Re: Anti-collide patch

[Michal *pht* Svoboda <svobodam@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 8 Jan 1999, Joern Westermann wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I've just written a patch for the 2.10.1 ircd to prevent takeovers by
> nick collides. 
>  
>  - the collide kill for the collided nick is distributed to other
> servers as before.
>  
>  - the local collided user is forced to change nick. This is done with a
> nick change command between server and client which is at least
> supported by ircII and mIRC (haven't tested others). DALNet uses this
> command to force a nick change for nicks which are registered by other
> users, so all clients usable in DALNet can be used with this patch.
> Currently a 4-digit random number is appended to the nick or replaces
> the last 4 characters of the nick (depending on previous nick length),
> e.g. nick Guenthi -> Guent6387.
> 
>  - the new nick is re-distributed to the net as a new user by the
> server.
> 
>  - the server restores all channels the user was on before the collide
> and sets channel op modes (if the user had any before).
> 
> So nick colliders cannot take over a channel anymore since the collided
> users rejoin it (with different nicks). No protocol enhancements are
> needed and it is still compatible with other unpatched servers.
> 
> The question is: Is such a patch "allowed" or does it change the
> behaviour of the patched server too much to be tolerated/useful in
> IRCNet?
> 
> I know it's some kind of hack but until we have servers with unique IDs
> it would be a simple and efficient solution to prevent takeovers.
> 
> Any comments are welcome. Depending on the feedback I'll decide if I
> release the patch or dump it into the trash.
> 
Actually this is great idea, all i wonder is why there are the nuances
with kill, when the server could simply change the nick ?

pht