VPN and Tactical Network

Fri, 2010-05-14 14:18

#2

mds

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

VPNs exist today. A network is a bunch of computers connected to one-another, directly or otherwise. Your computer, this computer and the server hosting this forum are all on the same network (the Internet). In addition to that, my computer is on a network in my house, which is separated from the rest of the Internet by a firewall. My computers behind the firewalls can access each other in ways that those on the Internet cannot - it's a private network. The VPN software negotiates a secure connection with the firewall/gateway software that lets my computer (mesh implants, etc.) to behave as though it's part of the private network, even though it's part of the larger public network. A normal characteristic of the VPN is having to prove one's identity, since the user of the VPN is remote from the rest of the network. A tactical network is much more specialized. It's a private network that might involve the mesh inserts communicating directly with each other (using encryption, of course). Failing that, it might use some of the same technology as a VPN to establish connections, but its purpose is much narrower than than that of a VPN. In addition to establishing secure communication channels, it also provides live information about the other members of the network, and allow the coordination of this data. A tactical network might use a VPN as part of its architecture, but it's more than just that secure authenticated connection. In terms of interface, using a VPN would be pretty transparent. I use one whenever I work from home, and it just involves double-clicking on a tray icon, entering my credentials, and then I'm off to the races. With the better key and identity management that mesh inserts and muses can offer, even those steps wouldn't be necessary - you'd join the VPN mostly by willing it, assuming that turning it off was even an option (and for some of the more paranoid hypercorps, it might not be). Interface for a tactical network would vary according to its purpose and the current situation. A description is given on page 205. You might see an overview map with dots representing teammates' locations, x-ray vision showing teammates through the walls along with their lines of fire to avoid accidental friendly fire, health monitors so that you can tell if any teammates have been injured, your current tactical objectives highlighted, etc. Fancier network software might be able to supply more than just entoptics, and give you a sense of nearby teammates as part of your body. You may or may not get their tactical sensations, but you just know where they are, like you know where your hands are even when you're not looking (a sense that, apparently, octopuses lack). You mention of social networking sites like LJ, Facebook, etc. would fall under the heading of social networks (p. 242). If you social network and your tactical network overlap completely, it might be time to start reexamining your life.

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Fri, 2010-05-14 15:26

#3

Kanada Ten Kanada Ten's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

mds wrote:
In terms of interface, using a VPN would be pretty transparent. I use one whenever I work from home, and it just involves double-clicking on a tray icon, entering my credentials, and then I'm off to the races. With the better key and identity management that mesh inserts and muses can offer, even those steps wouldn't be necessary - you'd join the VPN mostly by willing it, assuming that turning it off was even an option (and for some of the more paranoid hypercorps, it might not be).

A nice little cross-pollination with this topic on "Secure position based cryptography". If you lose connection with a tightly controlled network, you might have to visit a (specific) hypercorp office to reset your encryption key.

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Rethink Resleeve Redo

Fri, 2010-05-14 15:46

#4

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

I just though about something and the secure position cryptography, though not directly related to it 1) Are muses counting as users in VPN? for exemple, could a muse exploit ressources of a VPN for the bennefit of her master 2)Can a Muse use spimes belonging to a VPN member to appear either in AR or Simplace to that member even if her master isn't present or even aware? Exemple, a young boy is getting involved with the wrong kind of crowd, or engaged in dangerous activity, can his muse use the spime of the boy's mother's (the boy's familly VPN) office or purse, for exemple to warn her about the boy's activity or acquaintances. While it's going against his immediate benefit, it's for his long term good

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Fri, 2010-05-14 16:56

#5

Decivre

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Quincey Forder wrote:
I just though about something and the secure position cryptography, though not directly related to it 1) Are muses counting as users in VPN? for exemple, could a muse exploit ressources of a VPN for the bennefit of her master 2)Can a Muse use spimes belonging to a VPN member to appear either in AR or Simplace to that member even if her master isn't present or even aware? Exemple, a young boy is getting involved with the wrong kind of crowd, or engaged in dangerous activity, can his muse use the spime of the boy's mother's (the boy's familly VPN) office or purse, for exemple to warn her about the boy's activity or acquaintances. While it's going against his immediate benefit, it's for his long term good

The word "user" is often a misnomer. Computers don't network with people... they network with other computers. When someone accesses a VPN, it is technically their computer that gains access, and they interface the network through their computer. In that same vein, anyone who can use that computer has access to the network so long as the computer is logged in. This is why, for instance, your kids can get on your computer and mess with your email when the window is up. In that sense, yes your muse can be a user... but only because it is your mesh inserts that will be logged in, and it is a part of your mesh inserts. Basically, your muse has full access to anything you do on your mesh inserts, so long as you give it permission (I'm sure there are ways to prevent your muse from accessing system resources you don't want it to). In fact, you can sort of see that concept today: go on IRC sometime and go to any major room where people download and share files. Chances are that you will see a few bots in there, and all of them are granted a level of user access.

