Internet connectivity

[DerRedMax]

I have a question. If some country (Russia, China, whoever...) decided to somehow take down the internet how am I going to play DCS? We only have 3 days before it locks us out.

[nuxil]

I am against this 3 day bs thing. 

I think a one time validation would be enough. some sort of registration where you bind your hardware to the game & account.
It could have been something like that the game download a encrypted file when you 1st validate. this file will the game checks on startup.
But what do i know.

As it stands now. your only option is to surf sketchy websites for a cracked version of the game before you loose your internet.
ALTHOUGH. I do not reccomend this, even if you have bought modules and have supported the devs.
You dont know what sketchy things has been added to a modified exe.

Just pray Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi Jinping dont cut the internet.

Edited March 9, 2022 by nuxil

[draconus]

11 hours ago, DerRedMax said:

I have a question. If some country (Russia, China, whoever...) decided to somehow take down the internet how am I going to play DCS? We only have 3 days before it locks us out.

There is an option called "offline mode". You have to log in to the DCS with internet connection just once and turn on the offline mode - it is the top menu icon similar to WiFi sign.

From now on you can use DCS offline however long you want. Just beware that you will need to exit offline mode whenever you make PC hardware changes otherwise you will lock your DCS - only support will be able to help you then.

 

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by draconus

[Nealius]

37 minutes ago, draconus said:

There is an option called "offline mode". You have to log in to the DCS with internet connection just once and turn on the offline mode

How would one activate offline mode if internet connectivity was suddenly lost without warning?

[draconus]

1 minute ago, Nealius said:

How would one activate offline mode if internet connectivity was suddenly lost without warning?

Afaik you can't.

[Nealius]

I believe that's the point that OP was trying to make.

[Gierasimov]

9 hours ago, DerRedMax said:

I have a question. If some country (Russia, China, whoever...) decided to somehow take down the internet how am I going to play DCS? We only have 3 days before it locks us out.

Form user perspective - if you are connecting FROM the location with no internet connectivity, obviously you will need to find a way to connect to the authorization servers.

From ED perspective - if authorization server(s) are located in a place where there is no Internet connectivity, they need to re-locate this "online" feature to location(s) where there is Internet. 

From the Internet perspective - if it is TAKEN DOWN globally, there is no valid option to remediate points above, other than removing the online / offline feature, which I suspect would be highly unwanted by ED. However, I strongly believe that GLOBAL Internet outage would cause problems far more important and severe than inability to play a PC simulation game. Even staying in PC gaming realm, such outage would affect majority of modern games, not only DCS. 

[BIGNEWY]

2 hours ago, Nealius said:

How would one activate offline mode if internet connectivity was suddenly lost without warning?

mobile tethered connection is enough to login and activate offline mode 

To answer the OP question we dont see it being a problem our authentication should continue to work. 

A reminder to all not to talk about politics here. 

thanks

[WHOGX5]

5 minutes ago, BIGNEWY said:

mobile tethered connection is enough to login and activate offline mode

I think the question was more in regard to if a nation were to disconnect their entire internet from the outside world, whether there is any way to keep using the modules you've paid for if you live in that nation?

[Nealius]

I see no politics here. I see customers wondering if the product they paid for will still be accessible in an emergency situation where a connection to the authentication servers goes down on the server side, indefinitely. 

It's a reasonable question.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Nealius

[Beirut]

Just now, Nealius said:

It's a reasonable question.

 

It is.

 

I think "read a book instead" is the ultimate answer. 

[Nealius]

Oh, great, just lost $500 guess I'll read a book.

Said noone ever.

[Gierasimov]

10 minutes ago, WHOGX5 said:

I think the question was more in regard to if a nation were to disconnect their entire internet from the outside world, whether there is any way to keep using the modules you've paid for if you live in that nation?

Isn't the OFFLINE mode for that? Install all modules you have and keep DCS updated, IF disconnected, use offline mode to play what you have got in single player for as long as you like. 

