Gaming New Banning Wave Started!?

[mr deez]

Damn hope i don't get banned...i haven't ever connected to live or had an ethernet cable plugged to my 360 and i've played all my games after release but i still have one question, i think i might have played rock band a week or so before it was released here in sweden, you guys think that will affect anything once i coonnect to live? And if so should i just remove all the saves and history from that game and everything will be fine and dandy?

That won't help. You won't be banned. But if you are, that's the price you pay.

But the, if you never connect to Live, who cares?

 

[Prime]

Damn hope i don't get banned...i haven't ever connected to live or had an ethernet cable plugged to my 360 and i've played all my games after release but i still have one question, i think i might have played rock band a week or so before it was released here in sweden, you guys think that will affect anything once i coonnect to live? And if so should i just remove all the saves and history from that game and everything will be fine and dandy?

lmao! you do know that microsoft can see what you have played and what achievements you have obtained. You ain't going to be able to delete everything.

It doesn't matter if you get banned considering you never go on live.

 

[Digeman]

Damn hope i don't get banned...i haven't ever connected to live or had an ethernet cable plugged to my 360 and i've played all my games after release but i still have one question, i think i might have played rock band a week or so before it was released here in sweden, you guys think that will affect anything once i coonnect to live? And if so should i just remove all the saves and history from that game and everything will be fine and dandy?

That won't help. You won't be banned. But if you are, that's the price you pay.

But the, if you never connect to Live, who cares?

QUOTE(Digeman @ Nov 15 2008, 11:14 AM)

Damn hope i don't get banned...i haven't ever connected to live or had an ethernet cable plugged to my 360 and i've played all my games after release but i still have one question, i think i might have played rock band a week or so before it was released here in sweden, you guys think that will affect anything once i coonnect to live? And if so should i just remove all the saves and history from that game and everything will be fine and dandy?

lmao! you do know that microsoft can see what you have played and what achievements you have obtained. You ain't going to be able to delete everything.

It doesn't matter if you get banned considering you never go on live.

What i meant was i have never gone online or anything but am going to connect in the near future xD. Anyways it turns out i was lucky and played rock band after release, which means i haven't played any game before release. Does this make it safe for me to go on live or is there another important factor we don't know about?

 

[Prime]

Damn hope i don't get banned...i haven't ever connected to live or had an ethernet cable plugged to my 360 and i've played all my games after release but i still have one question, i think i might have played rock band a week or so before it was released here in sweden, you guys think that will affect anything once i coonnect to live? And if so should i just remove all the saves and history from that game and everything will be fine and dandy?

That won't help. You won't be banned. But if you are, that's the price you pay.

But the, if you never connect to Live, who cares?

QUOTE(Digeman @ Nov 15 2008, 11:14 AM)

Damn hope i don't get banned...i haven't ever connected to live or had an ethernet cable plugged to my 360 and i've played all my games after release but i still have one question, i think i might have played rock band a week or so before it was released here in sweden, you guys think that will affect anything once i coonnect to live? And if so should i just remove all the saves and history from that game and everything will be fine and dandy?

lmao! you do know that microsoft can see what you have played and what achievements you have obtained. You ain't going to be able to delete everything.

It doesn't matter if you get banned considering you never go on live.

What i meant was i have never gone online or anything but am going to connect in the near future xD. Anyways it turns out i was lucky and played rock band after release, which means i haven't played any game before release. Does this make it safe for me to go on live or is there another important factor we don't know about?

No, your safe to go online.

 

[fluffykiwi]

I cannot understand anyone being scared to connect.

You are either banned when you connect, or are fine.

Delaying connecting does not make any difference. If you cannot connect for fear of being unable to connect again, you are no worse off than being banned.

I know I'm not banned as I do not have an Xbox, but I think I'll consider myself banned anyway since I cannot connect to check.

 

[cardyology]

No, your safe to go online.

Not nessecarily. Nobody actually KNOWS what causes M$ to flag you up for a ban.

The idea that its M$ seeing users playing releases early is purely speculation.

*If you have flashed your xbox 360 DVD with different firmware you will most likely be banned. Regardless of your backup-playing behaviour!!

