Refresh apps?

[Jack.194]

Read a lot about people having success using refresh apps like Refreshinator on phones and something about RefreshMonkey on laptops?

However also read a lot of people saying the apps don’t work, has anyone had recent success with any of these apps?

 

thanks

[Lycra]

Imagine the request from your device to the ticket server as a train on a railway line. Too many trains too frequent on the same track causes an almighty crash as they all try to get in the station platform at the same time! Getting the golden ticket is more down to luck than anything. I know over 20 people running multiple devices, each adopting their own methods, who failed to even get on the See holding page in October. Expect it will be similar in April. 

[H.M.V]

Pretty sure this came up recently and I believe Glastonbury and SeeTickets block them. Warnings have been given that tickets will be invalidated if the app is found to be used. Personally wouldn't risk it and stick with good ol perspiration and F5. 

Link here as well - typical rag with loads of spam. https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife/glastonbury-festival-2019-tickets-five-2060049

[GoonerRob]

I use auto refreshing plugins, they work fine. 

Just got to make sure you dont hit the server over 60 times a min from one device. (it seems to either dump a cookie on your device or do some kind of MAC address filtering as one device getting locked out doesnt seem to affect the others).

On 3/23/2019 at 3:28 PM, H.M.V said:

I believe Glastonbury and SeeTickets block them

There is no technical way to block auto refreshing, as essentially it is just the same as pressing F5... just you can do it more often.

[clarkete]

29 minutes ago, GoonerRob said:

There is no technical way to block auto refreshing, as essentially it is just the same as pressing F5... just you can do it more often.

But you can definitely block too many requests coming from the same IP within a specific time frame.  Plenty of us have had times in the last couple of years where the results we received since these warnings were different to the results received previously, so personally I wouldn't bother as I see little practical advantage.

 

[GoonerRob]

3 hours ago, clarkete said:

But you can definitely block too many requests coming from the same IP within a specific time frame.  Plenty of us have had times in the last couple of years where the results we received since these warnings were different to the results received previously, so personally I wouldn't bother as I see little practical advantage.

 

Yep, of course - but the website will not know if you're using a refresh app, or just over hammering F5. 

I've used refresh apps the last 5 main sales and last 4 resales and got through every time. My friends all try and never get through (one browser, manual refresh), it's about maximising your chances by hitting the server as many times as you can (with separate devices) but no more than 60 times per min per device.

From what I can tell, there is no IP based filtering. (this would mean anyone in uni halls, or workplaces would all get kicked out if one person over F5's)

 

   

[incident]

13 minutes ago, GoonerRob said:

Yep, of course - but the website will not know if you're using a refresh app, or just over hammering F5.  

It all depends on the rate - there's applications out there capable of hitting the site hundreds, maybe thousands of times a minute and those are the ones they're really concerned about. If I remember correctly, the words in the terms and conditions were added many years ago because some tool had written a an application initially designed for load testing that could spawn hundreds of simultaneous sessions and then thought it would be a bright idea to market it to people desperate for Glastonbury tickets.

Once you go below 60 per minute - they generally can't tell the difference between a human and a browser plugin but at that point the refreshing is just automating what you could achieve yourself rather than doing anything above and beyond.

[Lycra]

20 minutes ago, GoonerRob said:

 

From what I can tell, there is no IP based filtering. (this would mean anyone in uni halls, or workplaces would all get kicked out if one person over F5's)

 

   

Believe IP filtering is device specific as each individual device is given it's own unique address when connecting to the web

[GoonerRob]

Just now, incident said:

Once you go below 60 per minute - they generally can't tell the difference between a human and a browser plugin but at that point the refreshing is just automating what you could achieve yourself rather than doing anything above and beyond.

I agree, but when you have multiple devices (i generally use 3-6 laptops) it's easier to set them to auto refresh and kick back and wait as I don't have 3-6 hands. 