[Nealius]

19 minutes ago, Gierasimov said:

IF disconnected, use offline mode to play what you have got in single player for as long as you like. 

As previously stated multiple times, offline mode only works if you select offline mode while currently online. If there is an internet disconnect before you are able to select offline mode, you are given a temporary offline mode that will timeout. If connection is not reestablished after that period (I forget how many days) you are totally locked out of using any of the paid DLC until you can connect to the internet again.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Nealius

[Gierasimov]

2 minutes ago, Nealius said:

As previously stated multiple times, offline mode only works if you select offline mode while currently online. If there is an internet disconnect before you are able to select offline mode, you are given a temporary offline mode that will timeout. If connection is not reestablished after that period (I forget how many days) you are totally locked out of using any of the paid DLC until you can connect to the internet again.

 

Then it sucks. I was convinced it works differently. Thanks

[Hiob]

5 minutes ago, Nealius said:

As previously stated multiple times, offline mode only works if you select offline mode while currently online. If there is an internet disconnect before you are able to select offline mode, you are given a temporary offline mode that will timeout. If connection is not reestablished after that period (I forget how many days) you are totally locked out of using any of the paid DLC until you can connect to the internet again.

 

Then make it a habit to select offline mode as default and only go online if you need to. At least for the coming days.

There are imaginable scenarios in which you are screwed, but what do you expect?

[Beirut]

27 minutes ago, Nealius said:

Oh, great, just lost $500 guess I'll read a book.

Said noone ever.

 

I think the point is that you might not have much of a choice.

 

On the plus side, there are some very good books. 

[BIGNEWY]

I have checked with the team, in the event of a block users will still be able to play. 
Please remember we have teams and a HQ outside of the Russian Federation regions. 

thanks

[Beirut]

Is it a DCS top secret thing how the sim differentiates between a "block" and simply not being online as far as the time limit for authentication goes?

 

Maybe I didn't even phrase that correctly. 

[BIGNEWY]

DCS needs to talk to the master server for authentication. 

A master server can be anywhere in the world. 

[HC_Official]

4 hours ago, draconus said:

There is an option called "offline mode". You have to log in to the DCS with internet connection just once and turn on the offline mode - it is the top menu icon similar to WiFi sign.

From now on you can use DCS offline however long you want. Just beware that you will need to exit offline mode whenever you make PC hardware changes otherwise you will lock your DCS - only support will be able to help you then.

Time to update your knowledge @nuxil or don't answer the question when you don't know the answer.

 

 

 

So if we cannot connect to ED to do this what next ?

[Gierasimov]

19 minutes ago, BIGNEWY said:

I have checked with the team, in the event of a block users will still be able to play. 
Please remember we have teams and a HQ outside of the Russian Federation regions. 

thanks

@HC_Official

[BIGNEWY]

14 minutes ago, HC_Official said:

So if we cannot connect to ED to do this what next ?

that is offline mode, to use it you need to be connected to the internet to activate it. A mobile tethered connection is enough to activate it.
once you use it you can play in offline mode indefinitely. 

It was a feature we added to help service personnel on long trips away from a connection.

To go back online again you need a connection with the same machine you went offline with.  

[BIGNEWY]

33 minutes ago, BIGNEWY said:

I have checked with the team, in the event of a block users will still be able to play. 
Please remember we have teams and a HQ outside of the Russian Federation regions. 

thanks

 

[HC_Official]

12 minutes ago, BIGNEWY said:

that is offline mode, to use it you need to be connected to the internet to activate it. A mobile tethered connection is enough to activate it.
once you use it you can play in offline mode indefinitely. 

It was a feature we added to help service personnel on long trips away from a connection.

To go back online again you need a connection with the same machine you went offline with.  

Ah cool, so there are multiple ED login servers we can use to do this ? Just curious as there have been a few outages over the years that effected a lot of people

No longer is there a single point of failure ?