[Opensim-users] Any way to display the values of "IP" and "MyIP"

[Diva Canto]

The higher-order bit of what I'm about to say is that OpenSim networking 
is a complicated matter. Hypergrid networking adds even more complexity 
to it. Having said that, let me explain a bit.

The main source of problems arise when you have the following situation:
(1) the servers are on a given network
(2) some clients are also on that network
(3) some clients are on external networks
This is usually the case with universities, for example, depending on 
how the university network is set up. Hence you need to be extra careful.

The Hypergrid performs several checks for ensuring identity security. 
These checks are based on the domain names that the grids use, on the IP 
addresses of the robust servers and on the IP addresses of the clients.

The IP address from where the client logged in is the vital piece of 
info that needs to be asserted throughout HG teleports. The user's home 
grid knows that address; the simulators that the user visit also know 
that address. In order for those simulators to make sure that the agent 
that they're getting is the real thing, and not a fake pretending to be 
a certain user, they call back to the user's home grid for IP 
verification. That's when that debug message gets printed out.

Two things can happen: either the IP address of the client that the 
destination simulator gets is exactly the same as the IP address that 
the home grid saw at client login (normal case, when servers and clients 
are on separate networks) or the IP address of the client that the 
destination simulator gets is different than the one seen at login in 
the home grid, but is the same as the robust server -- which means that 
the client logged in in the same machine where the robust server runs. 
This happens in standalones ran at people's homes, for example, where 
there's just on box running both OpenSim and the viewer.

So, what does this mean for people with  a mix of clients inside the 
server-side network and clients outside?

First of all, stick to using domain names, not IP addresses. That is 
just bound to cause problems, because many times the IP addresses seen 
from the outside are different from the IP addresses seen from the 
inside of a network. If you fix it for one case, you screw it up for the 
other. So, rule #1: USE DOMAIN NAMES in the Robust configuration.

Second, use the hosts files to adjust the mappings between domain names 
and IP addresses inside the network if needed.

I am sure that this process of IP verification can be improved to 
account for these hybrid setups, but for the time being only the 
simplest of cases is accounted for (client logged in in the same machine 
as the home grid).

On 4/11/2012 8:35 AM, Rick Anderson wrote:
> It turns out that MyIP displays the IP address when it can be found.
> I changed my Robust configuration from rugrid.rutgers.edu to the IP
> address and it now returns the correct client info:
>
> 15:32:39 - [USER AGENT SERVICE]: Verifying Client session
> 7a0ffc9a-c6ea-4a8c-899d-88f9fe0da2bf with reported IP 165.230.192.41.
> 15:32:39 - [USER AGENT SERVICE]: Comparing 165.230.192.41 with login
> IP 165.230.192.41 and MyIP 165.230.192.41; result is True
>
> When I return my region is light blue. So I've made one step forward.
>
> -_Rick
>
> On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 11:24 AM, Rick Anderson
> <rianders at docs.rutgers.edu>  wrote:
>> I'm trying to trace down an error with the unauthorized machine
>> message from "HOME AGENT HANDLER"  There is a value comparing login IP
>> with MyIP with a result of false:
>> 15:19:28 - [USER AGENT SERVICE]: Verifying Client session
>> b5495ff5-827a-4bd2-98ee-2eb3e5dfe036 with reported IP 165.230.192.41.
>> 15:19:28 - [USER AGENT SERVICE]: Comparing 165.230.192.41 with login
>> IP  and MyIP ; result is False
>>
>> Can the values of "IP" and MyIP" be shown in the console?
>>
>> -_Rick
>> --
>> Rick Anderson
>> Director of Virtual Worlds
>> Division of Continuing Studies (DoCS)
>> Rutgers University
>> (732) 586-3265
>
>