My best tips for ticket day....

[Penrhos]

So much for using the fat-pipe at work to gain an advantage for sale. 

I just checked the internet-access logs and there were 40 people hammering away at the site from about 17:50. I've rung a few this morning and no-one got past the holding page, and there's no sign of the booking page URL in our internet log-files.

looks like our companies external IP-Address was routed to the black-hole of death for the entire sale.

 

Hopefully no-one from HR is reading this abuse of power....

Edited October 5, 2018 by Penrhos

[Havors]

3 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

Judging by the discussion on here the Steve Jobs Memorial Stage would go down well....headline set from Bill and Melinda Gates....Tim Berners-Lee in the Legend slot. 

Haha if it means extra tickets Im in!  

[Gucci Piggy]

Didn't know about this "don't refresh more than 60 times per minute" lark. I'm pretty sure I refreshed more than that, so I guess that may have fucked me over.

One question, is this in terms of refreshes per browser or per IP address? So if I have two browsers open on one laptop and refresh each one at a rate of less than 60 per minute, but both combined at a rate of more than 60 per minute, would this potentially screw me over?

[UEF]

35 minutes ago, focaccia said:

Any info on whether 'back door links' actually exist? Is it worth checking here on Sunday? 

 

There hasn't been a working one for years, not since Freya (2004) and the host file backdoors of the late 2000s

[parsonjack]

1 minute ago, Gucci Piggy said:

Didn't know about this "don't refresh more than 60 times per minute" lark. I'm pretty sure I refreshed more than that, so I guess that may have fucked me over.

One question, is this in terms of refreshes per browser or per IP address? So if I have two browsers open on one laptop and refresh each one at a rate of less than 60 per minute, but both combined at a rate of more than 60 per minute, would this potentially screw me over?

Unfortunately, yes. 

[Havors]

2 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

Unfortunately, yes. 

I tested this in work. one firefox one chrome incognito.... they both had completely separate  thresholds for hitting the limit... 

I also tried it on the same browser 2 windows.... as soon as one hit the limit the other did also. They use a token/cookie system to track your session. If they blocked you by IP then nobody would ever get on from say a Uni IP address or other such shared addresses.

Edited October 5, 2018 by Havors

[Gucci Piggy]

1 minute ago, parsonjack said:

Unfortunately, yes. 

Ffs, maybe this is why I haven't gotten through once since (I think) the first sale in 2016

In that case I'll probably go with one laptop tab plus my phone on 4G, and make sure I don't refresh either of them more than once a second. Then I'll be fine, yeah?

[NickisGinger]

Wait what’s this, don’t refresh more than 60 times a minute? 

 

[ledwards]

11 minutes ago, Penrhos said:

So much for using the fat-pipe at work to gain an advantage for sale. 

I just checked the internet-access logs and there were 40 people hammering away at the site from about 17:50. I've rung a few this morning and no-one got past the holding page, and there's no sign of the booking page URL in our internet log-files.

looks like our companies external IP-Address was routed to the black-hole of death for the entire sale.

 

Hopefully no-one from HR is reading this abuse of power....

I suspect this happened in my building too. I work for Omnicom and all of the agencies use the same IP - i can imagine there were many people here trying for tickets. I'm hoping to come back on Sunday when no-one will be here as the internet speed is 200mbps. Fingers crossed.

[parsonjack]

2 minutes ago, Gucci Piggy said:

Ffs, maybe this is why I haven't gotten through once since (I think) the first sale in 2016

In that case I'll probably go with one laptop tab plus my phone on 4G, and make sure I don't refresh either of them more than once a second. Then I'll be fine, yeah?

We *think* it was introduced for the 2017 sale to combat auto-refresh tools. Strategy of 2 devices as you suggest should be fine. 

[Havors]

Just now, parsonjack said:

We *think* it was introduced for the 2017 sale to combat auto-refresh tools. Strategy of 2 devices as you suggest should be fine. 

Again.... where is your proof of this? There is no way they can limit by IP. It would make so many people unable to get tickets... especially uni goers etc... 

[Gucci Piggy]

3 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

We *think* it was introduced for the 2017 sale to combat auto-refresh tools. Strategy of 2 devices as you suggest should be fine. 

Wait I've just realised that on Sunday my housemate is trying for tickets as well, so if the two of us combined exceed one refresh per second it could block us? That seems pretty unfair.

[Penrhos]

There was definitely something in place for 2016 main sale, the main difference in 2017 was that the countdown timer was removed as well and seetickets advertised that multi-hit, auto-refresh and excessive F5'ing could get your IP-blocked,  and that you should only use one tab.

 

[parsonjack]

2 minutes ago, Havors said:

Again.... where is your proof of this? There is no way they can limit by IP. It would make so many people unable to get tickets... especially uni goers etc... 