*

I myself have flashed my DVD drive however am not banned. I have played leaked games early & I have played supposed "bad" rips. I'm not banned yet.

 

[MaHe]

Phew as of right now I'm still not banned

Banned, damn it. Oh well, gonna swing by a store later and buy a new Arcade + the original copy of World at War. Gonna play pirates on my banned console and originals on my new one. Woohoo!

What did you do to trigger the ban?

I suspect grabbing the earliest release of CoD:WaW available, that one had a bad security sector. Or, it might have been the leaked Saints Row 2 release that wasn't properly marked as a review copy. Other than that, I've been real careful.

 

[jaxxster]

i can only hope that one day the 360 will be truely unlocked one day and wee start seeing some homebrew that allows unbanning. Anyone ever called microsoft after being banned and asking why and seeing what the results were?

 

[Digeman]

i can only hope that one day the 360 will be truely unlocked one day and wee start seeing some homebrew that allows unbanning. Anyone ever called microsoft after being banned and asking why and seeing what the results were?

But i heard that there already is a way to get your 360 unbanned...? Isn't there?

 

[jaxxster]

yeah but it requires alot of work, you need to have a special kernal i think, and somehow spoof your mac addy to the same of an unbanned console.

 

[QuantumFluxx]

It's not MAC address thats banned, its console ID, completely seperate thing, located on a completely different piece of hardware.

As far as people not connecting to live, I think thats probably the safest bet. I have an NXE box that is still not banned, I can't connect because I'm not part of the preview, but my Z code is still 0000 - 0000.

While I know if your flagged your going to get banned, something to also consider is that if your NOT flagged currently, going online right now could flag you. Say you had nothing against you that MS detected but then you pop in your CoD5 lets say, and then the flag is triggered. If you just wait it out until the bans subside, you might be able to dodge it until the next ban wave. Simply stating that you might as well try is retarded, as if your banned, your not online anyway, but if you wait, and you DO survive the ban, you will have had less chance of the ban happening. Nothing is harmed in waiting if your afraid of a ban, and when the wave is over you can connect and find out your banned anyway.

So stop arbitrarily telling everyone to connect like normal, thats a stupid thing to do.

 

[754boy]

So stop arbitrarily telling everyone to connect like normal, thats a stupid thing to do.

Connecting like normal is not a stupid thing to do. Either you are banned or you not. Why hide???

 

[FAST6191]

Unbanning: requires some effort as mentioned. As I recall you have to replace the key vault of the banned with that of an unbanned one.
http://gueux-forum.net/index.php?showtopic=174687 (french language)
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=630745 (english, if the site is down for you put that thread into google you can look at the cached version).
http://www.xboxhacker.net/index.php?topic=8972.0 (english the link is being a bit dodgy for me).

Oh and regarding homebrew on the 360:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uxjpmc8ZIxM&fmt=6

As for what happens there is a report of sorts sent (I saw some info on a thread from the first links in this thread). Assuming that is true I see no reason to wait.

edit: the thread I was talking about:
http://nfohump.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49816

 

[martin88]

Just checked, not banned.

 

[QuantumFluxx]

So stop arbitrarily telling everyone to connect like normal, thats a stupid thing to do.

Connecting like normal is not a stupid thing to do. Either you are banned or you not. Why hide???

Did you not read my post at all? What single purpose does continueing to connect to Live right now accomplish? If your going to get banned, then yeah its going to happen, but what purpose does going online in the next few days accomplish? So you can add your name to a forum and say "yeah I'm banned."

If your flagged for ban, yes you will get banned whether you go online or not. But if your NOT YET flagged for a ban, wouldnt it make SOME SENSE NOT to connect to Live until the ban wave is over? Waiting doesnt harm you in any way whatsoever, but going online COULD flag you if you've been offline for a while. My box has NXE and has been offline for 3 weeks, it's so far survived all the bannings and I'm going to keep it off until the wave stops, if indeed it ever does. Then once I go on, if I'm not already banned, sure I'll finally get flagged, but I'll have probably a long time before the next ban wave hits and I get knocked off.

Wait a few days sure as hell beats getting a few hours of online gaming in until a ban, if I get to stay connected to live until the next wave.

 

[Prime]

So stop arbitrarily telling everyone to connect like normal, thats a stupid thing to do.

