Securom have to patch each ArmA patch!

[mpaint 0]

I buy ArmA English boxed retail on DVD from a Mall chain, install it on the host OS and patch it to 1.05

And it starts sometimes, not others claiming the DVD is a copy. It isn't!!

It doesn't alternate success/failure. It may fail 3 tries, then starts on the 4th, 5th, 6th attempts.

There's no common factor, I can have MS VPC, Truecrypt running, stopped, not started. System rebooted. The systernals suite sits unstarted on my harddrive

If I run LaunchAnalysis, it'll start the next time, but LaunchAnalysis isn't always on the right click menu

OK it's SecuRom, lets email them the Analysis file and see what they come back with

They recommend replacing the 1.05 arma.exe with their websites <span style='color:red'>link removed by moderator</span> version

That fixes the problem

Hooray

I then enquire if this fix is being incorporated into the next BIS version?

"Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, every time you download a new software update from the publisher you will need a new game EXE from us as well.

Best regards, SecuROM Support Team"

Soooo everytime BIS do an update, and I'm assuming ArmA's a work in progress, I have to hope SecuRom the company, will spend the time to make their own patch, promptly, for just me? in effect forking the BIS code each time.

Is this sanctioned by BIS?

Who is Morphicon?

OpFlash is still going 7(?) years later. Will it be economic for SecuRom/BIS to provide ArmA patches for 7years?

Am i better off returning ArmA now, than getting hooked before being locked out years down the track?

Why isn't a one stop shop approach adapted for patch management?

Hardware spec

AMD 3500x2, 3Gig Ram, dual NVIDIA Raid1 volumes (4 SATA drives) , 2 IDE DVDR drives, USB external Drives, USB thumb drives, Nvidia6600GT dualheaded.

Software

XpSp2 , Virtual PC2007, True Crypt, Sysinternals, Wireshark, Kaspersky

[dirtylarrygb 0]

I buy ArmA English boxed retail on DVD from a Mall chain, install it on the host OS and patch it to 1.05

And it starts sometimes, not others claiming the DVD is a copy. It isn't!!

It doesn't alternate success/failure. It may fail 3 tries, then starts on the 4th, 5th, 6th attempts.

There's no common factor, I can have MS VPC, Truecrypt running, stopped, not started. System rebooted. The systernals suite sits unstarted on my harddrive

If I run LaunchAnalysis, it'll start the next time, but LaunchAnalysis isn't always on the right click menu

OK it's SecuRom, lets email them the Analysis file and see what they come back with

They recommend replacing the 1.05 arma.exe with their websites <span style='color:red'>link removed by moderator</span> version

That fixes the problem

Hooray

I then enquire if this fix is being incorporated into the next BIS version?

"Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, every time you download a new software update from the publisher you will need a new game EXE from us as well.

Best regards, SecuROM Support Team"

Soooo everytime BIS do an update, and I'm assuming ArmA's a work in progress, I have to hope SecuRom the company, will spend the time to make their own patch, promptly, for just me? in effect forking the BIS code each time.

Is this sanctioned by BIS?

Who is Morphicon?

OpFlash is still going 7(?) years later. Will it be economic for SecuRom/BIS to provide ArmA patches for 7years?

Am i better off returning ArmA now, than getting hooked before being locked out years down the track?

Why isn't a one stop shop approach adapted for patch management?

Hardware spec

AMD 3500x2, 3Gig Ram, dual NVIDIA Raid1 volumes (4 SATA drives) , 2 IDE DVDR drives, USB external Drives, USB thumb drives, Nvidia6600GT dualheaded.

Software

XpSp2 , Virtual PC2007, True Crypt, Sysinternals, Wireshark, Kaspersky

erm, you running alot of tools that are not common.

You could ask Secure rom to help you patch.

or install a XP Sp2 with nothing but games on it. These issues are becoming more common as rainbow Six had copy protection that also annoyed alot of legit software.

Also some software seems to annoy your DVD drive, I almost postive Starforce used by Ubisoft annoys the copy protection used by some EA games. once i got rid of starforce using the software provided on the starforce website my EA games were happy.

I don't run vista so have no idea how these effects vista but its becoming more common now to have an install for games, then an install for webbrowsing and all other software. Games are kinda funky and all sorts of software or DRM issues can really annoy them.

Virtual PC2007, True Crypt, Sysinternals, Wireshark, Kaspersky.

The above are causing some sort of issue, you can struggle on or just do a clean Xp just for games and probably then not have these issues.

