Topic: Anyone Else Go Online With Halo2 Only To Get Banne (Read 1071 times)

Jully · « **Reply #300 on:** November 13, 2004, 10:58:00 PM »

ok if it matters this is my setup and it works fine i have not been banned. i have a 120 gig x2.3b, on c: are the evox dash and ms dash. on f: are alot of backups. i have been playing with halo 2. earlier i turned my chip on backed up a game then turned it off and booted to halo 2 online with no problem. you guys must be doing something as i have not ever been banned

gamefreakgcb · « **Reply #301 on:** November 13, 2004, 11:23:00 PM »

HomicidalMo0se · « **Reply #302 on:** November 14, 2004, 09:49:00 AM »

i have not been banned yet.

i got my xbox last year.

got on live for the first time on my stock hdd last year.

modded it last year.

and then may 20th, 2004, i installed a new 120gb hdd.

used account recovery on the new hdd.

played for a few months then stopped.

got halo 2 11/13/2004 and i deleted everything from my e: and c: partitions to be sure.

played on live yesterday, and i'm still on at this moment.

my chip is still in the ports, but it's turned off of course.

if i remained unbanned, then this means that they didn't start recording the marriages until after may 20th, 2004. if anyone else has the same setup as mine, but a later date, then it would narrow down the date.

i hope i don't get banned. X_x

note · « **Reply #303 on:** November 15, 2004, 01:09:00 AM »

I've not yet dared to try signing on to Live with Halo2.

I'm just wondering... How do you get the xbox to boot it's dash from F: ?
I'll try signing in as soon as C: and E: are clean of files (btw, what are the offical files/folders that should be on C: and E: ?).

andrusk · « **Reply #304 on:** November 15, 2004, 01:15:00 AM »

aggies11 · « **Reply #305 on:** November 15, 2004, 10:57:00 AM »

Not sure if this has been mentioned before (only made it up to page 26, heh),

But,

If I were MS

I'd do two things:

- Only ban maybe %50 - %25 of xbox's found to be in "violation"
- Institute random (maybe between 1-30days) time delayed activations on the ban

What effect does this have? You get conflicting reports, some configurations work sometimes, but the same configuration might not work with someone else. Also, with a time delay, people are unsure of exactly what they did to get banned.

The end result? Increase the FUD regarding the mod scene. So people are not sure how or why they are getting banned.

Remember: Any method they use to determine who is in "violation", can and will be found out by the modding community. And ways around it will be figured out. It is a never ending game of cat and mouse. Meaning that, any person who is reasonably dedicated to modding their xbox (and playing live) will eventually be allowed to do this. This means, that this sytem, is not very effective.

However, if there goal is to not simply to ban everyone that tries to mod, but instead to "discourage modding", it may be alot more successfull. With all the Fear Uncertainty and Doubt regarding what exactly is happening, people are alot less likely to attempt this. (Look at the current state for example). If you are not sure whether or not you will be successfull, alot of people will not be willing to take the chance.

This IMHO, would be a much more effective method for MS to accomplish it's goals. However, it remains to be seen if this is something that they are actually doing.

If it is, then it essentially makes testing useless. A configuration can never really be "proven safe", because multiples successes don't guarantee that it isn't being detected. Conversely, some configurations labelled "bad", will not always result in bans, which makes it harder to tell if they were "true positives" or merely error/background noise found when trying to get information from internet users.

Further, if they wanted to be really nasty - They would use several different methods to detect modded consoles, using the above methods. That would generate so many conflicting reports, that it'd would be terribly difficult to figure out exactly what is going on, based on empiracle data alone.

Food for thought,

Aggies

solid7x2 · « **Reply #306 on:** November 15, 2004, 11:11:00 AM »

solid7x2 · « **Reply #307 on:** November 15, 2004, 11:11:00 AM »

edit: sorry, re-post browser error...

flashfreak · « **Reply #308 on:** November 15, 2004, 01:08:00 PM »

i like aggie's long speech. good thinking.

as some1 said yesterday, m$ may be applying power to the LPC points etc to see if there really is a chip there, and turned off.

maybe some1 without a chip could setup a multi-meter on these points and see if they are testing that?

i dunno much about the chips and lpc points etc, but i reckon this would be a good way to check, then more results and proof could be given

scared_of_msft · « **Reply #309 on:** November 15, 2004, 01:27:00 PM »

Just wanted to add my 2 cents in case this helps anyone. This is probably only useful to a small number of people, but hopefully it helps someone.

I have an Xecuter 2.6 modchip, the 4983 BIOS, stock DVD, stock HD. Running Slayer's EvoX, and the only non-retail things I'm running are NES and SNES emulators right now. No hacked gamesaves or anything.