[GoonerRob]

1 minute ago, Lycra said:

Believe IP filtering is device specific as each individual device is given it's own unique address when connecting to the web

Nope this isn't correct, each network has an external IP address, each device has it's own MAC address .

Each device has its own internal IP for identification on the local network (something like 192.168.0.XX ) but it's external IP remains the same. 

[Lycra]

2 minutes ago, GoonerRob said:

Nope this isn't correct, each network has an external IP address, each device has it's own MAC address .

Each device has its own internal IP for identification on the local network (something like 192.168.0.XX ) but it's external IP remains the same. 

Does this imply any blocking filters work to LAN level?

[Lycra]

At the end of the day we all know that getting a ticket involves a big slice of luck. Firstly getting to the See holding page, then getting to the reg. no. entry page, then getting these confirmed, and then paying...AND finally getting payment confirmed. Each stage is fraught with danger as many will know all too well.....The See system booted me out at payment, just hanging and not going forward last autumn!! ?

[GoonerRob]

Just now, Lycra said:

Does this imply any blocking filters work to LAN level?

Not sure exactly what you mean, but the internal IP address (the one per device) is not something that's transmitted over the web I don't think... it's just a IP address assigned by your router for use locally on your own network (home wifi or work wifi etc)

I'm not even 100% sure if MAC addresses are available to web servers... (im just a lowly web developer, a network engineer would know much more about this stuff). My guess is they're probably  not. 

If i was going to do this, I'd use a cookie (which is easily circumvented by deleting the cookie). 

The other common ways to limit rates are IP (obviously, as discussed before), geoblocking (used to block russian / chinese spam bots so no good for this really), API limiting (no api or authentication here so no use either) 

In short, I dont quite know how they do it, but I'll be looking at it again on the next sale to see if i can get any insights to help in future!

[GoonerRob]

2 minutes ago, Lycra said:

At the end of the day we all know that getting a ticket involves a big slice of luck. Firstly getting to the See holding page, then getting to the reg. no. entry page, then getting these confirmed, and then paying...AND finally getting payment confirmed. Each stage is fraught with danger as many will know all too well.....The See system booted me out at payment, just hanging and not going forward last autumn!! ?

This happneed to me too... press back and then forward in the browser. Dunno why but it worked! 

[Lycra]

12 minutes ago, GoonerRob said:

This happneed to me too... press back and then forward in the browser. Dunno why but it worked! 

Sadly  back didn't work for me ??

[eFestivals]

1 hour ago, GoonerRob said:

I'm not even 100% sure if MAC addresses are available to web servers

they are.

[phillyfaddle]

4 hours ago, Lycra said:

Sadly  back didn't work for me ??

Nor me - for our group's last 2 tickets. Resale army lined up.

[GoonerRob]

17 hours ago, eFestivals said:

they are.

Really? From what I've been reading it's not possible...

https://askleo.com/can_a_mac_address_be_traced/

Quote

That means when information leaves your computer, it has your computer’s network adapter’s MAC address. But when it arrives at your router, that MAC address is removed. When your router sends the information further upstream to your ISP’s router, it contains the MAC address of your router. When it moves from the ISP’s router to another router on the internet, it contains the MAC address of the ISP’s router.

And so on.

When it comes to data traveling over the network, your MAC address never makes it further than the first piece of networking equipment between you and the internet.

 

 

Edited March 26, 2019 by GoonerRob

[Joejoejoe1987]

On 3/25/2019 at 4:41 PM, incident said:

It all depends on the rate - there's applications out there capable of hitting the site hundreds, maybe thousands of times a minute and those are the ones they're really concerned about. If I remember correctly, the words in the terms and conditions were added many years ago because some tool had written a an application initially designed for load testing that could spawn hundreds of simultaneous sessions and then thought it would be a bright idea to market it to people desperate for Glastonbury tickets.

Once you go below 60 per minute - they generally can't tell the difference between a human and a browser plugin but at that point the refreshing is just automating what you could achieve yourself rather than doing anything above and beyond.

Is it possible to use refreshanator app but not go above 60 hits per min?