Alot of people will say why have two OS'es? But it just time saved trouble shooting when you could be gaming. it's kinda worth it. The thing you learn from the consoles is if you just run games and nothing else they are amazing reliable.

I started using this appraoch years ago when i found so many pieces of windows software could annoy 3d studio max

[Maddmatt 1]

Why has the link to the new *.exe been removed by a mod? It could be useful to other people.

[Bram 0]

Why has the link to the new *.exe been removed by a mod? It could be useful to other people.

Including those who haven't purchased the game maybe?

[SeppSchrot 0]

*rofl*, this is sick.

A copy-protection manufacturer hosts a file to fix something they have broken which allows pirated software to run.

[Maddmatt 1]

Why has the link to the new *.exe been removed by a mod? It could be useful to other people.

Including those who haven't purchased the game maybe?

Well then links to official patches and the BETA patch should also be removed . Unless it's a cracked *.exe, it's not going to help piracy. Nobody said it was cracked.

[mpaint 0]

Dual booting has a 2 minute (may vary) turnaround to (save your work, shutdown, restart, logon, update) swap between two different windows desktops on the Same harddrive

If one becomes infected, they both become infected.

And if you load a third one, like Linux or Vista, then there's a risk,conflicting bootloaders will need to be fixed before you can choose an OS.

Free MS VPC lets you run multiple OSes (XP32, Vista RC2, Ubuntu Edgy) simultanously on their own virtual harddrives. If one gets compromised then the others survive. You can "Pause" VPC's instantly, jump into a game on the host, jump out and "Resume" the VPC's and be right in the middle of what you were doing

So VPC's cost 2 seconds to toggle between 3 or 4 OS's to Games and back and doesn't make you lose your state of mind (opened windows, command prompts or files)

Dualbooting costs 4minutes to switch to games and back between two windows desktops, and you have to start from scratch each time

If that makes you impatient then you get sloppy and start migrating work from your clean desktop to the unprotected, unencrypted, games desktop which gets regular self extracting exe's of mod's from people with Verbs for names.

And if each makers copy protection fights with it's rivals, either you have a boot OS for each brand of games, and patch them and purchase activated AV protection for each one, as the weakess one will infect the others.

Or you wave the "Sale of Goods Act" at the retailers, and toss the opened box back at them for a full refund, as it's not "fit for purpose"

And with the risk of undetectable once installed rootkits arriving through holes in IE, Flash, Firefox, Email, and Antivirus programs that don't offer 0day protection. The Free Microsoft-Sysinternal tools are one of MS's officially recommended tools to troubleshoot windows issues.

Kaspersky has the highest detection rate for day old viruses, and updates every 2hours. Symantec in comparision has a 60% failure rate and updates weekly

MS VPC acts as condom. Dualbooting is closer to double peneration, with twice the risk of having getting the boot code infected.

Wireshark acts a doubleblind, since AV on a Rooted OSD can't detect the rootkit. but the packets on the wire are unprotected. So if the CAT5 is full of spam, DDOS'ness or Tor, hey that's a clue!

But this all irrelevant.

My PC is shaped to fit me, to fit my workflow, to have the tools I need. It comes up to my high standards of malware paranoia, why should it be made vunerable to match a games developers company managed workstation?

[mpaint 0]

Just as some background

The URL was removed because "Securom provides this file for your purpose, and not for general use"

I won't dispute that or repost the URL

But it strengthens my case that I won't be mainstream user, looking forward to uninterupted ArmA. Instead a 2nd class citizen, stopped at a roadblocks everytime a new Bis patch comes out and resets the Arma.exe, until someone from securom lets me through.

My first two emails had 16 hour delays in repsonses, the third and final one went out friday lunchtime (NZ time) and hasn't been replied too yet (monday evening)

It wasn't a critical question which I have to be gratefull for. but it imply that if Arma doesn't start, I'm FUBAR'd for half a week and counting

And this is the early customer focussed 1.05 days. Once the focus shift off Arma, I expect things to get even slower.

The file was hosted on the Securom site so it is Securom santioned.

The customer name it was for, wasn't BIS, but Morphicon.

http://www.morphicon.com/ "Peter Games", has a Arma icon??

The number on it was three digits, so either they are not doing one per user, or the number of people they doing this for is relatively small.

[dirtylarrygb 0]

Just as some background

The URL was removed because "Securom provides this file for your purpose, and not for general use"

I won't dispute that or repost the URL

But it strengthens my case that I won't be mainstream user, looking forward to uninterupted ArmA. Instead a 2nd class citizen, stopped at a roadblocks everytime a new Bis patch comes out and resets the Arma.exe, until someone from securom lets me through.