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Fri, 2010-05-14 17:17

#6

mds

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Muses are programs running on the inserts. While the VPN might be set up so that only certain programs can use it (e.g. a hidden monitoring program that the user isn't aware of), in general the VPN software operates at a layer low enough that all other programs can use it transparently. Unless the user specifically blocked his/her/its muse from making connections through that VPN, the muse can probably use it freely. I'd imagine that muses could have their own avatars in simulspace, although it might be frowned upon in some simulspaces. I suspect that muses would also interact with the simulspace differently from regular users, since their underlying nature is very different. Even informorphs are simulating a complete sensorium/neural network, while AIs are much smaller and simpler. While they could interact with the simulspace in a meaningful manner, it would be similar to how one can interact with the rest of the game world in something like WoW: you can move around and [i]do[/i] things, but you're not really there. While a muse is unlikely to enter simulspace without its user, it's probably possible (again, barring the simulspace setup preventing it). Your question about showing up in somebody else's AR I interpret to mean "Can the muse alter the user's AR skin to appear as a separate entity, while not appearing to the user?", I think it would depend a lot on the standards surrounding AR skins. It could be that it's considered bad form to skin things that don't exist/exist more than a few cm from your body, or it could be that muse AR avatars are specifically tagged. There's no technical reason why you couldn't have a rule of "My personal appearance features a man dressed as Jeeves standing 1.64m to my left" with those coordinates updated on the fly to make the muse's avatar perform properly. The other person can choose not to view that user's skin, though, or get their muse to block out the other's muse. Can the muse prevent the user from noticing that it's doing this? Sure! After all, most of the AR experience is being mediated by the muse already. Of course, if the user ever learns that the muse has done this without their knowledge, they're likely to feel very betrayed, and the muse might be heading for a trip under the logic probe. As for the case of the muse warning the child's mother, it would depend a lot on how the muse was programmed, where the muse's priorities and loyalties lie, and how many of those the child has reprogrammed. There's nothing mechanical preventing a muse from trying to contact the child's mother; the question is only whether it would. Also, I think you have a misconception on what spimes are. They're not really communication devices. What you're asking is like "Can the muse use the RFID tag in somebody's shoe, or the humidity sensor on the wall to talk to them?". You could probably send a message by deliberately triggering certain spimes that you know somebody is monitoring ("The temperature sensor in hall 6 seems to be jumping up and down erratically... wait, is that Morse code?"), but they're not intended for facilitating communication.

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Fri, 2010-05-14 20:44

#7

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

no, what I meant is that a muse could appear in another's person AR while her owner is not physically present for exemple, a student in the New Beijing University is involved with small bozozoku gangers with ties with the yakuza. The muse feels it's not a safe thing to do, so she use the student's mother's spime where she lives, in Elysium, 5000 kilometers from New Beijing, to tell the lady what her son is doing the spime I had in mind would be one like in Minority report, connected to a mirror, for exemple

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Fri, 2010-05-14 21:10

#8

mds

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Quincey Forder wrote:
no, what I meant is that a muse could appear in another's person AR while her owner is not physically present for exemple, a student in the New Beijing University is involved with small bozozoku gangers with ties with the yakuza. The muse feels it's not a safe thing to do, so she use the student's mother's spime where she lives, in Elysium, 5000 kilometers from New Beijing, to tell the lady what her son is doing the spime I had in mind would be one like in Minority report, connected to a mirror, for exemple

I've only read the story Minority Report, not seen the film, so I don't know what you're referring to in that last paragraph. Could you give me your definition of 'spime' so that we're both on the same page? Access to one's AR is strictly guarded. If it wasn't, unpleasant people do things from spamming you with ads (if you're lucky) to completely rewriting your environment, making potentially dangerous things (pits, your neighbour's black hole experiments, that exsurgent monster, etc.) invisible to you while driving you paranoid with false threats. As such, there's no way for the muse to jump into the user's mother's AR without express permission, which may or may not have been given. In the case of an emergency, the child's muse might be able to negotiate with the parent's muse, but all of this would be much simpler if the muse sent an email with an attached video stream, edited as necessary by the muse to demonstrate its concerns. There's no need for the child's muse to be represented in the mother's AR to send convey its message.

