problems can arise, such as degradation of network performance and he infection of other users” It directs to link for virus removal. I can assure you I do not have a virus as I did a fresh install of windows 7 the day before mw2 came out. I dont open any emails, and really the only thing I do on that computer is play games. Its my gaming computer, I use my laptop for everything else and I know 100% I do not have a virus nor have I had.

They say “We ask you to bear in mind that continued violations of the road runner acceptable use policy can result in suspension or even termination of your road runner account”
This is complete and utter bull crap. Thanks Infinity Ward/Activision for nearly getting my internet shutoff. Im done with this game.

Source: http://www.infinityward.com/forum/vi...03408#p3226134

I got a call from my ISP saying this:

Dear Customer
It has come to our attention that you are running servers on your home connection.
While this is not allowed, we inform you that measurements can be taken when continuos usage.
We regret to inform you that hosting servers at your home connection is not allowed, we have special packages for server connections.

Now this is translated from my native language, I had to call up my ISP and tell them the problem.
This is a serious problem, IW is just using your computer to host the games.
I work as a network admin myself and had to explain myself to my ISP why this is happening.
Most of the times i’m leaving games that i’m hosting because i don’t want my connection to be used as gameserver.

IW fails to see that UPnP and a open NAT is dangerous to your network.
Source: http://www.infinityward.com/forum/vi...?f=24&t=203272 (Deleted topic)
Yeah now peoples internet bills are coming in, everyone is getting things like this. My friend got stuck with a $40 addition to his internet bill. Hes since deleted his game and wont touch it again because its not hardly worth that type of expense

Source: http://www.infinityward.com/forum/vi...03408#p3226180

i’ve already gotten a mail from my isp telling me they are reducing my 20 meg line to dial up speed for the next month for “excessive file sharing through peer to peer connections” and i will be cut off if i persist.
tried telling them that its a pc game thats causing it, their reply is pc games do not use p2p

Source: http://www.infinityward.com/forum/vi...03408#p3226954

Source: http://www.gossipgamers.com/another-...l-isp-banning/







Regards

[rudedog]

I had commented on this via twitter this am, after seeing it on Digg.

unless someone has an actual letter they can scan in or take a picture of, I would not believe too much into this.

If this where true, we'd have seen more of these letters from all the xbox users out there who have been playing this way for a lot longer then MW2's been out.

With that said, I would love to hear from someone directly, who has received a letter, phone call or email from their ISP.

[Webbie]

Originally Posted by rudedog

If this where true, we'd have seen more of these letters from all the xbox users out there who have been playing this way for a lot longer then MW2's been out.

Good point - must admit I hadn't even thought of this.





Regards

[England4eva]

Is it possible that due to the Xbox being standard that the hosts are divided more evenly, everyone has the same hardware and a good portion have good connections, thus more Xbox users become the host spreading the load and lessening the impact on one user.

In the PC case the user with the best PC and best connection becomes the host, add to that the lesser users, then maybe the same users over and over are being the host, less hosts means more impact on individual users (hosts) and as such are sparking these few letters by ISPs.

I could be totally wrong, was just a thought that might shed some light on why its happening to PC users and hasn`t been heard of in the console world.

[zeroy]

Even i'd like this to be true i say its BS. I work for an ISP (last 5 years) and i know a little on P2P and ways of monitoring / screening.

I fail to see how MW2 via IWnet would cause this.... unless the ISP actually screens outside the usual P2P range (MW2 uses a range outside P2P usual ports, see below)

MW2 ports:

UDP 27000 to 27015 inclusive (Game client traffic)
UDP 27015 to 27030 inclusive (Typically Matchmaking and HLTV)
TCP 27014 to 27050 inclusive (Steam downloads)
TCP 27015 (SRCDS Rcon port)
UDP 1500 (outbound)
UDP 3005 (outbound)
UDP 3101 (outbound)
UDP 28960

P2P usual suspects:

kazaa

1214 tcp
1214 udp

edonkey and clones

4661-4672 udp
4661-4672 udp

winmx and napster

tcp from any to any 6257
udp from any to any 6257
tcp from any to any 6699
udp from any to any 6699

bittorrent

6881-6889 tcp
6881-6889 udp

gnutella

6346 tcp
6346 udp

eMule is a clone of eDonkey  (all tcp)
5555
4242
3306
2323
6667
7778

As Rudedog, unless i see a real letter i wouldn't beleive a word. I would however say that the advice from IW to put IP of the PC in DMZ is not great security wise and it could lead to PC catching nasties for being exposed.

[DPGmaximus]

Yea I agree. Unless I see an actual letter its hard to say that is what is actually going on.

Kinda off topic, but is there any possibility that IW would re-consider a future patch that would give PC gamers the option of either IW.net match making or in game browser with dedicated servers? They claim to want to give PC gamers the best online experience out there. Why not give the PC gaming community the option for IW can see that a huge majority of PC gamers will obviously choose an in game browser with dedicated servers?

Last, if IW would not re-consider this do any of you guys think they would consider doing something like paying for DLC, but instead of a map pack or w/e it would simply be what all of us want and that is dedicated server support with an in game browser? I mean lets face it IW is obviously all about making tons of money so why not offer something like this?

Rudedog, you have a lot of pull in the PC gaming community. What would you think about possibly getting a large amount of the PC gaming community behind you again and do another webcast with the BashAndSlash guys again or something? I am taking something huge like how everyone stood together when IW dropped the bad news about IW.net and what not. Just a suggestion.

[rudedog]

It aint going to happen. IW is so stuck on themselves they could care less from our "very small but vocal" group.

Sorry to say but it's a lost cause, time to move on and let MW2 fade from the community spot light. Only when the numbers are down or they want to push their next game will they start to listen.

[rudedog]

I should clarify, if I thought there was the slightest possibility of this happening I would give it 110% but after seeing how IW waited for the last possible minute to release this info, after telling me personally as well as 402 publicly that there would be dedi servers. All I can say is IW does not give a flying rats ass for what the communities who would like dedicated servers would want. You know they would have to remove all the commented code out and recompile for this to work. We know it's in there but turned off by choice.

If they where so concerned they would at least be interacting with their so called customers, asking them how things are going on the PC. Saying things like see we knew what we're doing, look at the online steam numbers. We told you to trust us.

The only thing they we're hearing is a lot of very loud silence.

[DPGmaximus]

Yea I hear yah. I received the game as a Steam gift a couple of days ago and sometimes it takes a few minutes just to connect to a host because of iw.net compared to the good ol' days of connecting to the in game browser and then choosing a dedicated server to join. Anyhow, thanks for the heads up Rudedog.

[Acidrainopg]

Why wouldn't i be surprised? After all it is activision!