My first two emails had 16 hour delays in repsonses, the third and final one went out friday lunchtime (NZ time) and hasn't been replied too yet (monday evening)

It wasn't a critical question which I have to be gratefull for. but it imply that if Arma doesn't start, I'm FUBAR'd for half a week and counting

And this is the early customer focussed 1.05 days. Once the focus shift off Arma, I expect things to get even slower.

The file was hosted on the Securom site so it is Securom santioned.

The customer name it was for, wasn't BIS, but Morphicon.

http://www.morphicon.com/ "Peter Games", has a Arma icon??

The number on it was three digits, so either they are not doing one per user, or the number of people they doing this for is relatively small.

mpaint your runnign alot fo software that 99% of PC owners don't.

Your an elite users.

I suspect you will have trouble with alot of games that use copy protection.

a/Either have a completly seperate hard drive with an OS on using an extranl sata link, and disconnect your PRO current drive when not needed.

b/Put up with having to get patches from the copy protection company involved with the game.

c/Buy a PS3 Xbox and play games on that ;}

The issues you are having would effect about 1 in 5000 ARMA users. And you have the technical skill to overcome them. So is this a problem you treat this issue as highly negative as if BIH are at fault.

Even with your multi level PC protection you can still play arma you just have to fiddle when they patch. Should BIh protect there games or just leave them open so we have 1000 TK'ing pirate users on every public server?

perhaps BIh should behave like EMi music remove all copy protection but make the legal users pay 100 pounds a game?

For each each copy of ARMA sold BIh recieve a small amount, the distributer recieve a small amount, out of those amounts the cost of the DVD package and manual come and distribution of the product. The retailer then takes a hefty fee and then you have the price. BIH are not EA or DICE, ARMA makes them a living but with current sales they are not all running round in ferrais just yet.

ARMA has copy protection, if you run complex tools you may have to work a bit. But its the same for many games and BIh need to protect their investment.

[mpaint 0]

The customer name it was for, wasn't BIS, but Morphicon.

http://www.morphicon.com/ "Peter Games", has a Arma icon??

.

mpaint your runnign alot fo software that 99% of PC owners don't.

Your an elite users.

I suspect you will have trouble with alot of games that use copy protection.

a/Either have a completly seperate hard drive with an OS on using an extranl sata link,  and disconnect your PRO current drive when not needed.

b/Put up with having to get patches from the copy protection company involved with the game.

c/Buy a PS3 Xbox and play games on that ;}

The issues you are having would effect about 1 in 5000 ARMA users.  And you have the technical skill to overcome them.  So is this a problem you treat this issue as highly negative as if BIH are at fault.

Even with your multi level PC protection you can still play arma you just have to fiddle when they patch.  Should BIh protect there games or just leave them open so we have 1000 TK'ing pirate users on every public server?

perhaps BIh should behave like EMi music remove all copy protection but make the legal users pay 100 pounds a game?

For each each copy of ARMA sold BIh recieve a small amount,  the distributer recieve a small amount,  out of those amounts the cost of the DVD package and manual come and distribution of the product.  The retailer then takes a hefty fee and then you have the price.  BIH are not EA or DICE,  ARMA makes them a living but with current sales they are not all running round in ferrais just yet.

ARMA has copy protection,  if you run complex tools you may have to work a bit.  But its the same for many games and BIh need to protect their investment.

Games I've got loaded with CD/DVD based protection

Company of Heroes

GTA:SA

Blitzkreig2

IL2 (1, 2, 1946)

Closecombat, 1,4, 5

Online only

Steam (Red Orchestra, DoD, HL2, CS:S and a bunch of demos and mods)

America's Army =< 2006

NO PROBLEMS until now

I'm not saying drop your pant's and touch your toes in the TK showerblock.

But they are releasing an online only version, which obviously can survive without DVD based protection. So I'm not having problems with a fundamental component here, but an optional extra.

In fact it costs nothing to change a serial number, but if an online account like my Steam one gets klined then my reputation, friends list and earned freebies goes with it. So TK wise I don't buy that argument.

I don't dispute their need to boobytrap their product, merely their competence with triggers. This is whats known as feedback, if I don't kick up a fuss, then I won't appear in their future budget estimates under "ongoing support costs"

I will be screwed as opposed to merely "might be" screwed

[dirtylarrygb 0]

The customer name it was for, wasn't BIS, but Morphicon.

http://www.morphicon.com/ "Peter Games", has a Arma icon??