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Sat, 2010-05-15 10:05

#9

Decivre

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Quincey Forder wrote:
no, what I meant is that a muse could appear in another's person AR while her owner is not physically present for exemple, a student in the New Beijing University is involved with small bozozoku gangers with ties with the yakuza. The muse feels it's not a safe thing to do, so she use the student's mother's spime where she lives, in Elysium, 5000 kilometers from New Beijing, to tell the lady what her son is doing the spime I had in mind would be one like in Minority report, connected to a mirror, for exemple

Oh, definitely. I'd imagine that many people will use their muse as an envoy to communicate with others when their owner's are busy. Muses don't necessarily even need to have an appearance at all; your muse can be nothing more than a voice if that's what you want it to be. It's ability to be perceived by others is similarly equivalent to your means of allowing others to see your own AR avatar. EDIT: Incorrect information.

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Sat, 2010-05-15 01:03

#10

Decivre

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Double Post

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Sat, 2010-05-15 10:01

#11

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

how are the Spime in EP exactly? I've read the rules and the RL wikipedia, and I confess myself a bit confused there Exemple welcome!

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Sat, 2010-05-15 10:22

#12

Decivre

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Quincey Forder wrote:
how are the Spime in EP exactly? I've read the rules and the RL wikipedia, and I confess myself a bit confused there Exemple welcome!

At its most basic, a spime is any appliance or device that is net-interactive. Examples off the top of my head include: [list][*]An oven that you can command to start wirelessly. [*]A fire alarm that sends you a message over the mesh when it sounds. [*]A parking meter that warns you with a message when you're about to run out of time, and allows you to pay for more time using an online transaction. [*]Smart clothing. [*]A camera suite at a night club which you can publicly access to find out if you're friends are already there. [*]A network of weather sensors throughout the city that can keep citizens updated on how the weather is changing in various parts of town in real-time. [*]A ship that can be controlled through your mesh inserts.[/list] In short, you can safely assume that most devices in the EP universe are spimes. Almost everything has some level of interaction with your mesh inserts. Even those plain pants you purchased might have RFID tags capable of telling you the wind chill.

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Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Sat, 2010-05-15 11:35

#13

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Saw that there is edible spime etags too, on the food. what could a steak have to say, beside "Moooh"? peremption date? traceability? that brings another question: can a spimed meal be virtually altered by a hacker? Exemple: a hacker is hired by a company to ruin a rival's meat product by twisting the taste by altering the implanted spime's etag, or using the spime a relay beacon to hack the taste center of the consummer brain with a worm or trojan malware is it doable?

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Sat, 2010-05-15 11:59

#14

mds

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Quincey Forder wrote:
Saw that there is edible spime etags too, on the food. what could a steak have to say, beside "Moooh"? peremption date? traceability? that brings another question: can a spimed meal be virtually altered by a hacker? Exemple: a hacker is hired by a company to ruin a rival's meat product by twisting the taste by altering the implanted spime's etag, or using the spime a relay beacon to hack the taste center of the consummer brain with a worm or trojan malware is it doable?

Yeah. It would probably track it's "Best Before" date, which cow (or more likely in EP, vat or fab) it came from, what cut it is, whether or not it seems to have gone off yet. Maybe current temperature, internal and external. The idea of spimes providing taste data is also interesting, but I doubt it would be common. Decent food, you want to taste for what it is, and for the cheap cardboard tasting stuff, most people would probably provide their own sensory overlays. If a flavour was provided, it would probably be sold more like a cereal box toy "Free new flavour with every tube of Soylent Orange!" Most spimes wouldn't be sophisticated enough to mount a sophisticated hack on somebody's brain. The more likely scenario would be a trojan flavour overlay that works fine for Brand A gruel, but if it detects you eating a steak with a Brand B spime on it, it starts overlaying your taste senses with a rotten meat flavour. A more likely scenario would be for the hacker to sabotage the spimes in some other manner - disable the safety monitoring, dampen the thermometers so that they'll cook for too long, push the "Best Before" date back a couple of weeks, etc. ---- With respect to sabotaging flavours based on brand, it would be interesting for people to do this willingly. "I installed this patch from Coke. If I have it in, it makes their products cheaper for me, but Pepsi products taste like pig manure."

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Sat, 2010-05-15 12:50

#15

Decivre

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Quincey Forder wrote:
Saw that there is edible spime etags too, on the food. what could a steak have to say, beside "Moooh"? peremption date? traceability? that brings another question: can a spimed meal be virtually altered by a hacker? Exemple: a hacker is hired by a company to ruin a rival's meat product by twisting the taste by altering the implanted spime's etag, or using the spime a relay beacon to hack the taste center of the consummer brain with a worm or trojan malware is it doable?

