Fuck cheaters.
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Valve Anti-Cheat seems to scan your DNS cache, but probably doesn't send it anywhere
- Thread starter Delusibeta
- Start date
Fuck cheaters.
jim-jam bongs
Member
Cookies are very different from DNS cache analysis, and you can visit the advertisers and opt out of that tracking already. There are even browser addons to do it automatically for you.
Super-effective because of course there's absolutely no way to hide your online history. Man, if only there was some way to delete your DNS cache, Valve would be right fucked, wouldn't they? Good thing they've come up with this absolutely foolproof surefire method instead of, I don't know... running MD5 on the game's executable in RAM?
SteveWinwood
Member
Yeah I'm sure you think that, guy who gets all his games for free on steam.
Unhandled Exception
Member
I'm with you man. Incredibly weak way to go about detecting cheats, incredibly convenient place to put something so intrusive without disclosing it to your users.
legacyzero
Banned
Uncle Gaben watching ya'll be naughty.
You can do things like edit your host file to point a ip the game is looking for to another to feed in data to the game yourself.
That's also how many hacks get around drm.
So just because I get review codes for Steam games from devs/pubs I should be okay with this?
I don't see how being a reviewer and this stuff has anything related to each other.
That nothing you ever do online is private.., ever.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
You guys see this is why you don't allow one service to get a monopoly. It's precisely because of shit like this.
This bullshit is the equivalent of saying fuck terrorists when someone is saying fuck NSA. I don't want any fucking corporation invading my goddamn privacy, is that too much to ask? And btw oldmario was right, if this was EA this thread would have exploded.
Marauder Shields
Member
Volvo pls fix. Not like I have anything to hide though. I doubt I'm the only one who watches porn while playing Dota.
Unhandled Exception
Member
There are plenty of methods to keep your browsing history out of the hands of advertisers. But the comparison is completely irrelevant in this instance. Spying on users in such an intrusive way under the guise of making cheating more difficult to get away with is incredibly slimy. Even moreso when your users have to dig around in your code to discover this is going on.
SteveWinwood
Member
So no one posted the always existing reddit counter point yet?
I can't speak l33t but this seems to say stuff.
I can't speak l33t but this seems to say stuff.
blitzcloud
Banned
If it's stored in your pc in a way knowing the data is so easily extracted, you never had privacy to begin with.
Delete your cookies.
krameriffic
Member
Kind of what I'm thinking. Even if you have a known cheating website in your history, what does that prove? That you looked at it, or got linked to it somehow, not that you actually acquired and used cheats in one of their games. What value could this information possibly provide in the noble quest of stopping cheating?
coughlanio
Member
start steam://rungameid/[gameid]
ipconfig /flushdns
pause
And write a similar bat file for each game.
alexandros
Banned
Steam is a front for the NSA confirmed.
Fried Food
Banned
Now they can see what sites gamers go to and make sure to place ads and stuff on those sites.
jim-jam bongs
Member
Can you and the other crazy anti-Valve people go away and let the adults talk? Most of the responses here are opposed to this, maybe wait until it's been open long enough to be widely viewed before you start broadly accusing the entire forum of something.
PetriP-TNT
Member
Oh noes, my DNS cache.
What's next, scanning my disc drive? This is exactly why we shouldn't tolerate this kind of monopolys ruining PC gaming
What's next, scanning my disc drive? This is exactly why we shouldn't tolerate this kind of monopolys ruining PC gaming
coughlanio
Member
They probably use it as a consideration factor if other cheating methods are detected, i.e if Cheating Method A is detected, and they've visited a site linked with cheating, then it's an increased probability that they're a cheater.
Not saying it's right, but...
No time for that. You are supposed to be saying EA > Valve and pretend everyone else but you is OK with being spied on, even if you don't know what or how it is actually happening.
It's a bit different because this is just video games. If you're not okay with software analyzing whether you're cheating (using whatever methods available), then just don't play the games. It's a privilege, not a right.
With the NSA, they're analyzing everything you do in your daily life. Every piece of private communication between people is monitored. It's not just video games. It's regular conversation with other human beings. We can avoid playing video games. We can't avoid communicating with each other in general.