.

mpaint your runnign alot fo software that 99% of PC owners don't.

Your an elite users.

I suspect you will have trouble with alot of games that use copy protection.

a/Either have a completly seperate hard drive with an OS on using an extranl sata link, and disconnect your PRO current drive when not needed.

b/Put up with having to get patches from the copy protection company involved with the game.

c/Buy a PS3 Xbox and play games on that ;}

The issues you are having would effect about 1 in 5000 ARMA users. And you have the technical skill to overcome them. So is this a problem you treat this issue as highly negative as if BIH are at fault.

Even with your multi level PC protection you can still play arma you just have to fiddle when they patch. Should BIh protect there games or just leave them open so we have 1000 TK'ing pirate users on every public server?

perhaps BIh should behave like EMi music remove all copy protection but make the legal users pay 100 pounds a game?

For each each copy of ARMA sold BIh recieve a small amount, the distributer recieve a small amount, out of those amounts the cost of the DVD package and manual come and distribution of the product. The retailer then takes a hefty fee and then you have the price. BIH are not EA or DICE, ARMA makes them a living but with current sales they are not all running round in ferrais just yet.

ARMA has copy protection, if you run complex tools you may have to work a bit. But its the same for many games and BIh need to protect their investment.

Games I've got loaded with CD/DVD based protection

Company of Heroes

GTA:SA

Blitzkreig2

IL2 (1, 2, 1946)

Closecombat, 1,4, 5

Online only

Steam (Red Orchestra, DoD, HL2, CS:S and a bunch of demos and mods)

America's Army =< 2006

NO PROBLEMS until now

I'm not saying drop your pant's and touch your toes in the TK showerblock.

But they are releasing an online only version, which obviously can survive without DVD based protection. So I'm not having problems with a fundamental component here, but an optional extra.

In fact it costs nothing to change a serial number, but if an online account like my Steam one gets klined then my reputation, friends list and earned freebies goes with it. So TK wise I don't buy that argument.

I don't dispute their need to boobytrap their product, merely their competence with triggers. This is whats known as feedback, if I don't kick up a fuss, then I won't appear in their future budget estimates under "ongoing support costs"

I will be screwed as opposed to merely "might be" screwed

I think

wow

rainbox 6

BF2 2142

Anything by Seirra or ubisoft would also have fun on your machine.

You raise a good point about starforce and secure rom having to mess around with each patch. But then the cost of this is probably ok for BIH (if it even costs them) as the danger of legal players being swapped by TK pirates, and loss of revenue etc.

Steam and Bf2 and WOW do handle this in a slighty different way by checking the code when you go online is valid for play. I imagine this is beyond BIH's budget right now. A BIH style Novaworld would be nice, BF2 style player records and medals etc would be fantastic but I imagine they did not have the resources to set that up for ARMA. perhaps game 2.

[wika_woo 182]

That removed link would've been usefull.

This is good stuff mpaint.

I'm still running arma 1.04

[W0lle 1048]

That removed link would've been usefull.

Couldn't you have that posted 5 minutes earlier?

I just sent Maddmatt a PM explaining why I removed it because I didn't wanted to reply to a 4 days old question (was away for the past 3 days).

Securom provides this modified .exe to customers upon request. Afaik each of the executable provided are slightly different (mostly to fix drive compatibility problems).

It makes not much sense to provide such, more or less individual, files available to the public. There might be more reasons but that's the one I know and which made me removing the link.

If you need the file, run the Analysis option from your ArmA shortcut and send it to Securom. If there's a problem with your .exe you'll get a new one from them. Otherwise you don't need it.

[mpaint 0]

Why not do what RedOrchestra did and outsource it to Steam?

But if BI lacks the money and resources to go into profit boosting digital distribution, what makes you think their CFO is willing to break the 80/20 rule and waste money on a minscule demographic. when they should be going 101% on their newest product?

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/03/30

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

You could replace your Securom version by a starforce version. But then you use one activation attempt per patch.

Copy protection not tied to a HW key is always pain in the ass cause they have to cripple the main application

[mpaint 0]

You could replace your Securom version by a starforce version. But then you use one activation attempt per patch.

Copy protection not tied to a HW key is always pain in the ass cause they have to cripple the main application

Actually it's worse than that

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SecuROM

Quote[/b] ]

Unlike SecuROM v4.6, which relied on illegal SubQ-Information, the new scheme utilises "data density measurement" (not to be confused with "data position measurement" as being used by other protections). While the data density on normal CD/DVD-ROMs constantly degrades from the most inner to the most outer sector, data density on SecuROM v4.7 (and up) protected CD/DVD-ROMs is diversified by a certain, vendor specific pattern. This pattern can be reconstructed by high-precision time measurement during software<->CD/DVD-drive interaction and reflects the vendor-key as mentioned above.