A spime food tag could run through your digestive tract, then send your mesh inserts warnings about health problems. If all of your food has spime tags, then your body can actually use these to track your caloric intake, what vitamins you might be deficient in, and how to best supplement your diet. As for a hack, it might occur but likely will be limited in scope. Setting off a poison warning in your mesh inserts, falsely telling a diabetic's mesh inserts that the food has no risky sugar content... things of that sort.

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Sat, 2010-05-15 18:09

#16

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

could a tempered with Spime be programmed to either cause a deadly allergic reaction by sending wrong data to the body's mesh insert? or prevent the nervous system from noticing the body's allergic reaction before it's too late to do anything to save him likewise, can spime info be spread within a VPN? (I think I found another equivalent irl: the groups in instant messengers networks like MSN or AIM) For exemple a sample taste for a wine shared in a somelier's VPN. it's cheaper than sending a millesime bottle offworld/offhabitat.

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Sat, 2010-05-15 18:58

#17

Decivre

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Quincey Forder wrote:
could a tempered with Spime be programmed to either cause a deadly allergic reaction by sending wrong data to the body's mesh insert? or prevent the nervous system from noticing the body's allergic reaction before it's too late to do anything to save him likewise, can spime info be spread within a VPN? (I think I found another equivalent irl: the groups in instant messengers networks like MSN or AIM) For exemple a sample taste for a wine shared in a somelier's VPN. it's cheaper than sending a millesime bottle offworld/offhabitat.

Probably not, but it could hide food allergy information which the eater would normally be informed of before he ate it. Basically, the spime part of the food is likely just sensors. They just inform the user of various data involving the food. Nutrition, expiration date... these things are sent to a person's mesh inserts by food spimes. Tampering could alter this and give false information, but is likely to do little more than that. You'd have better luck tampering with other things, like the fridge (where you could, say, make it go to a high temperature and spoil all his good food, then change it back to standard temperature so he is unaware, then erase any and all sensor data so he is unaware when he tries to eat any of it).

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Sat, 2010-05-15 20:59

#18

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

more on the VPN, now, while watching Individual Eleven (GITS: Second Gig direct-to-DVD wrappup) there is a mention of an interresting kind of cyberbrain: an hub cyberbrain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSVn7B4OkS8 Kusanagi explains it best, so listen to her in the video linked aboveµ

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Sat, 2010-05-15 21:00

#19

mds

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Quincey Forder wrote:
likewise, can spime info be spread within a VPN? (I think I found another equivalent irl: the groups in instant messengers networks like MSN or AIM) For exemple a sample taste for a wine shared in a somelier's VPN. it's cheaper than sending a millesime bottle offworld/offhabitat.

Sending a wine bottle's spime data would be the equivalent of sending a copy of the bottle's label. Potentially proof of the bottle's existence (especially if its data is cryptographically signed), but what people would be more interested would be the XP of drinking the wine. A VPN is not a social network. It's not analogous to groups in AIM or MSN. It's a way of setting up a secure connection from party A to party B, such that both parties can be reasonably sure of the other party's identity, and such that communication between the two parties can't be eavesdropped. Usually party B already has secure connections to other parties, and will relay your messages to them for you. You'd use a VPN connection to communicate with Firewall's servers, or the hypercorp that's employing you. Again, VPN software already exists. If you're not using it now to talk to your friends or share wine reviews, you probably wouldn't be using it in the future.

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Sat, 2010-05-15 21:56

#20

Decivre

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

mds wrote:
Again, VPN software already exists. If you're not using it now to talk to your friends or share wine reviews, you probably wouldn't be using it in the future.

Not totally true. Technology becomes more ubiquitous as it becomes easier to use. People who didn't use the internet 10 years ago are more than willing to use it today, because the internet has simply become easier to use over that time. In that same vein, I never got into usenet and similar newsgroup messaging systems, but I absolutely enjoy modern forums and message/image boards... despite the fact that they are largely the same functional net technology. I imagine that future VPN technology, especially in a world where computers are thought-controlled, AI-assisted, and reality-integrated, will be significantly easier and more ubiquitous than VPNs today.

