Beware Beware
PreferredByPete.com Enthusiast
"To the nFusion lovers" I found this interesting and wanted to share it
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C/P credit goes to "Jellyworker"
hope this answers some questions hey guys,
with all the free time i've had, i decided to provide a different view to the many opinions of whats happened and how it happens.
please find the attachment of how "I believe" we connect. this is a visio file.let me start by saying i have no inside info, and any network engineer worth his salt would be able to do the same.
heres a list of constantly repeat lines that i believe are false.
1. NF's server is down because they got hit w/ a DOS attack.
this may have happened, but the servers are now up.
2. NF's servers are still down.
the servers are up, but a service has been stopped.
3. If the EMC came from ****, why is bev down.
the emc came from nag. they handle the encryption for both providers. they sold their service (encryption) to both providers and are the sole ones responsible for any encryption changes.
4. (from another section) Why is one channel open (ppv for ufc) and the rest down.
this is a guess, but i believe that there may or may not have been a channel changer counter added. if this is true, only providing one channel will not make this counter increase. this is the same logic behind the thoughts of many of you that iks needs a card for every channel.
5. Why is NF down and other boxes are up.
i've only sniffed a NF box. i would think that since they are all different stb's, w/ different coders, they'd have different servers. this can easily be proven if someone w/ one of the currently up stb's sniff their traffic.
6. I'm experiencing freezing. that must be because they are more users hitting the server and are all changing channels all at once.
the cws are delivered to our stb via UDP. it is a connectionless protocol and is the least reliable of the two. the other being tcp. if we were to sniff during these times, we'd know for sure, but heres my guess. it is my guess that because we use this unreliable protocol, and because of the distance, some packets may return malformed, or not at all. after about 30 seconds of not receiving a response, (cw), we freeze. sometimes this is because of our LAN, and other times, its because of the internet. i personally, don't believe its because of too many users.
now, to explain my diagram. this is what i believe from packet captures and that alone.
traffic from your nf stb hits your lan, then goes out to the internet.
the first reply comes from a access server. this is the same kind of server that large corps use to check virus definitions, OS, prohibited software (ie limewire, torrent) before allowing you on the lan. what i've verified that this server does is check sw version and stb credentials (anything other than nova.... i believe this was done after mac and cheese was created). after you're cleared to move on, you hit the next hop. from looking at the capture, i can tell that the IP is in a different subnet and this would require some type of layer 3 device. (ie firewall, router, L3 switch).
next is what i believe is a cache server. why, because it would be crazy for NF to allow us to connect directly to whatever device they use to get the code words from. also, this will allow the udp packets to be sent back to our stbs faster..(less freezing)
these cashe servers get their cws from other servers on the other side of another firewall. this firewall only allows established and verified stbs to pass. this could be by mac address, but i think that would be a hell of an access-list. finally, on to the farm. here is where i believe the servers and other magical devices live.
again, this is all theory. i'd love to hear your ideas.
i think together, we all can have a better understanding.
thanks for reading.
Added info:
Quote:
one more thing i'd like to add. there are people who say, since we really don't know whats going on, you should unplug your NF because you don't want to stay connected to a down server . or you may as well disconnect from the server since we aren't getting tv. or, just to be on the safe side, i suggest everyone disconnect their ethernet connection. heres the truth about that. unless you just want to save power, you aren't doing anything. again, this on applies to the NFHD because i haven't sniffed other boxes.
after about 3-5 minutes of sitting on a down channel, your box stops sending requests. the requests begin again when you change the channel. so, if you leave your box on all night, on a down channel, you are not connected to the server. there is no LAN activity between your nf stb and anything. the servers nf has do not initiate traffic. this request comes from the stb.
__________________
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C/P credit goes to "Jellyworker"
hope this answers some questions hey guys,
with all the free time i've had, i decided to provide a different view to the many opinions of whats happened and how it happens.
please find the attachment of how "I believe" we connect. this is a visio file.let me start by saying i have no inside info, and any network engineer worth his salt would be able to do the same.
heres a list of constantly repeat lines that i believe are false.
1. NF's server is down because they got hit w/ a DOS attack.
this may have happened, but the servers are now up.
2. NF's servers are still down.
the servers are up, but a service has been stopped.
3. If the EMC came from ****, why is bev down.
the emc came from nag. they handle the encryption for both providers. they sold their service (encryption) to both providers and are the sole ones responsible for any encryption changes.
4. (from another section) Why is one channel open (ppv for ufc) and the rest down.
this is a guess, but i believe that there may or may not have been a channel changer counter added. if this is true, only providing one channel will not make this counter increase. this is the same logic behind the thoughts of many of you that iks needs a card for every channel.
5. Why is NF down and other boxes are up.
i've only sniffed a NF box. i would think that since they are all different stb's, w/ different coders, they'd have different servers. this can easily be proven if someone w/ one of the currently up stb's sniff their traffic.
6. I'm experiencing freezing. that must be because they are more users hitting the server and are all changing channels all at once.
the cws are delivered to our stb via UDP. it is a connectionless protocol and is the least reliable of the two. the other being tcp. if we were to sniff during these times, we'd know for sure, but heres my guess. it is my guess that because we use this unreliable protocol, and because of the distance, some packets may return malformed, or not at all. after about 30 seconds of not receiving a response, (cw), we freeze. sometimes this is because of our LAN, and other times, its because of the internet. i personally, don't believe its because of too many users.
now, to explain my diagram. this is what i believe from packet captures and that alone.
traffic from your nf stb hits your lan, then goes out to the internet.
the first reply comes from a access server. this is the same kind of server that large corps use to check virus definitions, OS, prohibited software (ie limewire, torrent) before allowing you on the lan. what i've verified that this server does is check sw version and stb credentials (anything other than nova.... i believe this was done after mac and cheese was created). after you're cleared to move on, you hit the next hop. from looking at the capture, i can tell that the IP is in a different subnet and this would require some type of layer 3 device. (ie firewall, router, L3 switch).
next is what i believe is a cache server. why, because it would be crazy for NF to allow us to connect directly to whatever device they use to get the code words from. also, this will allow the udp packets to be sent back to our stbs faster..(less freezing)
these cashe servers get their cws from other servers on the other side of another firewall. this firewall only allows established and verified stbs to pass. this could be by mac address, but i think that would be a hell of an access-list. finally, on to the farm. here is where i believe the servers and other magical devices live.
again, this is all theory. i'd love to hear your ideas.
i think together, we all can have a better understanding.
thanks for reading.
Added info:
Quote:
one more thing i'd like to add. there are people who say, since we really don't know whats going on, you should unplug your NF because you don't want to stay connected to a down server . or you may as well disconnect from the server since we aren't getting tv. or, just to be on the safe side, i suggest everyone disconnect their ethernet connection. heres the truth about that. unless you just want to save power, you aren't doing anything. again, this on applies to the NFHD because i haven't sniffed other boxes.
after about 3-5 minutes of sitting on a down channel, your box stops sending requests. the requests begin again when you change the channel. so, if you leave your box on all night, on a down channel, you are not connected to the server. there is no LAN activity between your nf stb and anything. the servers nf has do not initiate traffic. this request comes from the stb.
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