This is harder than it might sound, at least if you are using hybrid ircd, which we do.
We have just applied a patch to our services, which means that in the future, you will not have to reidentify with nickserv after netsplits (provided your own connection to the server was not cut).
If you are interested in IRC internals, you can read more about that patch.
We check your IP against some blacklists to prevent abuse. Unfortunately, often times, abuse is done from a TOR exit node. Hence, many TOR exit nodes were blocked, preventing legitimate hackint users from using the network in an easy manner (cycling through different exit nodes usually helped).
We have now resolved the situation in a radical manner: all connections from TOR exit nodes are allowed, no matter how often they were blacklisted. Let's see how it works out :)
Note: should you get KLINED when connecting from an exit node - do not hesitate to complain to us using the email address given in the KLINE message! (You see the kline message when trying to reconnect).
We have upgraded our services package, atheme, to version 5.2.1. Atheme provides our NickServ and ChanServ facilities. 5.2.1 is the new stable version.
A little patching was necessary, as we use a combination of hybrid ircd and ratbox ircd. We believe these patches to be stable. :)
We have also - finally - added support for the +S chanmode to ChanServ's MLOCK command. If you do not know what mlock is, /msg chanserv help set mlock might enlighten you.
As always, ask in #hackint if anything is unclear to you.
Due to a blackout at TU Darmstadt earlier this weekend, one of hackint's servers, lechuck.hackint.eu, will be offline until late monday afternoon. Services are not affected by this. Please use the irc.hackint.eu rotation to make sure you always get a working server.
We've had the pleasure of some spammers lately, and you do have to admire their humour:
18:13 < spamremoval> to get your irc server and channel removed from our spam list, please visit this page: http://bit.ly/dqkvHa
We've decided to fight the spamming problem by checking all users against some blacklists. There's BOPM, but it requires a configuration for each irc server, which is hard to maintain.
Our stats code has been extended; a plugin infrastructure has been added, and the first usable plugin is the security greasel, a creature that checks all users connecting to a hackint irc server against blacklists and issues a kline if the IP is blacklisted.
If you find bugs in the code, or have written a patch, let us know. :}
We generate stats to see which hackint server is used by how many users and how many total users we have at any time.
The old version was buggy, and so we've decided to reimplement it. The current version is written in Erlang, and we already had to use the hot code swapping feature once. The code is available on the commercial platform github.
It's tradition to have a hackint server at the easterhegg. The idea behind this is that if the (usually unstable) easterhegg internet connection fails for any reason, IRC still works.
This year's easterhegg hackint server will be available during the event (probably not before Friday late evening) at easterhegg.hackint.eu.
You can register your nickname on hackint, and subsequently assign rights to it by registering a channel or being added to the access list of another channel. You can also use the GHOST command to terminate an old, yet-to-time-out connection of yours, allowing you to reuse your nick sooner after a network problem.
In addition to that, you can now prevent other people from using your nick: If someone is using your nick, you can have them renamed by issuing /msg NICKSERV RELEASE NICK PASSWORD. After that, your nick is taken by services for 30 seconds, so in order to use the nick yourself you have to issue the RELEASE command a second time.
If you want extra security, you can also enable automatic nickname enforcement. This will rename any user using your nick without identifying properly after 30 secods. You enable it by issuing /msg NICKSERV SET ENFORCE ON.
Today, I'd like to tell you about the little known user mode +g, which has been of use to me in the past.
A little background on IRC modes: Think of modes as attributes for irc channels and users altering their default behavior. There's two types of modes: parametrized modes, and flag modes. There are no parametrized user modes, only channel modes. Parametriezed channel modes consist of the mode character which designates the desired alteration, and a list of subjects it applies to (in the context of the channel).
Now back to the +g user mode. What it does is it prevents any user to private message you, meaning users can only contact you by writing to a channel you are also in. The good thing about +g: you are notified of attempts to contact you, so can whitelist people to exempt them from the ban.
While we have little to no spammers on hackint, +g also exists on some of the more noisy networks.
It was there from the very beginning of hackint: the channel mode +S. What does it mean?
It is simple: +S channels can only be joined by clients connected to hackint via an encrypted connection (SSL/TLS). Until recently, the ircd error message was everything but verbose:
Cannot join channel. (+S)
We've changed this to a more verbose and meaningful error message. I hope this prevents future confusion about this matter.