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Sat, 2010-05-15 22:27

#21

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

speaking of forums are they VPN associated with given social networks, social networks themselves or typical form of VPN? how many VPN do you think use VR as medium for the VPN? exemple in Second Life: the clubs. you need to be part of the staff to climb on stage or you're expulsed out, or even simply to use the tipjars* and dance poles* and pose balls*. Hell, now to even access the clubs (or any other adult rated sims) you must be age verified! doesn't that age verification make it a VPN by nature? *some clubs have openstage events that allow the patrons and VIP to use the stage, poles and balls and got tipjars linked to their VIP grouptags and no, I'm not advertising them, I don't name any here. What Decivre says about more and more people using the web thanks to easier interface is true. My mother, who is turning 74 this summer, has very rencently started to use the Web. Out of health necessity, but not the less, she uses it. So i guess VPN in the AF world is like the use of emails and instant messenger these days, it's widely spread and became mainstream enough that you pass for a backwater hillbilly if you don't have one

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Sat, 2010-05-15 23:12

#22

Decivre

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Quincey Forder wrote:
speaking of forums are they VPN associated with given social networks, social networks themselves or typical form of VPN? how many VPN do you think use VR as medium for the VPN? exemple in Second Life: the clubs. you need to be part of the staff to climb on stage or you're expulsed out, or even simply to use the tipjars* and dance poles* and pose balls*. Hell, now to even access the clubs (or any other adult rated sims) you must be age verified! doesn't that age verification make it a VPN by nature? *some clubs have openstage events that allow the patrons and VIP to use the stage, poles and balls and got tipjars linked to their VIP grouptags and no, I'm not advertising them, I don't name any here. What Decivre says about more and more people using the web thanks to easier interface is true. My mother, who is turning 74 this summer, has very rencently started to use the Web. Out of health necessity, but not the less, she uses it. So i guess VPN in the AF world is like the use of emails and instant messenger these days, it's widely spread and became mainstream enough that you pass for a backwater hillbilly if you don't have one

No, the difference between public access and a VPN is accessibility, plain and simple. Even with age verification, something does not qualify as a VPN simply because anyone who passes the verification can enter if they so choose. A VPN is, by definition, privately secured. Forums also don't count as VPNs. Here are some VPN examples. [list][*]While an instant messaging service like Yahoo! isn't a VPN, a private conversation you open up with one of your friends is. Also, a conference meeting is a VPN between you and more than one other person through instant messaging. Chatroom are not, since anyone can jump in. [*]Phone calls are an archaic form of VPN. The only participants are those that have been called. [*]A series of email transactions between two people. E-mail technology itself is not a VPN. [*]A single online chess game. The chess website or program that the players are using does not count as a VPN on its own.[/list] As you might have noticed, VPNs are oftentimes part of a public virtual network. As for VR VPNs, there are plenty of ways that might occur. Two people having virtual sex over the mesh would likely be in a VPN (unless they are exhibitionists, or trying to start a party). Meetings where two people wish to see each other face-to-face can be done in VR, should distance be a factor. When (not if) tabletop roleplaying is replaced by virtual roleplay, game groups will likely form VPNs for their campaigns.

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Sun, 2010-05-16 00:46

#23

nick012000 nick012000's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Just because you're keeping something private and rejecting other users from joining doesn't neccessarilly mean you've set up a VPN. The term is more specific than that; it stands for Virtual Private Network, and that's what it is: a private network being set up between two or more hosts on a WAN. For instance, imagine the computers in your house, connected by Ethernet cables. That's a private network. Now imagine them all connected to the Internet, and connected to each other using a VPN. Their connection to each other is exactly the same as if they were directly connected to each other with Ethernet cables (though their bandwidth would be rather lower).

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Sun, 2010-05-16 02:08

#24

Decivre

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

nick012000 wrote:
Just because you're keeping something private and rejecting other users from joining doesn't neccessarilly mean you've set up a VPN. The term is more specific than that; it stands for Virtual Private Network, and that's what it is: a private network being set up between two or more hosts on a WAN. For instance, imagine the computers in your house, connected by Ethernet cables. That's a private network. Now imagine them all connected to the Internet, and connected to each other using a VPN. Their connection to each other is exactly the same as if they were directly connected to each other with Ethernet cables (though their bandwidth would be rather lower).

The difference is somewhat scholarly. In a private messaging service, the server acts as the "ethernet cable" connecting two users during a private chat. In a two-player chess game, the game server does the same. At its most basic, all a VPN is is any network of data transmission with access limited to trusted hosts... likely through encryption, permissions, and other standards. What defines a VPN gets very tenuous, especially when you start talking about such things as open-account topologies (technologies like Facebook and MySpace are defined as asynchronous VPNs because only registered users have access, even though registration is a publicly accessible service) or invitation-based topologies (if a wireless conference is considered a VPN, is it still a VPN if I decide to invite the other 6½ billion humans on Earth to join in?).

