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Unread 25 May 2004, 00:30   #12
xtothez
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Join Date: May 2001
Location: Sept 2057
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Re: How to start a brand new alliance or (HC 101)

A small point leaps to mind, which I think applies to new and old alliances alike.

Do not use a private alliance IRC server unless you know damn well what you're doing

I see so many HCs who fall in love with the idea of starting up a private IRC server because it's 'more secure' (and because they want to be an Operator). It doesn't matter how easy it is to run UnrealIRCd from your cable connection, or that you understood the ircu installation file enough to run it on your £10/month shell account. Private alliance IRC is by far the easiest way to:
a) alienate members from new startup alliances,
b) divulge secret information to spies
c) create more communications downtime when the server inevitably goes offline (no, the internet isn't invincible)

I've lost count of the number of times I've joined other alliance's servers to see attack information (and co-ords) in channels that weren't even set to secret mode. How often have you seen people accidently paste their password to a channel? What are the odds they use that password on your server too? If someone decides to 'borrow' that nick how can you be sure who they really are*? Are you using low-cost hosting or a home connection for your server? Expect downtime, during which your members will not be able to communicate with each other.

For a PA alliance to get any benefit out of private IRC you will need at least one experienced techie capable of handling and minimizing the related security/reliability issues. Anyone else can easily surive on irc.netgamers.org, with a public channel with modes +nt (check out the P manual for Floatlimit and Strictop options to stop spammers/takeovers), and a private channel set to +inst (give users level 24 P access to get invite). P has far better security and reliability than most homegrown attempts will be able to reach.

*90% of the alliances I've seen choose to run Epona/Anope as their services. This not only provides practically zero logging, but has a lovely 'feature' to allow people to steal a users access without being traced
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