The other big difference is that the (arguably) most powerful government in the world could actually do something to harm you with the data they collect. Valve can't. They're just a small video game developer.
I don't think Valve WANTS monopoly, if they have wanted monopoly, they would not give other shops the option to sell Steam reedemable games.
You can disable the Windows service called "DNS Client". It removes the local DNS cache.
Pro :
- no more entry for VAC to look for
- more up to date resolving when browsing the net (websites migrating server, you get the new server faster; not always tho)
Cons:
- more DNS lookup
- could be slower to browse the net (only the first page) if your ISP DNS server is not fast
As for me, I always disable it because my router does DNS caching, making this second cache pretty useless.
Pro :
- no more entry for VAC to look for
- more up to date resolving when browsing the net (websites migrating server, you get the new server faster; not always tho)
Cons:
- more DNS lookup
- could be slower to browse the net (only the first page) if your ISP DNS server is not fast
As for me, I always disable it because my router does DNS caching, making this second cache pretty useless.
It's not just cookies . Domains you visit are not just stored in one place. Your ip is on many servers through out the world. The Internet isn't point a to point b.
It always was. You think they're actually working on Half-Life 3? GabeN.jpg
The Grim Heaper
Member
Valve, I know I have good taste in porn, but piss off.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
I downvoted it so that the typical Reddit thread logic can continue.
SteveWinwood
Member
Just so we cover all the bases here's the paragraph about cheating in the steam tos.
Pretty vague and open ended there.
Nope, that's just a standard join server call.
And its a custom server so it would have nothing to do with vac anyhow.
graywolf323
Member
what? if anything allowing other shops to sell games that force the user into the Steam environment is how Steam has grown so big
and I say that as someone who loves being able to buy games on sale on Amazon that activate on Steam
Emperor Bohe
Member
c'mon now Valve
Principate
Saint Titanfall
TBF that would mean they'd ban you locally only based on you visiting a site. Which honestly doesn't make much sense. It doesn't really make much sense that an automatic ban without a human interference based on the fact they may have visited a dodgy site.
Either way that's not good,
PetriP-TNT
Member
No it's gets worse Valve could even ban you for someone having an pic that's hosted on a server where an cheating device is located too because that's how these things work.
Woo-Fu
Banned
I don't feel it is an invasion of my privacy when they don't actually give a shit about anything other than what they're looking for with respect to anti-cheat.
I'm comfortable assuming that any number of 3-letter government agencies could sift through anything on my computer whenever they want. It is just easier to accept the reality and go on dealing with real day-to-day problems. With that assumption in mind it is hard to get upset by anti-cheat software seeing my DNS cache.
I'll save my angst for stuff like all the leaves clogging my gutters or that one patch in the yard that I can never get seeded properly. You know, stuff I have a reasonable chance of fixing myself in the near future.
As far as what the anti-cheat software is doing I think people are getting it wrong. It probably isn't looking for known cheating sites. What it is probably doing is looking for people who've setup proxies for various types of auth servers.
I'm comfortable assuming that any number of 3-letter government agencies could sift through anything on my computer whenever they want. It is just easier to accept the reality and go on dealing with real day-to-day problems. With that assumption in mind it is hard to get upset by anti-cheat software seeing my DNS cache.
I'll save my angst for stuff like all the leaves clogging my gutters or that one patch in the yard that I can never get seeded properly. You know, stuff I have a reasonable chance of fixing myself in the near future.
As far as what the anti-cheat software is doing I think people are getting it wrong. It probably isn't looking for known cheating sites. What it is probably doing is looking for people who've setup proxies for various types of auth servers.
jacksepticeye
Member
Isn't that a bit intrusive just to detect if someone is cheating at a videogame? Seems a bit over the top.
Dr D Wayne Love
Banned
jim-jam bongs
Member
This attitude is terrifying to me.
Woo-Fu
Banned
It is the reality we live in, at least in the US. Pretending otherwise is just that: pretending. I'd rather have my eyes wide open than my head in the sand.
Unhandled Exception
Member
It's one of the weakest ways to actually detect cheating that I can think of. They might as well determine VAC bans based on the people on your friends list.