See can easily set things up to trigger an action to protect them from DDOS etc from a single IP or range.  Read my theory in the other thread ref how round-robin DNS *probably* avoids blocking uni halls etc. 

Ref evidence it started for 2017 sale...none conclusive, but that's when I first noticed it.. and it's also when the 20 second timer stopped actually counting down...coincidence? 

[jonnyisRFC]

2 minutes ago, Gucci Piggy said:

Wait I've just realised that on Sunday my housemate is trying for tickets as well, so if the two of us combined exceed one refresh per second it could block us? That seems pretty unfair.

Yeah I was also wondering about this! Me and my girlfriend will both be trying on different devices whilst connected to the same wifi. Will that mean that a combined 60 refreshes a minute between us could potentially block us?

[parsonjack]

5 minutes ago, Penrhos said:

There was definitely something in place for 2016 main sale, the main difference in 2017 was that the countdown timer was removed as well and seetickets advertised that multi-hit, auto-refresh and excessive F5'ing could get your IP-blocked,  and that you should only use one tab.

 

Thank you ?

[parsonjack]

6 minutes ago, Gucci Piggy said:

Wait I've just realised that on Sunday my housemate is trying for tickets as well, so if the two of us combined exceed one refresh per second it could block us? That seems pretty unfair.

If you're on 2 different devices then it's still possible...but unlikely.  I have a theory on the other thread ref how DNS works round it. 

[Gucci Piggy]

3 minutes ago, jonnyisRFC said:

Yeah I was also wondering about this! Me and my girlfriend will both be trying on different devices whilst connected to the same wifi. Will that mean that a combined 60 refreshes a minute between us could potentially block us?

Might look into using a VPN to avoid being locked out due to this.

[GoonerRob]

4 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

Thank you ?

@parsonjack

Any idea how long the IP block may last? Will people who have been excessively F5ing for the coach sale be blacklisted for the main sale for example?

[parsonjack]

1 minute ago, GoonerRob said:

@parsonjack

Any idea how long the IP block may last? Will people who have been excessively F5ing for the coach sale be blacklisted for the main sale for example?

Highly unlikely.  It appears to only last while your F5 rate exceeds 60/minute.  Once you drop the rate any busy page you see should be a genuine one. 

[Havors]

8 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

See can easily set things up to trigger an action to protect them from DDOS etc from a single IP or range.  Read my theory in the other thread ref how round-robin DNS *probably* avoids blocking uni halls etc. 

Ref evidence it started for 2017 sale...none conclusive, but that's when I first noticed it.. and it's also when the 20 second timer stopped actually counting down...coincidence? 

Well any such protection would not see people using the same IP at home having any issues. You appear to be contradicting yourself? The guy who asked you the question had a few trying on the same IP... that should not cause any issues even under your "theory". 

Try for yourself.... you can set up a few browsers with auto refresh on (set it to force trigger the refresh issue) and watch them all act independently. 

[pentura]

@parsonjack / @Havors

Did either of you get tickets of out interest? You both seem to be knowledgeable with this tech stuff, interested to see if anything you used was of any benefit

[Havors]

5 minutes ago, GoonerRob said:

@parsonjack

Any idea how long the IP block may last? Will people who have been excessively F5ing for the coach sale be blacklisted for the main sale for example?

 

1 minute ago, parsonjack said:

Highly unlikely.  It appears to only last while your F5 rate exceeds 60/minute.  Once you drop the rate any busy page you see should be a genuine one. 

Jesus H Christ....  it uses cookies/tokens to identify your session. As long as they are different you are golden.  I have tested multiple browsers on same IP and they all had their own independent threshold. (start them refreshing at different time).

Using any IP filtering would have to have a very high threshold as to not basically screw anyone using a public connection. So someone at home will have no issues with a few browsers (different cookies of course) either way. IP filter or not. 

[Pinhead]

Its possible the IP might only be 'tarpitted' and not blocked by enthusiastic F5'ing given that as said here, some setups may all be sharing an IP, especially, say, Universities with many clients trying to connect. I'd imaging any such 'block' would expire fairly swiftly as well. Also, it shouldn't affect anyone who has got in since they are now being handled by their session ID rather than their IP.

[Havors]

4 minutes ago, pentura said:

@parsonjack / @Havors

Did either of you get tickets of out interest? You both seem to be knowledgeable with this tech stuff, interested to see if anything you used was of any benefit

There is no way of increasing your chances other than a straight forward "more people/browsers attempting are better than one" It's just down to chance and increasing your chances. 

I didnt try last night, wont catch me on one of them coaches haha! Everything I have said is just basic common sense.