If they do it right, you should be able to use both side by side just like you could when the Acustica plugins were cracked... Here's hoping bc I already have a lot of UAD plugs

 

Only a small part of it is visible at the moment, but the R2RSYSTEM will essentially boil down to modifying the operating system (Windows for now) in such a way that a common basis is created for various functions required for the successful emulation of various authorizations. Once installed, this modification would eliminate certain recurring, individual measures per publication and render error-prone user precautions superfluous. Pokemons and monsters are incidentally part of a usual folklore that should not be taken too seriously.

 

As far as I can tell, it provides DLLs that are no-ops or faked calls, and you'd set them up per app basis. If this calls for actually replacing system binaries then I'm out. No one I don't know personally has that level of trust.

 

I basically agree. Currently, the modified libraries are running parallel to the originals; we will see if this remains the case. It is also conceivable that control over data traffic will be extended to form a kind of ‘cocoon’ that controls all external connections, blocks them if necessary, and replaces expected responses with synthesised (fake) answers; same can also apply to local data traffic.
An intervention to this extent would require a high degree of trust though, and everyone would have to decide for themselves whether they are willing to pay this price in order to continue accessing the applications they want as they did before. In any case, it is advisable to observe the development of this by all means interesting project and to further on secure ones system with a decent firewall.

 

What would one then block with the "descent " firewall?

 

By default, your Windows firewall is enabled; you don't need to change anything, download anything, or buy anything. It does what it's supposed to in the background. Imagine your firewall like a front door: only those with the key can get in or out.

 

If you're uncertain what you're blocking all you can do is to deny all outgoing traffic and then make your firewall ask for permission for any outbound connections. Frustrating at first, but it'll settle into a baseline eventually.

How fine-grained you want to make this policy is down to your paranoia level, the range being approximately from per app basis (normally sensible) to per endpoint and port basis (only for hardcore lunatics).

You might have spotted a problem with this approach, namely that a lot of firewalls don't have this feature and this includes Windows Firewall. You'd need third-party tools to overcome this.

 

That what's remaining then: Moon, Kugisaki, Kamado, whatever their names may be...
You are surely familiar with the default settings of the Windows Firewall for outgoing connections (aka “phone home”)?

 

I was referring to the paranoia that might result when R2R finally release their R2RSYSTEM. You previously stated that:
"An intervention to this extent would require a high degree of trust though, and everyone would have to decide for themselves whether they are willing to pay this price in order to continue accessing the applications they want as they did before."
So would we need to use the Firewall to block R2R's DLL's from sending outgoing data? Would this not defeat the purpose?

 

Be critical, trust little, and above all, think carefully about what you install from Microsoft or other providers. Only allow people you know very well into your apartment; everyone else must stay out. And please change your password to Love or 12345 and get long passwords with special characters, both upper and lower case, and make a backup of your C:/ hard drive. Do not open any unknown emails or file attachments, or are you already part of a botnetwork?

 

Not at all. The purpose is to use paid software free of charge for testing and this requirement is being met. At present, there is no indication that this service is unintentionally being rewarded by users providing something in return, especially since the interventions in system integrity to date are not conducive to this. This may change with an advanced system, but we are talking about unhatched eggs here.
So observe, stay cool and generally cautious.

 

Thanks

 

Hyped thread. UAD my bet

 

The R2R DLL's (at least the ones released) are supposed to replace the system networking routines for the apps linking against them. As they're dynamic libraries, they're linked to the running app at runtime, so any network connection appears to come from the app itself. But as it happens, at the moment they're no-ops so they don't do anything. So the app is thinking it's making a name server query and it gets a dummy response, same thing with raw network connections and higher level stuff like HTTP calls. Presumably these HTTP calling routines will be patched to return fake server responses to fool the apps thinking their licensing is in order.

At least this is how it appears after having a quick look (for network programmers, all of the standard stuff like connect/bind/accept/gethostbyname etc. are covered and all of the WinHTTP ones too, also isNetWorkAlive/isDestinationReachable for the always online stuff). The complete R2RSYSTEM probably will do something clever since as it is these DLLs need to be specifically linked against and they do nothing by themselves and will not work with any currently released plugins.

So no, you'd keep your firewall configured as it currently is, and same thing with your hosts file. Maybe when the Gong™ strikes well have more knowledge.

 

Nah... I changed it to Qwerty1234.

 

Reminds me of a nerd joke (well, kind of)... "foobar1" is the standard password, "foobar2" is the high security password.

 

I'm curious when we will hear the Gong. It's now October, so it's Halloween season. Do you think it could be any day, or maybe closer to Halloween?

 

Last year they released a bunch of titles over the course of the week before. If It is something that never has been released before, another month will be nothing.

 

My odds are on Schwabe Digital, since they weren't cracked before. I don't think it's UAD.