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Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Tue, 2010-05-18 15:25

#25

The Doctor The Doctor's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

mds wrote:
You mention of social networking sites like LJ, Facebook, etc. would fall under the heading of social networks (p. 242). If you social network and your tactical network overlap completely, it might be time to start reexamining your life.

But what a way to co-ordinate an operation! @Firewall-00 Lock bypassed. ECM online. Move out. @Firewall-01 Under fire! Looks like tracers, @Firewall-02 and @Firewall-04 down. Send #backup! #fml @drone-01 Fire lock acquired. Five rounds rapid. #railgun #friendlyfireisnt @Firewall-00 Got em! #ftw #railgun #drones @Guard Glad I backed up yesterday. #morph #dying #fml

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Tue, 2010-05-18 15:36

#26

Decivre

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

The Doctor wrote:
But what a way to co-ordinate an operation! @Firewall-00 Lock bypassed. ECM online. Move out. @Firewall-01 Under fire! Looks like tracers, @Firewall-02 and @Firewall-04 down. Send #backup! #fml @drone-01 Fire lock acquired. Five rounds rapid. #railgun #friendlyfireisnt @Firewall-00 Got em! #ftw #railgun #drones @Guard Glad I backed up yesterday. #morph #dying #fml

1 New Twitter Post: @Kama Hey bud, long time no see. If you're near my habitat, I could use a rez, plz. You know where my backup is.

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Tue, 2010-05-18 15:36

#27

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

no wonder they're all dying! @firewall01 is tweeting instead of shooting! re-reading the chapter, VPN sound a lot like an IRC channel with slaved FTP server am I right?

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Tue, 2010-05-18 15:40

#28

The Doctor The Doctor's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

mds wrote:
A VPN is not a social network. It's not analogous to groups in AIM or MSN. It's a way of setting up a secure connection from party A to party B, such that both parties can be reasonably sure of the other party's identity, and such that communication between the two parties can't be eavesdropped. Usually party B already has secure connections to other parties, and will relay your messages to them for you. You'd use a VPN connection to communicate with Firewall's servers, or the hypercorp that's employing you.

A useful way of describing a VPN is the longest ethernet cable in the world. As far as the user is concerned (functionally speaking), your system is directly connected to a network across the city. Traffic is routed transparently.

mds wrote:
Again, VPN software already exists. If you're not using it now to talk to your friends or share wine reviews, you probably wouldn't be using it in the future.

Case in point, [url=http://www.openvpn.net/]OpenVPN[/url].

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Tue, 2010-05-18 15:43

#29

The Doctor The Doctor's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Decivre wrote:
No, the difference between public access and a VPN is accessibility, plain and simple. Even with age verification, something does not qualify as a VPN simply because anyone who passes the verification can enter if they so choose. A VPN is, by definition, privately secured. Forums also don't count as VPNs.

VPNs are a network technology. Take a look at these, Quincey: [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network]Wikipedia: Virtual Private Networks[/url]; [url=http://computer.howstuffworks.com/vpn.htm]HowStuffWorks: How VPNs Work[/url]

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Tue, 2010-05-18 15:54

#30

The Doctor The Doctor's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Decivre wrote:
The difference is somewhat scholarly. In a private messaging service, the server acts as the "ethernet cable" connecting two users during a private chat. In a two-player chess game, the game server does the same.

I do not think that is correct. The hosts running VPN software must update their routing tables so that traffic will pass through the virtual network interfaces which encrypt traffic before it hits OSI layer one. Also, the OSI layer at which VPN software operates is different from that of the instant messenger or chess game you postulate: IPsec, for example, runs at OSI layer 3 (the network layer, at which routing takes place). OpenVPN operates at OSI layer 3 or layer 2 (data link layer) depending on how you configure it. Instant messenger services and HTTP/HTTPS (for your hypothetical chess match) are found at OSI layer seven (application layer).

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Tue, 2010-05-18 17:20

#31

King Shere King Shere's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Without going into techno babble. A private messaging service may send to faulty addresses, The message can be lost on route. Unless the sender is contacted or get his sent message bouncing back -they wont know if the recipient got the sent message. VPN connects sender to recipient first (actually both ways). Similar to phone :then they send their message. If they cant connect, senders will know that transfer isn't possible. Less risk for delusions of recipients receiving.

Quincey Forder wrote:
Saw that there is edible spime etags too, on the food. what could a steak have to say, beside "Moooh"? peremption date? traceability?

It could contain a clip art steak trait, that sense emulators would use to identify such a steak (or choose not to).