Connecting like normal is not a stupid thing to do. Either you are banned or you not. Why hide???

Did you not read my post at all? What single purpose does continueing to connect to Live right now accomplish? If your going to get banned, then yeah its going to happen, but what purpose does going online in the next few days accomplish? So you can add your name to a forum and say "yeah I'm banned."

If your flagged for ban, yes you will get banned whether you go online or not. But if your NOT YET flagged for a ban, wouldnt it make SOME SENSE NOT to connect to Live until the ban wave is over? Waiting doesnt harm you in any way whatsoever, but going online COULD flag you if you've been offline for a while. My box has NXE and has been offline for 3 weeks, it's so far survived all the bannings and I'm going to keep it off until the wave stops, if indeed it ever does. Then once I go on, if I'm not already banned, sure I'll finally get flagged, but I'll have probably a long time before the next ban wave hits and I get knocked off.

Wait a few days sure as hell beats getting a few hours of online gaming in until a ban, if I get to stay connected to live until the next wave.

Going online doesn't flag you

microsoft can easily ban you when your not online.

 

[QuantumFluxx]

Going online doesn't flag you

microsoft can easily ban you when your not online.

You still don't get what I'm trying to say. I dont understand why its so hard to comprehend this. You continuously go about this like MS has the means to detect 100% of modifications, that EVERY SINGLE xbox 360 thats modded at this moment, is known to microsoft and that they will ban you. What I am saying is theres no way in hell its 100%, and even though the number may be high, like say 60-70%, IF MY CONSOLE IS NOT IN THAT 60-70%, THEN STAYING OFFLINE FOR NOW IS THE BEST POSSIBLE DEFENSE I HAVE.

Do you get it now? Or am I going to have to start drawing some pictures?

 

[FAST6191]

@QuantumFluxx
Banning as I understand it.

Originally the hacked firmwares could be detected, this was solved so today the prevailing theory is that the 360 notes the various sectors/info of the games you play and transmits it to MS at a given point in time.
MS then checks this against the list of sectors/data section it has and then says ho hum you should not have had access to this/this is obviously a copy (by way of bad sectors and what have you). The banhammer as it is termed is then dropped on your xbox's "unique" set of keys (which is why replacing them with another unbanned machine works).

As far as we are aware this list of game data/sectors you have played is stored on the system and transmitted when you connect (the 360 not being as homebrew capable as other systems and the lack of desire and/or ability/resources on the part of the "pirate homebrewers" means we lack hard info). The information on this data being sent is available in some form though (I linked a report on it in my last post in this thread) so I presume it is not encrypted (although it is probably signed or at the very least hashed against changes (MS or one of their contractors seems to have read their computing security 101 manual this time around (see youtube link above) so it would stupid if not)).

Banning while playing a bad copy whilst connected to live is then presumed to merely shorten the delay between the data being obtained and the data being sent (hence the "play backups offline stuff").

However it seems this data can then be sent at any time although for some reason MS does it in waves for the most part (my guess is to cut down on tech support and make lives a bit harder for those going up against them by way of making simple tests harder to do, I certainly would).
This all means staying offline is pointless, the easiest route is not to mod but it is so cost effective that is not much of a deterrent, the second is to play it safe with the backups you use (various theories here).

One day though I will have to try the yoghurt trick on a stock 360: http://sify.com/news/scienceandmedicine/fu...php?id=13248345

 

[quim69]

Do you get it now? Or am I going to have to start drawing some pictures?
I get what you are saying, and it makes perfect sense. If I was a live subscriber it is exactly what I would do too - avoid using the service for the 3-4weeks they are banning, that way if I haven't been flagged yet I will survive until spring when they start banning again.


QUOTE(FAST6191 @ Nov 16 2008, 11:49 AM) This all means staying offline is pointless,

But if you are not currently flagged to be banned it makes perfect sense to stay off live until the ban wave is over. that way if you do get flagged your service will continue until the NEXT wave.

 

[CJL18]

heres some games i hear that are being watched right now

fable 2
gears of war 2
Banjo and kazioe duh because it is made by microsoft
call of duty 5


and some other ones so right now i wouldnt play these games at all offline or online.