Zugg Software :: View topic

Beginner Joined: 29 Apr 2006 Posts: 11

edit: Sorry just read forum rules, this went in the wrong forum I think.

I think I saw this feature on another client at one time.

I was thinking it would be nice to have a monthly subscription service for Mud Owners for CMUD where we could allow users access to our Muds even though they didn’t register CMUD. The only issue I see with this is some people might abuse it and use the code as a proxy to where ever the user wished to go.

Maybe sort of like the Mud Icon Bids, certain muds could bid on getting on a list and be put on the try or buy screen that’ll connect the client to the associated mud, exchange an authorization sequence and allow them to play. It would also disable the sessions code maybe and connect commands and only allow registered plug-ins to that mud owner.

Just an Idea, bugs are the first issue.

The only other option right now is just recommend CMUD, and hope they go for it.

SSL type mud connections would be cool to, incorporate more security for users.

Ravenbait..
PvP does not agree with me.

Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 6:14 pm

If you can figure out how to solve the problem of those people just using CMUD on other MUDs, let me know. This has been thought about, but I've never come up with a secure way to do it.

The TeSSH client (aimed more at business users) will have site licensing that will probably be based upon a specific IP subnet range. Armadillo copy protection has some features for this kind of thing that I need to investigate. But this doesn't address the subscription idea that you mentioned.

Also, CMUD is already pretty cheap, and most MUDs are pretty poor. So I'm not sure a typical MUD would be able to afford a subscription since it would still need to bring in an equivalent (or more) amount of money for me to do something like that.

Wizard Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 1551 Location: Australia

Have server-side authentication, so when CMUD connects to a 'bound' MUD it has to authenticate itself against the server and the server back at it... so if you try to proxy to a non-bound MUD said authentication doesn't happen so CMUD refuses to complete the connection.

You'll need some kinda time/random-based process so that you can't log the handshake and replay it. That probably means both CMUD and the MUD itself need to have their own public and private keys which authenticate against each other.

Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 6:00 pm

Yes, I know I can use server-side authentication, but the entire point of the new copy protection system is to *not* use server-side authentication. That's why I dumped eLicense in the first place.

Wizard Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 1551 Location: Australia

I'm not talking zuggsoft authentication, I'm talking authentication built into the MUD server... since the MUD is the one paying for the site license, have the registration code built into the MUD server rather than the CMUD client (yes, it will require some code changes, but if you can afford a site license I'm sure you can accomodate some code changes).

Basically the MUD server issues the CMUD client with a temporary license for the duration of the connection... that's what I was trying to suggest anyway.

Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:23 pm

Ahh, ok, I understand now. Well, it all depends upon what Armadillo would allow. I'm not sure how it would handle temporary licenses. I'd like to find something that fits with the current copy protection system. Also, I'm not sure how to deal with the situation where a MUD gives out the license to other MUD servers. Especially if it's a non-US MUD.

In any case, I'm not going to put much thought into this right now. There are lots of other things I need to be working on, and copy protection stuff like this gives me a headache.

I still contend that there aren't any MUDs that could probably afford such a license. As I said, I'd still need to make the same amount of money. It would be complicated to work out a pricing scheme that didn't end up reducing sales, and yet still be affordable by the MUD. Unless I got contacted by some serious MUDs who really wanted to do something like this, it's not worth much effort.

Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:56 am

What if somehow having a registered cMUD accessing a server granted the server a temporary cmud license?