MAC address vs IP address Help

IMP_TWI

So I've thought of many ways to stop a user, or the average user from creating multiple accounts. But proxies are getting easier and easier to use now days which makes it harder to block, and proxies can always get around different types of codes.

So my thought was to somehow pull a user's MAC addy instead of just the IP address.. then blocking access to the MAC address instead of the IP since the IP can easily be changed by the average user, but the MAC address would be a step further and most users wouldn't think of it, if they even know a MAC address exist.

So my first question is how would I get this done? I know it's not possible through just PHP or at least don't think it is. But any example or help would be very useful.

The reason I'm going to this length to stop users from creating multiple accounts is because I'm currently running an RPG based game, and people are creating multiple accounts from numerous proxy servers when I ban IP / IP-ranges.

sneakyimp

I tried googling it and what I saw suggested you might be out of luck.

etully

Agreed. The only way I can think that you might know the Mac address is if you wrote a dedicated client side application (an .EXE or something) instead of running it in a web browser. And that wouldn't make any sense because it's a really huge, time consuming option that would still be very easy to work around.

I think your best bet is to charge $20 to set up an account. You could even charge $5 to set up an account and donate all the proceeds to charity. Then, instead of spending money to try to prevent people from doing this, you actually encourage people to set up multiple accounts.

Or, you could reprogram your game so that there's no advantage to having multiple accounts. "You want 10 more accounts? Sure, no problem, it's not going to help you win."

As clunky as those solutions sound, they're really superior because even if you did succeed at blocking by Mac address (or even the CPU's serial number), you'd still have problems because they could still sign up for an account at every single computer in the campus computer cluster at their local university - or they could ask friends to sign up for them - or they could use a Botnet to sign up for 50,000 accounts for them. If you charge $20 per account, then you'd be thrilled to have them sign up for multiple accounts.

sneakyimp

i think etully is pretty much right. my router lets me specify any MAC address I want and it will use that MAC address as its interface to the outside world. An EXE (or Java program so you don't have to do a different one for each device) might work, but is a pain in the ass.

As for having tons and tons of accounts, try to use it to your advantage. Something like OVER 100,000 MEMBER ACCOUNTS! Requiring unique email addresses helps a teeny bit.

etully

And speaking philosophically, you shouldn't be spending time fighting with your users - you should be encouraging them to do what's the most fun for them. Either make the game have no benefit for having multiple accounts or charge them $20 an account. People like to use web sites where they feel like they can do what they want instead of feeling stifled or limited.

Weedpacket

IMP_TWI wrote:
But proxies are getting easier and easier to use now days

You say that like it's a bad thing - instead of recognising it as simply being due to the fact that there are not enough IP addresses to go around.

IMP_TWI

I thought about charging people to sign up, But without support of free players the game would be a bit boring and would have never had enough players to start up. So we gave both free/supporter players a chance to play which worked out best for us since it made the community active and worthwhile for everyone, and gave people who spent an advantage that couldn't be mimic'd by having multiple accounts, and made both free/supporters have to work together and use strategy to win the game.

The only reason I took into consideration banning multiple accounts is because I like to keep the game legit as possible, if players know you allow users to have multiple player accounts and don't try to stop it, the game is tainted with the view that you will allow players to cheat and possibly win.. which also makes players who support the game by spending think twice about supporting the site, not something any owner aims at.

As far as proxies go I have nothing against them, I use them frequently to go to web sites, but they make it easy for players on the game to cause trouble and not have to worry about being refused access to the server if they can easily just create an account and re-do it with a different IP.

So my next question, is there a way to pull a hidden IP address from a proxy? Or a way of tracing the proxy and finding out if it's an actual person and refusing it from accessing the server?

sneakyimp

IMP_TWI;10905784 wrote:
So my next question, is there a way to pull a hidden IP address from a proxy? Or a way of tracing the proxy and finding out if it's an actual person and refusing it from accessing the server?

Not really.