Why most people who cannot connect now will never be able to connect again

[zoolz8l]

Hello,

i have followed all the discussion about possible ip bans, ip range blocks etc and i am affected by it myself. Since i work in the industry myself, i would like to share some insight on the current situation from my perspective and also an explanation why most of us will never be able to connect again (i know this is hard to take in):

What Sega did is pretty much standart precedure. They are not ip banning but blocking a large amount of ip ranges and/or backbones from where the DDOS originated. In my case the trace does not even make it past the third hop which is at my homecountries border.
This is usually the first step. Step two would be to check if any customers are affected by the blocks and gradually opening some of the blocks that affect legit customers and then doing a finer range block in that ip range/region. Then basicly repeat this as many times as you need to make all customers connect again. I think thats the phase we are in now.

Now we come to the bad part: none of us is a legit customer to them and i would be surprised if more than 1% overall profit is generated from the non japanese players. So what they will do is to open the blocks until no more problems exist for japanese players and thats it. There is NO REASON at all, why they would look into the other blocks and invest time and money to make them more specific. In my case that ip block starts at the countries border (germany) at a backbone of my provider. Never ever could this block affect any japanese player. Never. Thats why it is basicly gonna stay active till the end of time ( or when sega shuts down the game in a few years).
Some of you might be lucky and their routing is blocked at a much later hop that could somehow also affect a japanese person. But most of us need to face the cold truth: no more PSO2 without any additional means (vpn etc).

[Maenara]

According to some random person on Bumped:

After making inquiries and collecting data, I can confirm there is not any IP ban/block in place. Backbone Internet Providers are null routing to PSO2.JP at the moment as a response to the DDOS.

[zoolz8l]

According to some random person on Bumped:

This is not very likely. think a bit more about it:
I (and everyone else) could visit pso2.jp a few days ago. But the moment they restart the webpage and the server we could not. If this was ISPs stopping the routing, then SEGA would have talked to hundreds of ISP/backbone providers and coordinate a simultanious block. You allready see how unlikely this scenario is.
SEGA is blocking the ip ranges. For germany, they seem to block one of our biggest backbones that sits at the border of the country. They did this because maybe a lot of DDOS came from germany and this was the fastest way to block all of it. And since we are no legit customers there is no reason for them to ever revisit and look into it again.

[Shinamori]

You must be a platformer cause you like jumping to conclusions.

[nanamin]

My understanding is that SEGA blocked certain IP ranges sometime ago when a foreign group hacked the NPC in PSO2. I'm not aware if these IP where ever unblocked or not. If they had unblocked these IP, isn't there still a chance for ours to be unblocked as well?

[the_importer_]

Guess we'll know in a week or two. Once SEGA states that everything is back to normal, if we're not able to get back in, then it will probably be the end. Guess it will be time to buy a Vita and pre-order PS Nova.

[UnLucky]

If the trace doesn't even make it past the 3rd hop then Sega couldn't have blocked you, your ISP, nor a backbone provider.

There are so many intermediate jumps that for that to be true, practically the entirety of Japan would have to be the ones blocking the IPs.

Just try pinging any other Japanese server (sega.jp is a good one) and you'll see you go right through the same place that stops you within your own country when attempting to route to PSO2.

The fact that the connection fails right out of the gate is evident that the ISP/backbone is the one blocking traffic to PSO2, not the other way around. If Sega had an IP block, you would first reach your ISP, which would then attempt to connect, but fail at some point afterwards, since as far as they know, you should be allowed.


But even if this is all part of Sega's plan, they could still decide to lift it once the DDoS is over. No threat, no block necessary.

[Sychosis]

This is not very likely. think a bit more about it:
I (and everyone else) could visit pso2.jp a few days ago. But the moment they restart the webpage and the server we could not. If this was ISPs stopping the routing, then SEGA would have talked to hundreds of ISP/backbone providers and coordinate a simultanious block. You allready see how unlikely this scenario is.
SEGA is blocking the ip ranges. For germany, they seem to block one of our biggest backbones that sits at the border of the country. They did this because maybe a lot of DDOS came from germany and this was the fastest way to block all of it. And since we are no legit customers there is no reason for them to ever revisit and look into it again.


If ISPs blocked traffic to PSO2's game servers after noticing a DDoS in progress, then SEGA migrated the website to the same location (since they put up DDoS protections there already, why not?) that ISPs were blocking already, once the website came up, it was auto blocked by a number of providers.

Boom. That's the sound of your mind blowing.

The above explanation is the musing of a random person with no IT experience and is not endorsed by PSOW or its affiliates.

[MDashK]

Is it possible to someone to try a program that changes your IP address (no VPN) and try to access the game to see if anything changes?
Assuming that the game servers will see the fake IP instead of your real one...

BTW: If I tracert sega.jp it goes in a complete different way of pso2.jp, and also gives connection timeout, never reaching out.
However, I CAN access the website...

[Hroun]

If ISPs blocked traffic to PSO2's game servers after noticing a DDoS in progress, then SEGA migrated the website to the same location (since they put up DDoS protections there already, why not?) that ISPs were blocking already, once the website came up, it was auto blocked by a number of providers.

Boom. That's the sound of your mind blowing.

The above explanation is the musing of a random person with no IT experience and is not endorsed by PSOW or its affiliates.

I don't... brain hurts.. Halp. D:

[Punisher106]

Dear OP,

Dont be spreading false rumors.

Sincerely,
The rest of the community.

There is no IP block. When the DDoSes stop, these issues will fully lift. I'm pretty certain the cops are knocking on the fucker's door as we speak.

[the_importer_]

But even if this is all part of Sega's plan, they could still decide to lift it once the DDoS is over. No threat, no block necessary.

I wish I could say it was that easy. There are 2 sides of that business coin.

On one side, it's like I said before, which is foolish to reject a paying customer if that last one causes you no trouble. On the other side, if the DDOS attacks came from outside of Japan and their main paying customers are afraid that this may happen again, SEGA may just limit this game for Japanese players.

Kill a few to save the masses in other words.

[Enforcer MKV]

Another one of these threads? *Laughs*

[TaigaUC]

Dear OP,

Kill yourself *snip*

I love the community on these forums.
So warm and caring.

Also, denial is ugly.

[nanamin]

I found a thorough chunk of document about countermeasures against Ddos. Perhaps we can gain a hint on what SEGA might have done:

http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac123/ac147/archived_issues/ipj_7-4/dos_attacks.html

Lots to read, so we can keep our mind busy. In other words, a countermeasure for our minds.
^^