Arenamontanus wrote:
I can imagine "AutoSense", a software app running on a synthmorph with no sense of smell that adds rose smell when you "sniff" a rose - it is actually a clipart rose smell from a standard public domain database. The pay version of AutoSense even does some nifty mechanics calculations to give you a fairly convincing (if false) sense of touch. In thread http://www.eclipsephase.com/cognition-missperception-reality

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Tue, 2010-05-18 17:33

#32

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

I just realized is Aether Jabber the VPN of Firewall?

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Tue, 2010-05-18 19:49

#33

Decivre

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

The Doctor wrote:
I do not think that is correct. The hosts running VPN software must update their routing tables so that traffic will pass through the virtual network interfaces which encrypt traffic before it hits OSI layer one. Also, the OSI layer at which VPN software operates is different from that of the instant messenger or chess game you postulate: IPsec, for example, runs at OSI layer 3 (the network layer, at which routing takes place). OpenVPN operates at OSI layer 3 or layer 2 (data link layer) depending on how you configure it. Instant messenger services and HTTP/HTTPS (for your hypothetical chess match) are found at OSI layer seven (application layer).

Actually, it still depends. Many classic online games utilized layer 3 during online play (IPX was a very popular multiplayer protocol before 2000). On the other hand, SSL VPNs operate on the application layer (using HTTPS, even). Really, it depends on how the system is handled. Every internet-based protocol operates at layer 7, and most software is rapidly converging to the internet. In fact, I worked on conferencing software that works in the browser... definitely a VPN, definitely layer 7. Computer tech is converging rapidly, and the more it does, the more these labels will become scholarly.

King Shere wrote:
Without going into techno babble. A private messaging service may send to faulty addresses, The message can be lost on route. Unless the sender is contacted or get his sent message bouncing back -they wont know if the recipient got the sent message. VPN connects sender to recipient first (actually both ways). Similar to phone :then they send their message. If they cant connect, senders will know that transfer isn't possible. Less risk for delusions of recipients receiving.

Inaccurate nowadays. Current IM protocols allow for message verification; it will inform you if the recipient receives your message, or if the message will not be received until later. Hell, most IM protocols are real-time, and even inform you when the other user is typing his message. And let's be fair... any virtual connection has a risk of lost data. Even a VPN runs a risk that you will transmit information that will not get to its destination, for one reason or another... latency and disconnects being the most common culprits.

—

Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]

Tue, 2010-05-18 20:11

#34

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

those who access Second Life with the Emerald viewer can have their IM and group chat encrypted, you just have to check or uncheck the option in the preferences menu so, is Steam that exists nowadays a VPN today, allowing thousands of player to join multiplayer games like Call of Duty 4, Counter Strike, etc? and about my earlier question, is AEther Jabber Firewall's own VPN? who get access to it? I mean, can any cell (read: the player groups) access it and use its ressources? AEJ is mentioned a few times in the corebook (like on page 219 and 240)

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Tue, 2010-05-18 21:20

#35

Decivre

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Quincey Forder wrote:
those who access Second Life with the Emerald viewer can have their IM and group chat encrypted, you just have to check or uncheck the option in the preferences menu so, is Steam that exists nowadays a VPN today, allowing thousands of player to join multiplayer games like Call of Duty 4, Counter Strike, etc? and about my earlier question, is AEther Jabber Firewall's own VPN? who get access to it? I mean, can any cell (read: the player groups) access it and use its ressources? AEJ is mentioned a few times in the corebook (like on page 219 and 240)

Depends on how Steam is used. The proprietary Steam protocol is basically designed as such, essentially smart-connecting all involved computers to optimal Steam servers, which then distribute the data directly to those involved in any specific game. It uses redundant packet tunneling by connecting each player to the closest server, then allowing that server to distribute the data to multiple servers, including the optimal one for each player involved. The end-result is that even if the connection between the server you are hosted by is somehow affected, you are more likely to get lag then a disconnect since you are redirected as quickly as possible to another server. As for your question, I think that AEther Jabber is a conspiracy/underground chat site for Firewall sentinels, akin to Shadowrun's Shadowland BBS or Jackpoint. I'd imagine that all Firewall agents are given their own personal public and private key designed for sending and receiving data from the site (and it changes frequently). They might even require a a special farcaster to connect. While the Proxies likely have access, I doubt they very much participate in any discussions (since they likely already know the answers to all the things that these sentinels are speculating on). Chances are that they have a couple scanners watching AEther Jabber to make sure that there are no blabbermouth sentinels giving others info that's been deemed need-to-know, and that's it.