To do so the protection defines a set of locations spread over the disc and issue two SCSI-read-commands per location to the drive. As the disc spins, the time it takes for the second command to return depends on the time it takes the disc to do a full round and thus depends on the data-density. To achieve the required timing-precision, the RDTSC command is used, which has a resolution of about 0.28 microseconds on x86-CPUs.

The pattern is made up from 72 locations, each either with normal or higher than normal density and thus reflects a binary pattern which assembles to the vendor specific key mentioned above.

From the looks of it

If either your DVD disc becomes degraded and/or your mechanical DVD drive are slow to reply, then you may miss the valid response window

The DVD drive ARMA's using is a IDE Dual layer, that I added  month or two ago when the other 1~2year old single layer started making coasters.

So maybe it's not software?  Maybe the drives are a bit slow to find the track on the DVD, which is why it works some times and not others?  maybe the patch is just vanilla Securom with a longer timeout value?

Which will make wear and tear on the DVD very interesting , in the future

IT WOULD BE NICE IF THEY ACTUALLY ANSWERED THEIR EMAILS SO I COULD GLEAN A CLUE FROM THEM!

(5 days and counting)

And I forgot to reply to the, use an external drive to ensure data separation, suggestion above

4 internal SATA drives mirrored into two volumes using the motherboard BIOS, require 4 cables to be [dis] connected correctly into their unique sockets

RAID should be wired to scream for help when one just drive is at risk, so it can be replaced.  There will be noise involved when entire drives get unplugged.

SMART hard drive monitoring (according to Google's published real world experience) has a 50/50 chance of actually gettting off an alert, before the drive fails, in a server enviroment.

I run my drives at room temperature, randomly monitored and within a metre of a 65W bass speaker.  Just my "C:\Program Files\Valve\*" subdirectory has 20,000 files totalling 14.2Gig, which on capped broadband will take about 2months to recreate from scratch in the event of a crash.

I like RAID1, it gives me fluffier feelings than my occasional backup to external hardrives do.

As such the risk involved each time, especially if someone phones for something urgent and you need to swap back fast and under pressure. Makes fiddling with cables and risking dry jointing the mboard or rebuilding one split array twice over all four drives, or trying to ram a screwdriver through the sodding alarm, seem a less attractive proposition to leaving the case on.

And I don't run an XP box on the internet without Antivirus.  NAT doesn't protect you against a webpage exploit doing "arbitary execution"

http://www.frsirt.com/english/advisories/2007/0579

Quote[/b] ]

This issue is due to an integer overflow error in the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine (mpengine.dll) when processing a specially crafted PDF file, which could be exploited by attackers to execute arbitrary commands e.g. by sending an email containing a malicious file to a system being protected by a vulnerable application.

Or you gaming passwords nicked

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/10/wow_hijackings/

Quote[/b] ]

Subscribers playing World of Warcraft on Windows machines continue to find their accounts stolen more than eleven months after hackers first began targeting them using a Trojan attack, according to posts on the game's official website. The perpetrators are employing sophisticated techniques that involve hundreds of booby-trapped sites that in some cases use the ANI cursor vulnerability that Microsoft patched last week.

..

The account hijackings are causing considerable consternation among WoW users. "I logged in to my account last Wednesday morning to a naked and penniless Grajtik and associated bank alts," a player who goes by that moniker wrote in an online forum. Many victims have learned of the hijackings only after finding that Blizzard, which publishes WoW, had canceled their accounts, presumably because the hackers have violated WoW rules.

While some of the hijackings were carried by exploiting flaws ahead of an official patch, plenty of exploits have been carried out well after Microsoft issued updates, suggesting some players of WoW still haven't learned the most important and basic security measures.

or your ISP bans you for being part of a botnet

or your CMOS cleared

http://searchg.symantec.com/search?q=clear+cmos+xp which screws up all installations equally.

then you have to worry about it reaching across network shares (4PC lan), infecting USB drives or infecting your motherboard flashable mem

And with just one strain of botnet infecting 1.5 million PC's,

http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=172303265

Quote[/b] ]

. But Simon Hania, chief technology officer at XS4ALL, told the Associated Press that even though the botnet was enormous, it was just "a drop in the ocean."

I would prefer that nobody recomends no/low end Antivirus protection, especially in the shabby web areas the free modders hang out in,