Never been on XBL before 11/1, never been banned. Had the french game early on, but reformatted the HD and reinstalled EvoX using the Slayer install CD on 11/1 to remove all traces of the french game. On 11/1, setup a 2 month XBL free trial. Tested with Crimson skies, no problem. Been playing H2 since 11/9, and still no problem currently.

Some precautions I've taken: Of course, I only go on-line with the chip disabled. Am using the 4983 BIOS which has some usefulness of not letting you on XBL with the chip on. Moved my gamertag to a memory card, and remove the card whenever I'm not using XBL. Disabled the XBL auto sign-on, and check to make sure it's disabled after every XBL and dashboard update. Finally, keep the xbox disconnected from the network when it's not on-line, and keep the network off the internet when the chip is on, but I need the network (for like FTP).

cyesergio · « **Reply #310 on:** November 15, 2004, 02:59:00 PM »

Ok I've been reading ALOT (Even the big threads...)! I've not been banned yet...A friend of mine called me the moment he got banned, so I just turned xbox off (in the middle friggin great TS game Blood gulch (or whatever it's called in halo 2...)). He got the modified hardware error message. Either their doing multiple tests or something but I really think the LPC theory is a viable one...
Here's what he did to his xbox:

1. Stock xbox
2. Modded it with I believe the Alladin chip and the xecuter bios, no unsigned code not even a different dashboard!
3. Got on live with the free trial (Midtown madness...), mod chip off
4. PLays mostly backup games nothin out of the ordinary
5. However he does plays H2 french off dvd
(however he deleted all game saves!)
6. 11/9 gets H2 retail and creates a NEW gamertag
7. His girlfriends was playing splitscreen with a friend (still signed in) and sees the eject led flashing to chip on mode!
8. Next day he wants to join the TS Bloodgulch party and gets the modded hardware message!

So I'm really thinking MS probes for a modchip or something, and now I'm scared to go on live!

I was thinking on getting my local mod guy to make switch to REALLY cut off the mod chip (eg the power pins on the mod chip).

What to do?!?!

onlycopunk · « **Reply #311 on:** November 15, 2004, 03:25:00 PM »

With all the time being put in to finding a solution, it might jsut be worth the 100 or 150 for a new xbox that is clean and use that for xbox live. It really blows though because people pay for Halo 2, and poeple pay for xbox live, also the xbox console. If they do ban people they should only ban people with copied games, that would make the msot sense, but not with something that was paid for. But then again MS has already got your money, so they could care less what makes the most sense.

otherguy · « **Reply #312 on:** November 15, 2004, 03:53:00 PM »

If anyone needs stock hard drives i'm selling them for $10 each plus shipping. They are unlocked, never been played on Live and have only defeault MS files on them.

Send me a PM if you need one.

mindless_hoser · « **Reply #313 on:** November 16, 2004, 08:07:00 AM »

Just another situation which may or (most likley) may not help:

Chip: Xenium Ice
Game: Halo 2
Live type: 2 month Trial
HDD contents: MP3s, Emulators, and a few utils
Description: Loaded Xenium OS > launch menu > Retail Kernel. Played Halo all night then found that it was banned next time he turned it on(which was late the next afternoon)

edit: This was the first time he had logged onto live.

Al_Ghazi · « **Reply #314 on:** November 17, 2004, 10:55:00 AM »

I have noticed the data light on my XBOX Ethernet port flashing when i play in campaign mode - this seems to indicate that data is being sent/recvd even though I am not using any online resources.

Has anyone ever put a sniffer on the xbox port and see if something about Halo 2 - or the recent dash updates is transmitting information even though the game is only loaded in campaign mode?

I think this runs deeper than looking at gamesaves or hard drives... I think M$ has loaded a spyware package with Halo 2. I'll bet that you can get banned just by having your ethernet cable attached when you switch on your mod-chip - forget active detection MS now watches us even when we are not on XBL - when we play XB-Connnect or Kai as well is my guess - we need to analyse the packets that are being sent and find out WHERE they are being sent.

or - maybe I am just crazy as this would be a major violation of European privacy laws.

If I am right though then we will need to start looking at modifying our router security settings. - it may be one answer.

Regarding thre XBL Banning - Kai is a better place to play anyway. Fuck M$ - The other gamers on Kai are more mature and you have complete visability as to who is playing what games when. I dunno why anyone would ever use XBL with Kai out there.

Ghaz.

Author Topic: Anyone Else Go Online With Halo2 Only To Get Banne (Read 1071 times)