—

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Tue, 2010-05-18 21:22

#36

mds

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Quincey Forder wrote:
and about my earlier question, is AEther Jabber Firewall's own VPN? who get access to it? I mean, can any cell (read: the player groups) access it and use its ressources? AEJ is mentioned a few times in the corebook (like on page 219 and 240)

AEther Jabber would be a successor to the current Jabber protocol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabber Jabber is used for instant messaging. AEther Jabber would run over the VPN so that access can be controlled, but it isn't [i]the[/i] VPN. I think the best way to interpret the section on VPNs, especially in light of the fact that everything seems to run on a wireless mesh network, is ultimately "Alice can easily talk to Bob with the knowledge that Eve can't hear what they're saying, in spite of the fact that Eve's passing the packets along. Alice can also be reasonably certain that it's Bob that she's talking to." More formally, it's the computers talking, sending back and forth 1s and 0s. Alice and Bob might be using these 1s and 0s to run a chat program, or Alice could be sending Bob an XP of her eating a donut burger, or Bob could be hacking Alice's implants. Perhaps "Bob" here is actually one of Skinaesthesia computers, and Alice is recording a sale. The VPN just provides an imaginary direct connection between the two of them. To say that an IRC server is like a VPN is like saying "Dark Side of the Moon" is like a CD. "Dark Side of the Moon" might be recorded on a CD, but it might also be on a cassette tape, or a vinyl record. Similarly, a CD might contain other albums. The IRC server is like the music on the album - it can run on a VPN (a CD), but it can also run off of one, or using a variety of other protocols. And the VPN can carry a variety of other types of data - you could use the VPN to connect to a web server, or set up a virtual LAN to play games over with your friends, or to access accounting's computers while you're on the road.

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Tue, 2010-05-18 22:04

#37

Decivre

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

mds wrote:
AEther Jabber would be a successor to the current Jabber protocol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabber Jabber is used for instant messaging. AEther Jabber would run over the VPN so that access can be controlled, but it isn't [i]the[/i] VPN.

You know, I actually was thinking about XMPP when I saw the name, but I didn't think it would actually be a direct reference to it. It's interesting that they decided to back that protocol, since a lot of people are pushing for it to become as standard as TCP/IP and HTTP.

—

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Sun, 2010-05-23 09:23

#38

Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Something occured to me just now could that Maptool thingie be considered a form of VPN? (I never heard of it before seeing the thread in another part of the forum)

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Fri, 2010-05-28 12:01

#39

The Doctor The Doctor's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

Quincey Forder wrote:
I just realized is Aether Jabber the VPN of Firewall?

It sounds more like their private instant messaging platform.

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Fri, 2010-05-28 16:41

#40

Thunderwave Thunderwave's picture

Re: VPN and Tactical Network

mds wrote:
A tactical network is much more specialized. It's a private network that might involve the mesh inserts communicating directly with each other (using encryption, of course). Failing that, it might use some of the same technology as a VPN to establish connections, but its purpose is much narrower than than that of a VPN. In addition to establishing secure communication channels, it also provides live information about the other members of the network, and allow the coordination of this data. A tactical network might use a VPN as part of its architecture, but it's more than just that secure authenticated connection. ... Interface for a tactical network would vary according to its purpose and the current situation. A description is given on page 205. You might see an overview map with dots representing teammates' locations, x-ray vision showing teammates through the walls along with their lines of fire to avoid accidental friendly fire, health monitors so that you can tell if any teammates have been injured, your current tactical objectives highlighted, etc. Fancier network software might be able to supply more than just entoptics, and give you a sense of nearby teammates as part of your body. You may or may not get their tactical sensations, but you just know where they are, like you know where your hands are even when you're not looking (a sense that, apparently, octopuses lack).

I suggest reading the Conqueror's Trilogy by Timothy Zhan for an example of this. It's also a pretty darn good read. ;) One of the classes of starfighter (the Copperhead) requires that the pilots (both of them) get extensive surgery to pilot the damn thing. In one of the scenes it describes the same sort of effect. When the pilot jacks into his machine the cockpit vanishes. He can look around and not see the ship he's in, damage to the ship is felt in the various areas that make most sense (wings in the arms, engines in the legs, etc.), the pilot an look at the other fighters in the squadron and see the other pilot's conditions, targeting data, and ship conditions. In essence the linkage makes the pilot part of his ship and can access all the data it can by looking/feeling it rather then a clunky control setup. I can imagine a Tactical Network could do something similar if everyone has the right implants. Track physical condition, tracking data, targeting data, ammo status, or anything else you can think of. As for interface, I'd imagine that would depend on the user. Frank might prefer a digital visual overlay while Bob might like to just feel what's going on.